I just heard this news. RIP François, an open man with an unusual cursus.
Death of Father François Brune
By
Orthodoxie.com -
January 19, 2019
3513
Father François Brune died on January 16 at the age of 87. Born in 1931 in Vernon, Eure, Catholic priest, member of the company of Saint-Sulpice, holder of a degree in theology from the Catholic Institute of Paris and a degree in Sacred Scripture from the Biblical Institute of Rome, he had taught at the major seminaries of Nantes, Rodez and Bayeux. In 1970, following the Second Vatican Council, he distanced himself from the Catholic Church and found a job as an employee at the ARTEL icon gallery on Bonaparte Street. Interested in the Eastern Fathers, he published in 1999 a book entitled Pour que l'homme devienne Dieu (several times reprinted by other publishers) which, while developing certain points of view close to the Orthodox perspective, defended the idea of the possibility of universal salvation outside the Church. He also published several articles in orthodox journals and collective works (Le Dossier Saint Augustin published in L'Age d'Homme) where he was very critical of the theologies of Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. He was best known to the very general public through a series of books on paranormal phenomena, in particular an alleged communication with the dead in the form of technologically sophisticated spiritualism. He finally decided to convert to Orthodoxy and was received there on Orthodox Easter Day in 2018 in the Orthodox parish in Vanves (92). The funeral service will be held on Monday, January 21 at 11:00 am in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Quai Branly) in Paris. Metropolitan Jean de Chersonèse sent a message of condolence to his family and loved ones.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Brune Father:The priest who investigates the afterlife
World-renowned for his works on communication with the dead, Father François Brune is also a theologian, defender of a reenchantment of the world through the experience of our intimate connection to the divine. Between mystery and light, portrait of a man of heart, who left us in January 2019. Tribute.
"Do God's will... And heaven, as soon as possible! "This is the wish of Father Brune, his last will perhaps. Because at 81 years old, with about fifteen books and hundreds of conferences to his credit, François Brune believes that his time has run its course. The perspective does not frighten the author of the best-selling book Les Morts nous parlent, which was in the news when it was published in 1988. "I know that death is only a passage; it will be the happiest day of my life," he says. And so much the worse for the book he would have liked to dedicate to Saint John, in the same line as the one he dedicated to Saint Paul. On his desk, he is already waiting for a large envelope, "to be sent after my death to inform a few friends of my change of address..."
In the meantime, François Brune lives on the sixth floor in his small Parisian apartment, surrounded by his beloved icons, of which he is a specialist, by some drawings of Christ sketched in charcoal by a former student, by his 170 comic strips, "the only books in my library whose reading rate is well over 100%! ", and hundreds of books covering its walls, carefully classified: Western mystic, Eastern mystic, and non-Christian religions..." And again, I gave everything about the Greek Fathers to an Orthodox monastery! »
A night owl, he goes to bed at dawn, gets up in the afternoon, forgets to eat - "It seems that spirituality is enough to feed him! ", smiled his friend the medium Henry Vignaud, ", went down to sip a coffee, valiantly walked up because the elevator was on a prolonged strike. When he is not working on the reissue of Christ and Karma, "an important book" to be published in the fall of 2012, the priest, who no longer has the strength to read long hours, contemplates the sky from his window and watches television: "Quite a few political and economic programs", as well as "amazing little police series. I don't care about the story, what interests me are the expressions on the faces, the relationships between the characters.
Priest and investigator
For this priest "between heaven and earth, where it is necessary to be", according to radio host Jean-Claude Carton, is also a researcher, a scrutineer, even if it means shaking up the established order. "I came to writing because I had things to say," he explains. First against the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which they tried to make me swallow as soon as I entered the seminary, then against the theory, accepted for a time by the Church, that when the man died, his conscience was destroyed. There would therefore no longer exist anything of him, except in God's mind. Not very consistent! "And not very much in agreement with what he could read from the first Christian mystics, "people not at all enlightened, capable of creating religious orders and negotiating with the powerful, who testify to having been advised, sometimes materially helped, by the saints who appeared to them".
