“Mgsr Fleetwood is not some random priest.”
I never said he was. It was YOU who characterized the chief exorcist of Rome as “some random priest,” and it was I who said he wasn't. I made no comment on Msgr. Fleetwood in that regard.
“Please go back and read through the interviews.”
That's just it - it was an interview, not a solemn, written pronouncement. You're elevating the remarks made in an interview into authoritative teaching.
“Pontifical Council on Culture are experts on New Age/cults. It states that in the Vatican link I posted.”
I looked at your link, which is merely a title page with a list of documents related to the council. I see nothing that says that these folks are the experts on New Age stuff or cults.
On the other hand, I went to the actual page laying out the raison d’etre for the council. Here it is:
1. The Council’s Aims and Tasks
A. - The Pontifical Council for Culture is that department (Dicastery) of the Roman Curia which assists the Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme pastoral office for the benefit and service of the universal Church and of particular Churches concerning the encounter between the saving message of the Gospel and cultures, in the study of the weighty phenomena of: the rift between the Gospel and cultures; indifference in matters of religion; unbelief. It is also concerned with relationships between the Church and the Holy See and the world of culture; in particular it promotes dialogue with contemporary cultures, so that human civilisation may become increasingly open to the Gospel, and so that men and women of science, letters and the arts may know that the Church acknowledges their work as a service to truth, goodness and beauty.
Furthermore, the Pontifical Council for Culture oversees and co-ordinates the activities of the Pontifical Academies, and co-operates on a regular basis with the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church.
B. - The Council has been given the following tasks:
1.- To promote the encounter between the saving message of the Gospel and the cultures of our time, often marked by unbelief or religious indifference, in order that they may be increasingly open to the Christian faith, which creates culture and is an inspirational source of science, literature and the arts (Cf. the Motu Proprio “Inde a Pontificatus”, Art. 1).
2.- To manifest the Church’s pastoral concern in the face of the serious phenomena of the rift between the Gospel and cultures. It therefore promotes the study of the problem of unbelief and religious indifference found in various forms in different cultural milieus, inquiring into their causes and the consequences for Christian faith, in order to offer adequate support to the Church’s pastoral activity in evangelising cultures and inculturating the Gospel (Cf. ibid., Art. 2).
3.- To foster the Church’s and the Holy See’s relations with the world of culture, by undertaking appropriate initiatives concerning the dialogue between faith and cultures, and intercultural dialogue. The Council oversees initiatives undertaken by the Church’s various institutions and offers its co-operation to the corresponding organs of Bishops’ Conferences (Cf. ibid., Art. 3).
4.- To establish dialogue with those who do not believe in God or who profess no religion, provided they are open to genuine co-operation. The Council organises and participates in study congresses in this field by means of experts (Cf. ibid., Art. 4).
5.- To oversee and co-ordinate the activities of the Pontifical Academies (Cf. ibid., II and the 1982 letter of foundation), while respecting the autonomy of their respective research programmes, so as to promote multidisciplinary research and to make the work of the Academies more widely known (Norms for the renewal of the Pontifical Academies, 7).
6.- To be involved in the cultural concerns encountered by the departments of the Holy See in the course of their work, and to work on projects organised together with some of them, in such a way as to facilitate their tasks in the evangelisation of cultures, and to ensure co-ordination between the Holy See’s cultural institutions (Cf. 1982 letter of foundation).
7.- To enter into dialogue with Bishops’ Conferences, and with Conferences of Major Religious Superiors, in order to allow the whole Church to benefit from research programmes and other initiatives, achievements and productions which allow local Churches to take an active part in their own cultural environment (Cf. ibid.).
8.- To co-operate with Catholic universities and international organisations of a historical, philosophical, theological, scientific, artistic or intellectual nature, and to promote co-operation amongst them.
9.- To keep up with the activities of international bodies like UNESCO and the Council of Europe, which are concerned with culture, the philosophy of science and human sciences, and to ensure the effective participation of the Holy See in international congresses concerned with science, culture and education (Cf. ibid.).
10.- To keep up with the cultural policies and activities of governments throughout the world (Cf. ibid.).
