Among the hundreds of onlookers from several countries at the back of the square were many Catholics from mainland China, present in defiance of an order from the authorities in Beijing prohibiting not only the bishops of mainland China but also the country’s Catholics from traveling to Mongolia.
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., offers reflections in this 1986 article on the life and message of Sri Ramakrishna on the 150th anniversary of his birth (February 18) and the 100th anniversary of his death (August 15).
John Moffitt, the poetry editor of America, was also a regular correspondent with everyone from famous Hindu swamis to J. D. Salinger to Thomas Merton.