Ordained in 1960 and then assigned to the Compagnie de Saint-Sulpice, whose mission is to train future priests, François Brune was "thrown out" of the various seminaries where he taught: too subversive! Living thanks to the generosity of his family and to various jobs (French courses in Germany, expertise of icons for Parisian galleries...), he discovered in the mid-1970s the experiences at the frontiers of death, via in particular Dr Raymond Moody's book La Vie après la vie. The religious gets enthusiastic: this corroborates the stories of the mystics! He gets information, goes to the United States, is among the first to join the IANDS (International Association for Near Death Studies).
Soon after, he learned of the existence of communication techniques with the dead - from the recording of voices on tape recorders or other electronic devices to the phenomena of automatic writing. "Like most people, I first thought it was bullshit," agrees Father Brune. In these kinds of messages, you can find anything and everything! "But the work of Jean Prieur, as well as the letters of Pierre Monnier and Roland de Jouvenel, dictated to their mothers after their death, shake his certainties. "With so many wonderful stories about the persistence of a consciousness and the existence of a beyond, I could not let these experiences shrivel up! "For him, several elements bear witness to the existence of God, such as the recurrent evocation of "this extraordinary light, of which Catholics do not really know what to do, whereas the Orthodox devote to it a whole theology", and the unanimous feeling of "an absolute love
An unexpected success
It was in 1988, after ten years of research, that Father Brune took the plunge. In his book Les Morts nous parlent, he affirms that we can dialogue with the afterlife. His presentation is based on unpublished works in France (notably those of the Swedish Friedrich Jürgenson and the Latvian Constantin Raudive), as well as on the first accounts of near-death experiences.
Published by a small publishing house, supported by a modest commercial system, the book was not intended to be a success; until the day a journalist from Paris Match decided to devote a long article to Father Brune. "Glad about this interest in my work, I lent myself to the game," recalls this one. He even took me to the Montparnasse cemetery to photograph me in front of tombs, surrounded by smoke. Fortunately, his essay found it a little big! »
The article caused a sensation, the media took over the subject, sales were overwhelmed, and the book was withdrawn as a matter of urgency. François Brune: impostor, naive man or privileged witness? wonders the press. "The book went against a number of convictions," recalls Jean Henriet, its first publisher, now editorial director of social sciences at Dunot/InterEditions, "but I have always been suspicious of blinders, and I have always been convinced of François' intellectual honesty. "A man of exceptional erudition", author since 1983 of Pour que l'homme devienne Dieu, "a superb analysis of the returns to the fundamentals of the Church of Christ, which makes him an extraordinary theologian", according to Jean Henriet.
From edition to edition, more than 300,000 copies of the French version of Les Morts parlent nous have been printed. The book is translated into about ten languages, which led the priest to travel around the world several times. "His aura abroad is disproportionate to his discretion in France," confirms Jean Henriet.
The Church, on the other hand, refrains from expressing an opinion. Uncomfortable with the "Brown Case" and the possibility of a dialogue with the afterlife, she prefers to leave the priest "a pontifical peace" which he rejoices in. "Not very well seen", as one of his peers admitted, within the classical Catholic community, François Brune agrees, however, that the latter is right, to a certain extent, to be vigilant: "Not all spirits are benevolent; trying to communicate with the dead is risking opening a Pandora's box. But it is also establishing direct communication with the afterlife, which removes from the clergy the role of intermediary over which they have established their authority! "Nevertheless, he values his status as a Catholic priest, to continue to push from within, and because he gives his positions a weight and an aura.
Father Brune therefore continued on his way, faithful to the line he had set for himself. A delicious storyteller, curious unrepentant, passionate and sparkling scholar who enjoys sharing the results of his research, he is now recognized for his pioneering role.
