Feature: Thomas Merton in Alaska - 1

Thomas Merton

In the volatile year of 1968, with the country besieged by political upheaval, assassinations, campus protests, the Vietnam war, Cold War tensions and racial strife, Father Thomas Merton - a Trappist monk known as Father Louis in his religious order - under the sponsorship of the new Archdiocese of Anchorage, set off for the peaceful wilds of Alaska for 17 days, Kathleen Tarr writes in Catholic Anchor.

Alaska was a late addition to Father Merton's global plans, made possible by a special invitation from late Anchorage Archbishop Joseph T. Ryan, the first archbishop of the newly formed Anchorage Archdiocese, and the immediate predecessor of Archbishop Francis Hurley.

Editor's Note: This is first of a four-part series, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Father Thomas Merton's journey to Alaska in September 1968.

To read on see: www.catholicanchor.org/alaska-news/anchorages-first-archbishop-enticed-thomas-merton-alaska/