VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican weighed in Monday on the New Age movement, saying some aspects of the search for inner peace were positive but warning that they can't replace true Christian religion. In a 90-page booklet dotted with references to the "Magical Mystery Tour," "Feng Shui" and the dawning of the "Age of Aquarius," the Vatican addressed a topic usually reserved for the self-help sections of bookstores.
The Vatican said the book was the product of requests by bishops for guidance on determining whether practices embraced by New Agers, including yoga, channeling and healing by crystals, were compatible with Christianity.
The booklet doesn't give a definitive answer. Rather, in setting out a study of the movement - its terminology, history and cultural context - the book stresses that the question comes down to one of individually discerning compatibility.
What is this guy, a politician? New Age is a perversion. C'mon, guy, just say it. It's a tutti frutti pie-in-the-sky farce for the likes of Shirley ("I am god") McLaine. It's the fusion of Hinduism and western philosophy which makes it perfect for baby boomers who are too lazy or too stupid to make a religious commitment.
You are right which is why it appeals to so many, especially in Hollywood. It's all about ME!
"Spirituality" is faith minus any obligation to do anything you don't want to do.
What is happening to my Catholic Religion where they are now allowing New Ageism and Harry Potter, next they will be approving Horoscopes and the Crossing Over with John Edward TV show where he talks with the dead.
http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-6/104434398947750.xml?starledger
Vatican bends a bit to yoga and some 'New Age' practices
But it warns that spiritual quest cannot replace Christian religion
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican weighed in yesterday on feng shui, crystals and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius in a new document designed to address whether you can still be a good Christian while taking yoga class.
"A Christian Reflection on the 'New Age'" doesn't give many absolute answers. But while saying some positive things about the New Age movement, it warns that New Agers' quest for spirituality and inner peace can't take the place of true Christian religion.
And it highlights some core differences between New Age and Christian thought, particularly regarding the concepts of God, Jesus and sin.
While New Agers are waiting for an era when they are "totally in command of the cosmic laws of nature ... Christians are in a constant state of vigilance, ready for the last days when Christ will come again; their New Age began 2,000 years ago, with Christ," the document said.
The Vatican said the preliminary document was the result of requests by bishops for guidance on determining whether practices embraced by New Agers, including yoga, meditation and healing by crystals, were compatible with Christianity.
The 90-page booklet, which includes a glossary defining terms like "channeling," "karma," and "reincarnation," urges caution.
Monsignor Michael Fitzgerald, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, told a news conference many aspects of the New Age movement were viewed positively by the Church, such as the importance it places on protecting the environment.
"But if one is brought to this by ascribing 'divineness' to the land, that's another thing," he said. "Music that relaxes you is good. But if this music empties prayer and prayer turns into just listening to music and falling asleep, it's no longer prayer."
The document, which was six years in the making, traces the history of the New Age phenomenon and notes the importance of the 1969 Woodstock festival and the musical "Hair."
It defines "Age of Aquarius" as the astrological age that New Agers believe will usher in an era of harmony, justice and peace, following the current "Age of Pisces," which has been marked by wars and conflicts. The Vatican document is silent on when the "Age of Aquarius" begins.
It lists feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of placing things to ensure a harmonious energy flow, as an "occult" New Age practice that emphasizes "being in tune with nature or the cosmos."
The document stresses that much of the New Age phenomenon is driven by marketing books, therapies and crystals, and it notes some consider New Age just a label "for a product created by the application of marketing principles to a religious phenomenon."
The Vatican didn't say why the book was coming out now -- more than 30 years after the New Age movement took hold in the United States and elsewhere -- although it is current enough to acknowledge that yoga and crystals are enormously popular these days.
The booklet attributes such popularity, particularly in the Western world, to a "spiritual hunger of contemporary men and women" unsatisfied with existing religion, political institutions or science.
It offers some practical steps for priests to follow, saying the best way to counter the search for New Age remedies was to highlight the "riches of the Christian spiritual heritage."
It encourages dialogue with New Agers but stresses that their credentials must be checked. And it urges caution with groups that host prayer meetings or initiation ceremonies, saying they may lure people into a form of false worship.
The booklet was prepared by Fitzgerald's council and the Pontifical Council for Culture, with help from the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It is not considered to be the Vatican's final word on the matter. A definitive document will be published once the Vatican receives feedback from dioceses on the provisional one issued yesterday.
http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-6/104434399547750.xml?starledger
Vatican finds Harry Potter fits fine in the order of good vs. evil
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
REUTERS
VATICAN CITY -- Harry Potter fans, relax. The Vatican says the kid is all right.
The question of whether J.K. Rowling's books and the films on the boy wizard have a positive influence came up at a news conference yesterday where the Vatican presented a document on "New Age" spirituality, which contain elements of the occult.
"I don't think that any of us grew up without the imaginary world of fairies, magicians, angels and witches," said Father Peter Fleetwood, a Vatican official who worked on the document.
"They are not bad or a banner for anti-Christian ideology. They help children understand the difference between good and evil," he said in response to a reporter's question.
The fifth book in the series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," became an instant bestseller less than 24 hours after the June publication date was announced by the publishers.
____________________________________________________________
Read Deuteronomy Chapter 18: 9-14
9 "When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13 You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.
___________________________________________________________
2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity
2138 Superstition is a departure from the worship that we give to the true God. It is manifested in idolatry, as well as in various forms of divination and magic.
2110 The first commandment forbids honoring gods other than the one Lord who has revealed himself to his people. It proscribes superstition and irreligion. Superstition in some sense represents a perverse excess of religion; irreligion is the vice contrary by defect to the virtue of religion.
2112 The first commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshippers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living God" who gives life and intervenes in history.
http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/5.3/harrypotter.htm
I wish I still had the link to the picture of the Pope kissing the Koran. Kissing the Koran in a mosque that was built of the rubble of St. John the Baptist Church (300AD) atfer the Moslems razed it.
Some New Age notions are incompatible with Catholicism, or pretty much any established monotheistic religion. Others (a majority, from what I gather) of them are feel-good pabulum, free of semantic content and therefore compatible with just about anything.