"Before him, psychics were seen as charlatans or Mrs. Irma. His work has worked to give credibility to our gift and change our image," explains Henry Vignaud, who adds: "We may not agree with his banter, but undoubtedly, he has opened doors. "For the public, first of all. "It was while listening to one of my programs on the theme of life after life, to which I had invited François, that a couple whose son had died of cancer decided not to blow themselves up and to regain hope," says Jean-Claude Carton.
For some scientists, then. "François is not the type to assert anything," says anesthesiologist Jean-Jacques Charbonier, author of the book Seven Good Reasons to Believe in the Hereafter. Believing that we must be sure of what we are advancing, especially in the field of the paranormal, which has been discredited by many fanciful discourses, Father Brune carefully researches himself, forces interest and admiration through the richness of his bibliographical references, and repeats the experimental protocols to validate them.
"It was thanks to him that I experienced my first transcommunication! "continues Dr. Charbonier. At his sister's house in Caen, with his deceased brother. "At first, I wasn't very motivated; I declined his invitation. Two days later, in the middle of the night, the light in my room comes on three times, I feel pressure on my feet and a voice saying to me: "Go to Caen! "Such an invitation from the afterlife cannot be refused... "The doctor comes out amazed. "Questions were asked, the deceased answered clearly. I got goose bumps! From there, I discovered that scientific experiments, conducted in particular at the electro-acoustic laboratory in Bologna, tend to validate the existence of these voices. I was already convinced that consciousness survives physical death
A god of love
This is enough to feed Father Brune's reflection on what he considers to be the most important thing today: his work as a theologian. "In the post-life field, I am no longer indispensable; there are now many highly qualified people to advance the subject. But to defend the vision of God that is dear to me, I am still very much alone. »
Exit a religion that would only be doctrinaire rules, peremptory ideas and a big tralala: "It is not by remaining bowed on obsolete principles or by bringing out the gildings that we will give back to the crowds the meaning of the sacred ! "says François Brune.
There is also no more the idea of a dominant and guiltful god, a kind of "somewhat sadistic" supreme judge who would decide our fate by enjoying seeing us atone for our offenses and try to calm his anger with suffering, or the mechanical repetition of certain rites. "This theology of predestination and revenge horrifies me! Who would want such a god? For me, its only driving force is love. "And the only way to meet him is a "profound, inner conversion, which no magic formula or obedience to an institution can bring about".
What the priest wants is a return to the essential. Better, with gasoline. That of the Founding Fathers, based not on an intellectual construction of our relationship with God, but on the personal, concrete, physical experience of this force of love sensed by François Brune, when it emerges, like a whole generation, marked by the Second World War and the existence of concentration camps. "In addition to physical annihilation, it was the spiritual destruction of the soul through humiliation that was programmed. I then understood the power of evil... And also that if the world managed to survive so much hatred, it was because there had to be an even stronger force of love," with which it is urgent to renew.
Here and now. By dropping the recipes ready to look inside yourself. To evacuate beliefs and postures, to suspend for a moment the course of desires and thoughts, to let oneself be won over by a state of peace, to feel one's heart open, one's consciousness expand, one's limits of being blurred... Until one feels a unity with the world and an intimate connection, "beyond space and time", to a divine who is not external to us, but pulsates "at the bottom of our hearts". It makes us understand that it is in us that the power to change our reality, to move towards greater fullness, insight and serenity resides.
And that it is up to us, "by doing the best we can with what we are", to cultivate this spark and make it shine. For us, for others.
Because beyond our personal achievement, what matters is our connection to the world and our participation in this extraordinary great whole of which we are a part. As if by some unknown transcendence, invisible force or subtle energy field, there existed "an osmosis from soul to soul, a communion of consciences" where everything that happens in one, "our actions, our thoughts, our desires, our fears, our hatreds, our movements of love..." impacts all the others, even the whole universe.
