Theos-Talk Archives (June 1998 Message tt00004)

Vatican is doing a favor to theosophy/new age.

Several decades ago, when a theosophical lecturer was in S. America, on a
Sunday, the local Bishop or Cardinal told the church audience not to attend
the lecture by the theosophist. Just imagine what was the result. There was
an overflowing crowd who wanted to find out what was going on.

We will see.



At 03:31 PM 6/1/1998 -0400, you wrote:
>I have prepared my Self for this event for some time. The Vatican is not the
>Holy Roman Church or the only voice on the teachings of Christ or the
>Principle of Christo, So to all my brothers "Be more charitable for others
>than for yourself, and more severe on yourself than on others.  As for the
>Vatican "forgive them for they know not what that do".
>H.P.B did not invent Theosophy, She was only " H.P.B. the MAHATMAS ADEPT "
>[Phillips Spencer]
>> ----Original Message-----
>> From: "Marshall Hemingway III" <sutratman@aol.com>
>> Sent:	Friday, May 29, 1998 10:59 AM
>> Subject: Pope to condemn HPB and the Masters
>>
>> The following article by the Vatican correspondent to THE WANDER, a
>> national
>> Catholic weekly newspaper appeared in the May 21 issue. I thought it may
>> be of
>> some interest to those on this List. Here it is:
>>
>> ENCYCLICAL ON THE NEW AGE MIGHT BE COMING SOON by Farley Clinton
>>
>> Vatican City. The long-expected encyclical from Pope John Paul II about
>> the
>> problem of the New Age movement today may appear fairly soon, as a serious
>> article in L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO on May 7th reflects a desire to instruct
>> the
>> faithful clearly regarding this subject.
>>
>> It points out five central Christian beliefs that are strongly denied and
>> attacked in the propaganda of the fashionable books inspired by this
>> movement:
>>
>> 1) The existence of a Creator
>> 2) The reality of prayer to God, a meeting of two persons, which should
>> have
>> the character of adoration, of petition, of thanksgiving offered by the
>> creature to the Creator, and is certainly not mere self-discovery.
>> 3) The reality of human sin and the need of a Redeemer.
>> 4) The significance of suffering and of death
>> 5) The necessity of love and of work, not mere thought, to change the
>> world.
>>
>> Contradicting Christian belief, the New Age literature tends more or less
>> to
>> identify God with the world, or to make the world a necessary emanation
>> from
>> God, not His free creation. It knows nothing of the prayer of a creature
>> and a
>> sinner. It proposes "meditation" that is a totally alien kind, not
>> reconcilable with Christian faith.
>>
>> Christians believe in original sin and in the sinfulness of all of us,
>> consequently they cannot share in the New Age hope that some sort of
>> technique, or concentration, or union of millions of consciousnesses, can
>> save
>> man. They believe in the one Way of salvation, Christ the Son of God made
>> man
>> and introduced into history in order to save man.
>>
>> The followers of the New Age are led not to accept suffering and death but
>> to
>> place their hopes in expanding consciousness, in rebirth, and in
>> techniques
>> believed to achieve these goals, while Christians believe in the power of
>> suffering in union with Jesus Christ crucified. For Christians, death is a
>> unique event, not an entry to one of a series of reincarnations or
>> spiritual
>> journeys but the necessary step to enter eternal life.
>>
>> The article in L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO, written by Teresa Osorio Goncalves,
>> traces the origins of this popularization of old Oriental religions to the
>> work of occultists in Europe and America in the last century. Madame
>> Blavatsky
>> and her Theosophical Society, founded in New York with the aid of a
>> spiritualist in 1875, have had great influence in leading persons from
>> Christian countries to reject the Gospels entirely in favor of some
>> approach
>> to Hinduism, Buddhism, or another heathen religion.
>>
>> The rejection of God is central to the movement. Madame Blavatsky
>> especially
>> rejected God whom she called the "masculine" God, of Israel, of
>> Christianity,
>> and of the Muslims.
>>
>> "She proposed a return to Hinduism with its cult of a mother goddess and
>> its
>> practice of feminine virtues. Feminists action was to be continued in the
>> Theosophical Society under the guidance of Annie Besant, a figure in the
>> forefront of the feminist movement."
>>
>> This modern occultism is difficult to pin down to definite beliefs since
>> it
>> expresses itself in many different movements. But according to Goncalves,
>> there are six teachings encountered constantly, as they are the central
>> belief
>> of the movement.
>>
>> 1) The world is seen as one organic whole.
>> 2) But it is animated by an Energy which is more or less like God.
>> 3) There are spiritual entities acting as mediators to man.
>> 4) Man by spiritual exercises can control his life beyond death.
>> 5) There is a "perennial wisdom" which precedes every religion and every
>> culture and is superior to every religion.
>> 6) There are "enlightened" spiritual masters one should follow.
>>
>> The encyclical in preparation will probably be the first, certainly the
>> most
>> thorough, major document from the Church to address the thirst, or the
>> craze,
>> for Eastern spirituality, although the phenomenon is almost 125 years old
>> in
>> New York.
>>
>> But false spiritualities linked to the heresies of Quietism and Jansenism
>> flourished a century or more before being censured in Rome, as was the
>> case
>> with other errors.
>>
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