Cover
story
Vatican looks at ‘New Age,’ issues ‘appeal to
discernment’
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome
If Vatican documents came with soundtracks, most would probably
feature a classic sacred sound -- Gregorian chant, perhaps, or Bach’s Mass
in B Minor. Stern rulings from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
might be backed by John Williams’ “Imperial March” from the
“Star Wars” movies.
But the recent “Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of
Life: A Christian Reflection on the ‘New Age’ ”?
Try “They Call Me Mellow Yellow.”
The classic ’60s anthem by Donovan seems ideal for a text
that fairly beckons the adjective “groovy.” Rarely does one find
documents of the Holy See featuring section headings such as “Magical
Mystery Tour” and textual references to the hippie musical
“Hair.”
Also part of the “good vibration” of “Water of
Life” is its positive tone. The document offers cautions about New Age
spirituality, but deliberately avoids condemnations or prohibitions. When it
was presented to the press, one of the authors even praised a pop culture
phenomenon that some conservative Christian groups have blasted for promoting
interest in magic: the highly successful Harry Potter books and movies.
(See related story.)
The 88-page meditation on the New Age movement was released Feb.
2. It is a joint project of four Vatican offices: the Pontifical Council for
Culture, the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the Pontifical
Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Congregation for the
Evangelization of Peoples. Since the subject raised doctrinal issues, there was
also input from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The thesis is that many practices bundled under the heading of
“New Age,” whether tarot cards or astrology or channeling, reflect
ideas “difficult to reconcile with Christian doctrine and
spirituality.”
While acknowledging that New Age thinking is highly eclectic, the
document offers these specific contrasts with orthodox Christianity:
- For the New Age, God is often an impersonal force, but for
Christians God is a being with whom believers have a relationship;
- In New Age thinking, Jesus Christ is one avatar among many,
while for Christians he is the lone savior of the world;
- Christians believe salvation is a gift from God, while in the
New Age salvation is a do-it-yourself exercise;
- Christians believe prayer and meditation is a conversation with
God, whereas in the New Age it’s a monologue with the self;
- Christians acknowledge sin, suffering and death, but in the New
Age they are either denied or minimized;
- Christians believe the future is something to construct,
whereas for the New Age the future is written in the stars.
New Age thinking, the authors argue, has been given a boost from
three disparate sources: Western religious relativism, fascination with Eastern
religion, and a kind of “deep ecology” that tends towards
pantheism.
The authors warn that some New Age practices have become
commonplace in Catholic circles, “even in retreat houses, seminaries and
institutes of formation for religious.” One example is the enneagram, a
nine-type tool for character analysis with obscure origins, which has been
embraced by many Catholic spiritual directors.
Yet even here, Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, president of the
Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, said in response to a
reporter’s question that the Vatican does not intend to prohibit use of
the enneagram.
“There is no condemnation here,” he said, waving
“Water of Life.” “This is an appeal to discernment, nothing
more.”
Evidence lends some credence to the Vatican’s concern. In
Italy, experts on new religious movements say, there are now more
fortune-tellers than Catholic priests. Every night of the week, soothsayers
willing to read your palm or cast your fortune with tarot cards can be found in
Rome’s Piazza Navona, just 10 minutes walk from the Vatican. A recent poll
in France, meanwhile, showed that over half the French believe in faith healing
and telepathy, a third believe that dreams can predict the future, and a
quarter believe a person’s destiny is inscribed on their palms.
The term “New Age” refers to a cosmic turning point in
history long predicted by astrologers. They say the current era is the Age of
Pisces, which has been dominated by Christianity. It is due to be replaced by
the “New Age” of Aquarius early in the third Millennium. (Exactly
when is a matter of debate).
Yet New Age spirituality resists precise doctrinal elaboration. It
is perhaps best understood as a bewildering smorgasbord drawn from theosophy,
spiritualism, anthroposophy, the Jewish Kabbalah, ancient Egyptian religion,
Sufism, pre-Christian European religion, Zen, yoga, and on and on.
The problem, according to the Vatican document, is not that most
people are consciously aware of these philosophical and theological
undercurrents, but that they pick them up unconsciously, like a cold.
The document can be almost Manichean in its criticism.
“People who wonder if it is possible to believe in both Christ and
Aquarius can only benefit from knowing that it is very much an
‘either-or’ situation,” it says.
Yet officials were at pains not to paint with an overly broad
brush.
“Many elements of New Age spirituality are in themselves good
things,” Fitzgerald told NCR. “Music, relaxation techniques,
and so on can be quite good. The problem is when you put it all together as a
system of thought.”
This is not the first time the Vatican has set off alarms. In
1989, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a document titled
“Some Aspects of Christian Meditation,” warning against prayer and
meditation methods inspired by New Age-style “pseudognosticism.” In
1992, the new Catechism of the Catholic Church rejected “horoscopes,
astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of
clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums,” stating that such practices
“contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God
alone.”
The best-known case involving the church and New Age spirituality
was that of former Dominican theologian Matthew Fox, who in 1994 became an
Episcopal priest. Fox was silenced by the Vatican in 1988, then expelled from
the Dominicans in 1993, largely in reaction to the unconventional programming
at his Institute for Creation Spirituality in Oakland, Calif. Among other
things that caused concern among church authorities, Fox hired faculty members
who included a masseuse, a Zen Buddhist, a yoga teacher and a self-described
witch named Starhawk.
If “Water of Life” sounds no retreat from the doctrinal
principles upon which the battles with Fox were fought, it may nonetheless
signal a shift in tactics, away from excoriation toward a search for better
ways to package the Christian message.
“We must take note of our inability to satisfy this
thirst,” said Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the Pontifical Council
for Culture. “We do have responses, but they’re insufficient. We have
to work on this.”
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Rome correspondent. His e-mail
address is jallen@natcath.org.
Related Web site
Text of “Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life: A
Christian Reflection on the ‘New
Age’”
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/interelg/index.htm
National Catholic Reporter, February 21,
2003
|