"The revelation of this fantastic mystery will probably not prevent thieves from robbing and murderers from cutting their throats," François Brune admits, "but if it can help people to review their scale of values, get away from having it to give back its place to being, find meaning in their lives and lead a better life, more attentive to their surroundings, it will not be bad enough. »
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Death of Father François Brune
By
Orthodoxie.com -
January 19, 2019
3513
Father François Brune died on January 16 at the age of 87. Born in 1931 in Vernon, Eure, Catholic priest, member of the company of Saint-Sulpice, holder of a degree in theology from the Catholic Institute of Paris and a degree in Sacred Scripture from the Biblical Institute of Rome, he had taught at the major seminaries of Nantes, Rodez and Bayeux. In 1970, following the Second Vatican Council, he distanced himself from the Catholic Church and found a job as an employee at the ARTEL icon gallery on Bonaparte Street. Interested in the Eastern Fathers, he published in 1999 a book entitled Pour que l'homme devienne Dieu (several times reprinted by other publishers) which, while developing certain points of view close to the Orthodox perspective, defended the idea of the possibility of universal salvation outside the Church. He also published several articles in orthodox journals and collective works (Le Dossier Saint Augustin published in L'Age d'Homme) where he was very critical of the theologies of Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. He was best known to the very general public through a series of books on paranormal phenomena, in particular an alleged communication with the dead in the form of technologically sophisticated spiritualism. He finally decided to convert to Orthodoxy and was received there on Orthodox Easter Day in 2018 in the Orthodox parish in Vanves (92). The funeral service will be held on Monday, January 21 at 11:00 am in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity (Quai Branly) in Paris. Metropolitan Jean de Chersonèse sent a message of condolence to his family and loved ones.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
Brune Father:The priest who investigates the afterlife
World-renowned for his works on communication with the dead, Father François Brune is also a theologian, defender of a reenchantment of the world through the experience of our intimate connection to the divine. Between mystery and light, portrait of a man of heart, who left us in January 2019. Tribute.
"Do God's will... And heaven, as soon as possible! "This is the wish of Father Brune, his last will perhaps. Because at 81 years old, with about fifteen books and hundreds of conferences to his credit, François Brune believes that his time has run its course. The perspective does not frighten the author of the best-selling book Les Morts nous parlent, which was in the news when it was published in 1988. "I know that death is only a passage; it will be the happiest day of my life," he says. And so much the worse for the book he would have liked to dedicate to Saint John, in the same line as the one he dedicated to Saint Paul. On his desk, he is already waiting for a large envelope, "to be sent after my death to inform a few friends of my change of address..."
In the meantime, François Brune lives on the sixth floor in his small Parisian apartment, surrounded by his beloved icons, of which he is a specialist, by some drawings of Christ sketched in charcoal by a former student, by his 170 comic strips, "the only books in my library whose reading rate is well over 100%! ", and hundreds of books covering its walls, carefully classified: Western mystic, Eastern mystic, and non-Christian religions..." And again, I gave everything about the Greek Fathers to an Orthodox monastery! »
A night owl, he goes to bed at dawn, gets up in the afternoon, forgets to eat - "It seems that spirituality is enough to feed him! ", smiled his friend the medium Henry Vignaud, ", went down to sip a coffee, valiantly walked up because the elevator was on a prolonged strike. When he is not working on the reissue of Christ and Karma, "an important book" to be published in the fall of 2012, the priest, who no longer has the strength to read long hours, contemplates the sky from his window and watches television: "Quite a few political and economic programs", as well as "amazing little police series. I don't care about the story, what interests me are the expressions on the faces, the relationships between the characters.
Priest and investigator
For this priest "between heaven and earth, where it is necessary to be", according to radio host Jean-Claude Carton, is also a researcher, a scrutineer, even if it means shaking up the established order. "I came to writing because I had things to say," he explains. First against the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas, which they tried to make me swallow as soon as I entered the seminary, then against the theory, accepted for a time by the Church, that when the man died, his conscience was destroyed. There would therefore no longer exist anything of him, except in God's mind. Not very consistent! "And not very much in agreement with what he could read from the first Christian mystics, "people not at all enlightened, capable of creating religious orders and negotiating with the powerful, who testify to having been advised, sometimes materially helped, by the saints who appeared to them".
