New Age Ursulines
"The extent to which this New Age spirituality has penetrated Catholic thought, action, and attitude, particularly among women's Religious orders, can be said to be substantial." August 9, 2002 The Mount St. Joseph Center in Maple Mount, KY is a "conference and retreat center" run by our local Ursuline sisters. They have an interesting summer calendar this year. Books of the Month "Monday Evening Book Sharing" is taking place at the Mount Saint Joseph Book and Gift Shop with a new featured book every month. The book for August is Original Blessing by Matthew Fox. Fox, who founded the University of Creation Spirituality, is an ex-Dominican priest who was silenced by the Vatican in 1988 for his unorthodox New Age views and was forbidden to "teach, preach, or lecture". While a priest, he was involved in the early feminist and gay and lesbian liberation movements. Nowadays he is actively teaching Theosophy, which is basically a modern day Gnosticism influenced heavily by eastern mysticism. It considers nature (and the cosmos) not so much as something that, by it's inherent beauty, glorifies God but searches for something divine in the natural world (including their own "inner psyches" or whatever), discarding traditional Christian theology and teaching whenever there is a conflict. Concerning the book Original Blessing; the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith called it "dangerous and deviant". Yet it is a featured book of the month in our Ursuline sisters' "Monday Evening Book Sharing" program at their retreat center. If the book and it's author were so bad the Vatican prohibited him from teaching his views how is it that our good Ursuline sisters can use it in their book discussion. I bet they're not talking about how "dangerous and deviant" it is... They're probably trying to figure out ways to use it in the next RCIA session they direct. There is an great informative article on Matthew Fox and his "creation spirituality" on EWTN's web site here: He shamelessly committed public blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, by telling an impressionable audience well under the spell of his hypnotic powers that the Holy Spirit was demanding they adopt wicca (witchcraft), shamanism, and goddess worship. Hundreds of well dressed parish leaders and nuns listened to him in trance-like rapture. They appeared to adore Matthew Fox! One distinguished looking CCD teacher proudly told me that he had taught St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine for 30 years. "That was" he said "a waste of time. I wish I had been teaching Father Matthew Fox!"Another article here from a protestant web site is also pretty interesting. Here's an excerpt from that one: What are Christians to make of Creation Spirituality's esoteric excursions into ethics, theology, and mysticism? Anyone claiming, as Fox does, to be the embattled guardian of a joyful, egalitarian, and ecologically sensitive version of Christianity cannot fait to capture the fascination of a society that still hungers for religious experience, His talk of "deep interaction among all religions of the planet," reverence for "Mother Earth," and Jungian psychodynamics will win him points among seekers of modern enlightenment. The self-styled prophet claims to have recovered aspects of spirituality that have been long suppressed or overlooked.Pretty racy stuff for a so-called Catholic retreat center, eh? But wait! There's more! Last June readers at the Mount were discussing The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story by Brian Swimme, a new age "cosmologist" and author, close associate of Matthew Fox, and teacher at Fox's school. He's also listed on Call to Action's web site as a recommended speaker. Then, in October we get The Great Work by Thomas Berry, a Passionist priest and another new age contemporary of Fox and Swimme. The Florida Catholic has quoted Berry as saying, "We must rethink our ideas about God, we should place les emphasis on Christ as a person and redeemer. We should put the Bible away for twenty years while we radically rethink our religious ideas." According to an article called Green Theology by Elaine Middendorf, published by the Cardinal Mindszenty Foundation: Berry contends that Christianity promotes "deep cultural pathology of human greed and addiction." He claims the earth is disintegrating and that Christianity is mostly to blame. He believes that we are entering an era of "earth consciousness" and he boasts of a new era he calls the "Ecozoic Age" that will transcend God. Berry contends that, "the world is being called to a new post-denominational, even post-Christian belief system that sees the earth as a living being - mythologically as Gaia, Mother Earth - with mankind as her consciousness."In a 1972 address, Pope Paul VI alluded to this new age heresy. He stated that "The Christian view of cosmos and life is triumphantly optimistic" and "We have been able to admire, struck dumb with wonder, the great mystery of the intelligence and love of God, in his action of creation directed to the cosmos, to the human person, to the world of pure spirits," but warned against "tempting men to evil, by influencing their imaginations and higher faculties to turn them away from the law of God." Indeed, we rightly admire God's creation, even in the prayers of the Mass: "Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation..." and "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, Heaven and Earth are full of your glory..." to name a few. This other drivel being taught by Fox, Berry, Swimme, et.al., and apparently promoted by our local Ursulines is nothing less than heresy and, to quote Pope Paul VI, "the smoke of Satan". It's Everywhere RCIA... (Get 'em while they're fresh) RCIA programs like this one throughout the Diocese of Owensboro, particularly those at parishes where Ursuline sisters are running the show, are infected with this Jungian new age belly-button examining "faith journey" nonsense. Parish Retreats Ursulines in our diocese have conducted a number of parish retreats. A recent retreat where the purpose was apparently to come up with a parish "mission statement" (how about this one - Our mission is simple: to get our sorry butts into Heaven) led by an Ursuline (of course) from Louisville raised an eyebrow: The Book of Proverbs says without a vision the people will perish; a clear vision helps to energize and bring people hope. We took this energy and broke into groups, according to each parish and began brainstorming thoughts for Mission Statements and talking about ways to set goals. College Courses Here is some of what Brescia University in Owensboro is offering this summer in their Contemporary Woman Program:
It seems like if our bishop gave a lick about the spiritual formation of the people he has been given (but not living up to) the responsibility of shepherding he would severely censure these dissidents who seem to have made it a full time job to poison the true faith of every Catholic (particularly in RCIA programs) in this diocese, promote their own feminist agendas and, while spouting some warped interpretation of Vatican II as their commission, build their version of the Catholic Church in Western Kentucky. What the feminists want covers a wide spectrum. Some want absolute identity between the roles of men and women in the church. They support abortion on demand, lesbian rights and in general can be found in the liberal wing politically. These are the moderates. The mainspring groups though, are not looking for a role in the Church—as we know it—at all. They are devoted to the "goddess" who is found in nature and themselves: creation-centered spirituality. Their Wikkan rituals tap the "goddess" power. They would drag God from His heaven and install the mother goddess. While they insist on the goddess, the sexual aspect is secondary to the real appeal—the appeal of having a goddess which they can control. She empowers them but makes no demands. She takes no offense at sin, nor calls for any redemption in the traditional sense.Also see:
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