I first discovered Teilhard de Chardin’s writings in McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary in the 1960s, obtaining a donated copy of The Divine Milieu, which completely entranced me.

At the time I was also reading Jean Paul Sartre (Saint Genet) and G.I. Gurdjieff (All and Everything), using them as subjects in an informal discussion group a few of us organized, and I found a rough congruence in all three thinkers: plunging the depths, examining everything, and creating synthesis.

That period at McNeil Island, lasting roughly three years, formed the foundation upon which I eventually became a Catholic, and though I do not read Gurdjieff anymore, Sartre rarely, Teilhard is virtually a daily companion.

One of the places I daily visit is the Teilhard Blogand a recent postdiscussing an article where Teilhard’s censure by the Church was mentioned without the mention of the popes and…