Ordained in 1960 and then assigned to the Compagnie de Saint-Sulpice, whose mission is to train future priests, François Brune was "thrown out" of the various seminaries where he taught: too subversive! Living thanks to the generosity of his family and to various jobs (French courses in Germany, expertise of icons for Parisian galleries...), he discovered in the mid-1970s the experiences at the frontiers of death, via in particular Dr Raymond Moody's book La Vie après la vie. The religious gets enthusiastic: this corroborates the stories of the mystics! He gets information, goes to the United States, is among the first to join the IANDS (International Association for Near Death Studies).
Soon after, he learned of the existence of communication techniques with the dead - from the recording of voices on tape recorders or other electronic devices to the phenomena of automatic writing. "Like most people, I first thought it was bullshit," agrees Father Brune. In these kinds of messages, you can find anything and everything! "But the work of Jean Prieur, as well as the letters of Pierre Monnier and Roland de Jouvenel, dictated to their mothers after their death, shake his certainties. "With so many wonderful stories about the persistence of a consciousness and the existence of a beyond, I could not let these experiences shrivel up! "For him, several elements bear witness to the existence of God, such as the recurrent evocation of "this extraordinary light, of which Catholics do not really know what to do, whereas the Orthodox devote to it a whole theology", and the unanimous feeling of "an absolute love
An unexpected success
It was in 1988, after ten years of research, that Father Brune took the plunge. In his book Les Morts nous parlent, he affirms that we can dialogue with the afterlife. His presentation is based on unpublished works in France (notably those of the Swedish Friedrich Jürgenson and the Latvian Constantin Raudive), as well as on the first accounts of near-death experiences.
Published by a small publishing house, supported by a modest commercial system, the book was not intended to be a success; until the day a journalist from Paris Match decided to devote a long article to Father Brune. "Glad about this interest in my work, I lent myself to the game," recalls this one. He even took me to the Montparnasse cemetery to photograph me in front of tombs, surrounded by smoke. Fortunately, his essay found it a little big! »
The article caused a sensation, the media took over the subject, sales were overwhelmed, and the book was withdrawn as a matter of urgency. François Brune: impostor, naive man or privileged witness? wonders the press. "The book went against a number of convictions," recalls Jean Henriet, its first publisher, now editorial director of social sciences at Dunot/InterEditions, "but I have always been suspicious of blinders, and I have always been convinced of François' intellectual honesty. "A man of exceptional erudition", author since 1983 of Pour que l'homme devienne Dieu, "a superb analysis of the returns to the fundamentals of the Church of Christ, which makes him an extraordinary theologian", according to Jean Henriet.
From edition to edition, more than 300,000 copies of the French version of Les Morts parlent nous have been printed. The book is translated into about ten languages, which led the priest to travel around the world several times. "His aura abroad is disproportionate to his discretion in France," confirms Jean Henriet.
The Church, on the other hand, refrains from expressing an opinion. Uncomfortable with the "Brown Case" and the possibility of a dialogue with the afterlife, she prefers to leave the priest "a pontifical peace" which he rejoices in. "Not very well seen", as one of his peers admitted, within the classical Catholic community, François Brune agrees, however, that the latter is right, to a certain extent, to be vigilant: "Not all spirits are benevolent; trying to communicate with the dead is risking opening a Pandora's box. But it is also establishing direct communication with the afterlife, which removes from the clergy the role of intermediary over which they have established their authority! "Nevertheless, he values his status as a Catholic priest, to continue to push from within, and because he gives his positions a weight and an aura.
Father Brune therefore continued on his way, faithful to the line he had set for himself. A delicious storyteller, curious unrepentant, passionate and sparkling scholar who enjoys sharing the results of his research, he is now recognized for his pioneering role.