11.- To facilitate Church-culture dialogue at the level of universities and research centres, organisations of artists and specialists, researchers and scholars, and to promote meetings of note in and through these sectors of culture (Cf. ibid.).
12.- To welcome to Rome representatives of culture interested in a better understanding of the Church’s activities in this field, and in ways of allowing the Holy See to benefit from their rich experience, by offering them a place in Rome where they can meet and dialogue.
2. The structure of the Council
The Pontifical Council for Culture has two sections: 1. Faith and Culture, 2. Dialogue with Cultures.
1. Day-to-day work is entrusted to the permanent staff resident in Rome, viz.:
* the President, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi (Italy)
* the Secretary, Msgr. Barthélemy Adoukonou (Benin)
* the Under-secretary, Msgr. Melchor Sánchez de Toca y Alameda (Spain),
* the Head of Office, Msgr. Gergely Kovács (Romania),
* the Officials, 6 priests and 1 laic who are responsible for geographical areas and the various fields in which the Council works (science, Catholic cultural centres, art and artists, communications media, Pontifical Academies, sects and so on)
* 7 other administrative and technical assistants.
2. The Council has a Plenary Assembly at least once every three years. Its purpose is to evaluate and plan the department’s programmes, and to pool experiences and reflections on the variety of cultural situations in contemporary societies. All of this is done in the context of evangelisation and the Church’s dialogue with cultures. Those who are invited are the Members of the Council, cardinals and bishops appointed by the Holy Father for five-year terms. At present there are 21 cardinals and 14 archbishops and bishops from various parts of the world..
3. The Council also relies on Consultors for the study of particularly important questions. These, too, are appointed by the Holy Father for five-year terms. There are currently 23 of them: they come from all over the world, and are specialists in the field of culture or in dialogue with non-believers. They assist the Council by their research and the information and opinions they provide.
Please show me above where it says, “One competence of this council is to judge the New Age content of works of literature and of cinematic endeavors,” or something similar to that.
Frankly, I agree with Msgr. Fleetwood, when YOU quote him:
“Some of the people who complain to me quote a priest who has worked in Rome and has been described as the exorcist of Rome, saying that evil is just behind every line in the books. Well, I answered that by saying: I’m a priest as well, I’m not as holy as that man, but his is an opinion and mine is an opinion, and neither of us automatically has a right to the opinion being more authoritative. I would say you’d have to prove a thing like that, when you say that evil is behind every sentence. I can’t see it.”
Do you read what you post? Msgr. Fleetwood himself says that his opinion is not automatically of any greater authority than that of the chief exorcist of Rome. Nor automatically of any less authority. BOTH are opinions to be considered. And Msgr. Fleetwood himself lays out the criterion for judging - that the argument is PROVED - BY REASON, NOT that we are to appeal to the authority of his words or another's words.
Why do you disagree with the Vatican expert??
Appeal to reason, not to authority. The appeal to authority here is very, very, very weak, and in fact, infects your whole argument.
“This is a slippery slope and those that disregard the Vatican to follow other priests homilies from 2001!”
Msgr. Fleetwood strikes me as a wonderful priest. But he was at the time, essentially, a Vatican bureaucrat. Not every off-hand comment from every Vatican bureaucrat is authoritative, binding teaching.
sitetest
Rationalize it all you want.
Cardinal Ratizinger defaulted to Fleetwood as an authority. His modesty doesn’t change that fact, my FRiend.
“The Pontifical Council for Culture is that department (Dicastery) of the Roman Curia which assists the Pontiff in the exercise of his supreme pastoral office for the benefit and service of the universal Church and of particular Churches concerning the encounter between the saving message of the Gospel and cultures,”
JPII put Fleetwood on this Council and you may not want to see them as experts on culture, but they are.
When Pope Benedict defaults to the “Chief Exorcist” or the Priest in the OP, then they have more standing. Until then, the Msgr he did default to, says HP is not New Age and not harmful.
The last I will say on the subject is, you can find what you want on the internet. My own Pastor, who my daughter was intelligent enough to ask, agrees with Msgr Fleetwood. AND he read the books for discernment. ‘Nuff said.