"Before him, psychics were seen as charlatans or Mrs. Irma. His work has worked to give credibility to our gift and change our image," explains Henry Vignaud, who adds: "We may not agree with his banter, but undoubtedly, he has opened doors. "For the public, first of all. "It was while listening to one of my programs on the theme of life after life, to which I had invited François, that a couple whose son had died of cancer decided not to blow themselves up and to regain hope," says Jean-Claude Carton.
For some scientists, then. "François is not the type to assert anything," says anesthesiologist Jean-Jacques Charbonier, author of the book Seven Good Reasons to Believe in the Hereafter. Believing that we must be sure of what we are advancing, especially in the field of the paranormal, which has been discredited by many fanciful discourses, Father Brune carefully researches himself, forces interest and admiration through the richness of his bibliographical references, and repeats the experimental protocols to validate them.
"It was thanks to him that I experienced my first transcommunication! "continues Dr. Charbonier. At his sister's house in Caen, with his deceased brother. "At first, I wasn't very motivated; I declined his invitation. Two days later, in the middle of the night, the light in my room comes on three times, I feel pressure on my feet and a voice saying to me: "Go to Caen! "Such an invitation from the afterlife cannot be refused... "The doctor comes out amazed. "Questions were asked, the deceased answered clearly. I got goose bumps! From there, I discovered that scientific experiments, conducted in particular at the electro-acoustic laboratory in Bologna, tend to validate the existence of these voices. I was already convinced that consciousness survives physical death
A god of love
This is enough to feed Father Brune's reflection on what he considers to be the most important thing today: his work as a theologian. "In the post-life field, I am no longer indispensable; there are now many highly qualified people to advance the subject. But to defend the vision of God that is dear to me, I am still very much alone. »
Exit a religion that would only be doctrinaire rules, peremptory ideas and a big tralala: "It is not by remaining bowed on obsolete principles or by bringing out the gildings that we will give back to the crowds the meaning of the sacred ! "says François Brune.
There is also no more the idea of a dominant and guiltful god, a kind of "somewhat sadistic" supreme judge who would decide our fate by enjoying seeing us atone for our offenses and try to calm his anger with suffering, or the mechanical repetition of certain rites. "This theology of predestination and revenge horrifies me! Who would want such a god? For me, its only driving force is love. "And the only way to meet him is a "profound, inner conversion, which no magic formula or obedience to an institution can bring about".
What the priest wants is a return to the essential. Better, with gasoline. That of the Founding Fathers, based not on an intellectual construction of our relationship with God, but on the personal, concrete, physical experience of this force of love sensed by François Brune, when it emerges, like a whole generation, marked by the Second World War and the existence of concentration camps. "In addition to physical annihilation, it was the spiritual destruction of the soul through humiliation that was programmed. I then understood the power of evil... And also that if the world managed to survive so much hatred, it was because there had to be an even stronger force of love," with which it is urgent to renew.
Here and now. By dropping the recipes ready to look inside yourself. To evacuate beliefs and postures, to suspend for a moment the course of desires and thoughts, to let oneself be won over by a state of peace, to feel one's heart open, one's consciousness expand, one's limits of being blurred... Until one feels a unity with the world and an intimate connection, "beyond space and time", to a divine who is not external to us, but pulsates "at the bottom of our hearts". It makes us understand that it is in us that the power to change our reality, to move towards greater fullness, insight and serenity resides.
And that it is up to us, "by doing the best we can with what we are", to cultivate this spark and make it shine. For us, for others.
Because beyond our personal achievement, what matters is our connection to the world and our participation in this extraordinary great whole of which we are a part. As if by some unknown transcendence, invisible force or subtle energy field, there existed "an osmosis from soul to soul, a communion of consciences" where everything that happens in one, "our actions, our thoughts, our desires, our fears, our hatreds, our movements of love..." impacts all the others, even the whole universe.
"The revelation of this fantastic mystery will probably not prevent thieves from robbing and murderers from cutting their throats," François Brune admits, "but if it can help people to review their scale of values, get away from having it to give back its place to being, find meaning in their lives and lead a better life, more attentive to their surroundings, it will not be bad enough. »
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator