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THE ATHANASIAN A publication of Traditional Catholics of America t Editor: Fr. Francis E. Fenton, STL + Volume XII, No. 2 + March 1, 1991

About Those Self-Styled Traditional Catholics — A Logical Conclusion Fr. Francis E. Fenton

everal years have now passed since I came to the con- that all sedevacantists are truly and fully traditional Roman SSivon that John Paul II is not — and could not Catholics. They are not.) possibly be — a valid Pope. While that conclusion may 1] Are sedevacantists in general simply more per- have originally been but a strong opinion of mine, it has ceptive, more intelligent that the long since become a profound conviction. Indeed, if there “traditionalists” and thus able to comprehend is, strictly speaking, such a thing as degrees of conviction, the problem of John Paul II? Hardly. Did the there is nothing in the natural order of which I am more sedevacantist priests in this country and around deeply convinced than that John Paul II is an impostor, a the world receive a more thorough theological bogus Pope masquerading as the Vicar of Christ. The training in the seminary than their evidence is overwhelming that he is a formal heretic and, “traditionalist” counterparts and so were better therefore, cannot possibly be an authentic pontiff. prepared to see through the falsity of John Paul Without any reservation or qualification, then, I am Il? I have no reason to think so. Those priests, a sedevacantist. for example, who were ordained in the 40’s and (Such statements as the above are familiar to those who 50’s received substantially the same seminary have been regular readers of this newsletter for the past education I received and yet those among them several years. They serve, however, as a proper and who are today sedevacantists are, to the best of necessary introduction to what follows.) my knowledge, almost nonexistent. The factor of mental capacity or intelligence (presuming, of If I and many other Roman Catholics are thoroughly com- course, that one has a normal supply of it) is not mitted to the sedevacantist position, why is it that the over- a consideration in attempting to explain why whelming majority of self-styled traditional Catholics (both some priests and laymen are sedevacantists while clergy and laity) ignore or reject that position? How can the the vast majority remains a part of the Conciliar true identity of John Paul II be so crystal-clear to the former Church and accepts its head as a valid Pope. and yet not to the latter? How can this be? I have asked Assuredly, it takes no brilliance of mind for a myself that question countless times but, of the several person to determine that he belongs in the ranks possible answers, I have found all but one to be unaccept- of the sedevacantists. able — and that one is anything but complimentary to the “traditionalists” in question. (The term, “traditionalists,” [2] A more plausible but, to me, inadequate when written in quotes in this article — and of whom there explanation as to why the position of sede- are umpteen varieties — refers to all of those organizations vacantism has not to date been embraced by a and societies and groups and individuals who describe far larger number of “traditionalists” is that the themselves as traditional Roman Catholics while at the same generality of them simply have not done their time acknowledging John Paul II as a true Pope. As I have homework sufficiently. They are not aware or are occasionally noted in past issues of The Athanasian, the but more or less vaguely aware of the reasons only authentic traditional Roman Catholics today are, I which have prompted an increasing number of contend, the sedevacantists. It does not follow, of course, Roman Catholics to take the sedevacantist would have any real effect upon the position. If this particular category of “traditionalists” I have here in mind. “traditionalists” (so this explanation goes) were to make it their business seriously and open- “tradi- mindedly and prayerfully to study the matter [3b] And then there is that category of thoroughly, then they too would be sede- tionalists’” who know well the arguments put vacantists. But, while this may well be true in forth by the sedevacantists in support of the some instances, it is not, in my opinion, an stand they take relating to John Paul II. These explanation which would apply to the vast “traditionalists” — I refer to both priests and majority of “traditionalists.” And why not? laymen — are intelligent individuals and they Because the subject is really not as involved or are, I repeat, well-informed on the subject in difficult as some make it to be. One does not question. How, then, can they possibly fail to see have to be a theologian nor possess a keen mind through the utter phoniness of John Paul II. How nor devote endless hours to studying the matter can this massive deception be so strikingly to determine that John Paul I is not a valid evident as such to the sedevacantists and not Pope. His record during his tenure as “Pope” to equally so to the “traditionalists”? date eloquently speaks for itself — and that record convicts him. To hold otherwise flies in My response has long been merely to remark something the face of common sense. Indeed, some of those to the effect that I do not understand or it escapes me who are convinced sedevacantists are people of or it defies common sense. But I think a more positive simple faith and devoid of any comprehensive answer is now in order. If J know beyond all shadow Catholic education. They just know that John of doubt the stark truth that John Paul II is a bogus Pope, Paul II is not the Vicar of Christ. the “traditionalists” must likewise know it. Without discarding all logic and reason, there cannot be, I contend, And so, what is the explanation as to why the any other conclusion. vast majority of those who call themselves tradi- tionalists are members of the non-Catholic It would seem to follow, then, that, if Conciliar Church ® Conciliar Church and acknowledge its head as a “traditionalists” under John Paul II (and particularly those true Pope? The division of such “traditionalists” well-informed individuals) really know better, the reason into two groups is, I think, necessary for a why they do not unequivocally repudiate that Church and its satisfactory explanation. “Pope” is that they lack the will to do so. As reluctant as I may be to come to that conclusion, it is, I believe, a fair [3a] The first consists of those who have a closed mind on the subject. They firmly believe that and logical one. It is very fervently to be hoped that, by the grace of God, they will soon admit the grave error of their John Paul II is a valid Pope and adamantly refuse to consider or even to listen to arguments to the ways, openly proclaim their acceptance of sedevacantism contrary, a “don’t confuse me with the facts” and take whatever steps are necessary to return to the One mentality. Even to begin to get through to this True Church. + type of person seems virtually impossible. Perhaps it is because the issue is such an emotional one with individuals of this kind that they have developed what amounts to an im- “ vit 9, penetrable mental block to avoid facing up to it. The unholy trinity”: To them it is just totally inconceivable that “His George Bush Holiness” could possibly be anything else than a i] i) true Pope — and that’s it. Were John Paul II Mikhail Gorbachev publicly to declare himself to be, say, a top-level John Paul IT Freemason, I sometimes wonder if even that

THE ATHANASIAN 2 MARCH 1, 1991 erase ee

Spirits Of The New Age John Kenneth Weiskittel

F rom time immemorial people have searched for the The condemnation came many years before when the Vatican, answers to life’s great mysteries: Who is God? Why was the on April 24, 1917, issued the following statement: cosmos created? What is the purpose of life? What awaits us In full plenary session it was asked.. . whether it was per- beyond the veil of death? These and other like questions pro- mitted through a medium, as they are called, or without a voke a sense of awe in us as much today as they did ages ago. medium, with or without the use of hypnosis, to watch As Catholics we believe that the answers have already been any spiritualist manifestation, even presented with hon- revealed to us by God in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, esty and piety… The most Holy and Reverend Fathers expanded upon by the Holy Ghost through the Apostles and have replied “No” to all points. (Cited, Douglas Hill & preserved by Our Holy Mother, the Roman Catholic Church. Pat Williams, The Supematural, Hawthom, 1965, p. 134) We are assured of these truths by Sacred Scripture and Holy Tradition. Note the language used here; the faithful are forbidden to even attend such a gathering, much less take active part. There has been, however, another approach that can be seen throughout history, one that runs counter to Christian What is the Church’s rationale in issuing such a warning assurance in God’s workings. This approach proposes a about these practices? Father Charles E. Sheedy, C.S.C., counterrevelation, maintaining that spirits are ready to teach STD, explains: humanity a secret wisdom that will lead it to enrichment, …when taken seriously they imply some contact with fulfillment and its ultimate enlightenment and salvation. This the devil. God knows the future events of our lives, but forbidden practice is now a major part of the pagan and He does not reveal them to us for our good. Now if we go pantheistic New Age Movement (NAM). Before surveying to some fortune-teller to find our these things, or if we NAM’s spirit contacts and their messages, a brief summary of employ a spiritualistic “medium” to “bring back” our the Church’s teaching about the subject and some background dead aunt to tell them to us, itis obvious we are not seek- as to its prior appearances are in order. cH Believe Not Every Spirit ing this knowledge from God, and must therefore be seeking it from the enemy of God, the devil himself (and we are wasting our time at that, because the devil does In the first Epistle of Saint John we find the Apostle exhorting not know free futures). This thinking about contact with us: “Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits the devil may not be actually present in the mind of the if they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out person who “goes to the fortune-teller,” but it can be into the world. By this is the spirit of God known. Every spirit there implicitly, and it is bad, and foolish, and dan- which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of gerous… (The Christian Virtues, University of Notre God: And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God: and Dame Press, 1959, p. 287) this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and he is now already in the world… We are of God. He that He goes on to write: knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth us It is a mortal sin to conduct a spiritualistic seance, to not. By this we know the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” pass oneself off as a “medium,” or to consult (IJohn 4:1-3,6) “mediums.” Even to attend a seance merely as a passive The dangers of involvement with spirits (spiritism or spectator, out of curiosity, without grave reasons spiritualism) are evident from the above passage of Scripture, (investigation approved by the Bishop), is mortally sinful as is the fact that it is essentially a sin against Faith, an if there is present the appearance of approval, scandal of unwillingness to take God at His word. The 1961 National others, or danger of perversion to oneself. (p. 288) Catholic Almanac gives the following definition of spiritism: Such activity would be venially sinful only “on account of the A system of religion that attempts communication with ignorance and stupidity, and lack of seriousness, of those who spirits and departed souls by means of seances, table take part in them.” (/bid.) The fact that many engaged in tapping, ouija boards, etc. Spiritism is condemned by the spiritism have been shown to be frauds or that others may be Church. It is a sin against the First Commandment. merely dredging up subconscious thoughts in no way changes (Felician A. Foy, Ed., Saint Anthony’s Guild, p. 324) the sinfulness of involvement with them.

THE ATHANASIAN MARCH 1, 1991 One valuable recollection of attempted communication with Philippi where Saint Paul exorcised “a divining spirit” from an spirits comes from the celebrated British convert to unidentified girl. (Acts 16:16-18) Catholicism, G. K. Chesterton. As a young man, years before entering the Church, he dabbled with the planchette (a small When the Catholic Church finally emerged triumphant over board holding a pencil rested on casters which, with the pagan Rome in the fourth century mediums all but medium’s hand placed lightly on it, would write spirit messages disappeared; this pattern was repeated in every country that or draw spirit pictures” — Hill & Williams, p. 114). Chesterton embraced the Faith. Those who persisted in the practice were observes in his autobiography: forced to do so in secret. Ironically, it was not until the so- called Age of Enlightenment, that era whose promoters I would not altogether rule out the suggestion of some claimed had brought the final victory of reason over the that we were playing with fire; or even with hellfire. In powers of superstition, that spiritism began again to be openly the words that were written for us there was nothing performed. And the man who was responsible for its rebirth ostensibly degrading, but any amount that was deceiv- was once considered the epitome of the Enlightenment. ing. I saw quite enough of the thing to be able to testify, with complete certainty, that something happens which Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a most unlikely sort to is not in the ordinary sense natural, or produced by the have claimed spirit contacts. Born in Stockholm, the son of a normal and conscious human will. Whether it is pro- Lutheran bishop, Swedenborg was regarded in his day as one duced by some subconscious but still human force, or by of Europe’s leading scientists. He earned his Ph.D. at the age some powers, good, bad, or indifferent which are exter- of 21 and produced 60 learned books and pamphlets in all nal to humanity, I would not myself attempt to decide. scientific fields but, when he turned 55, he “abandoned The only thing I will say with complete confidence about science to produce 29 volumes in Latin which described the that mystic and invisible power is that it tells lies, The lies spirit world in detail and presented his own peculiar version of may be larks or they may be lures to the imperilled soul the gospel. He recounted his spirit conversations with Saint or they may be a thousand other things; but whatever Paul, Luther, infidels, angels, Popes and Moslems,” (William they are, they are not truths about the other world: or for J. Whalen, Separated Brethren, Bruce, 1958, p. 148) Like that matter about this world. (Cited, Maisie Ward, Mormon founder Joseph Smith, who also claimed to have Gilbert Keith Chesterton, Sheed & Ward, 1943, p. 45) talked to angels, Swedenborg taught an eternal marriage in heaven and that “God is a man.” (Ibid., p. 149, and, cited, Chesterton confided to his close friend, Monsignor John John Selwyn Gummer, “Swedenborg,” Man, Myth & Magic, ) O’Connor, that he engaged in the planchette frequently for a Vol. 20, Marshall Cavendish, 1970, p. 2740) He told of an while but gave it up after it caused headaches and “a horrid after-death state, from which one could either rise to heaven feeling,” something described in fine Chestertonian fashion as or sink into hell, and expounded embryonic New Age doc- “a bad smell in the mind.” (Cited, ibid.) Like the smell of trines, such as extraterrestrials of intellect superior to man’s brimstone, perhaps? who have received from God a “more direct” revelation, and Messages From The Other Side the idea that “the Atonement did not reconcile God with man, but made it possible for man to relearn the way to union Mediums have existed from antiquity. The word comes from with God…” (Gummer, p. 2741) Swedenborg did not evangelize the Latin root medius (middle) and, in the sense being used or attempt to establish a religion. Some of his followers here, denotes one who is used as a go-between to transmit started a church after his death but it has few followers today. messages from the spirit world into our own. Other terms have been used to describe those who claimed to be able to If Swedenborg did little as far as creating an acceptance of communicate with “gods,” spirits or the dead: oracles, mediumistic phenomena by mainstream society, he did — shamen, medicine men, and (to the ancient Hebrews and early thanks to his previous reputation — give it a kind of Christians) diviners, witches and false prophets. “respectability” it had not enjoyed for cen turies. In so doing he sowed seeds that would Srow to maturi Such activity is condemned by God in the Old Testament ty a century later. It was across the Atlantic, in New York (Deuteronomy 18:11) and it is also there that we find the State, that two separate happenings would provide the needed sti narrative of King Saul and the Witch of Endor. (I mulus. The first of Kings these were the messages that the 18-year-old 28:7-20) Saul, disobeying the divine injunction, visited the Andrew Jackson Davis of Poughkeepsie said he receiv sorceress to have her summon the ghost of Samuel. Althou ed while in a trance from gh the spiritfrom none other than Swedenborg him she was powerless to do so, God allowed the prophet to appear told him he had a mission to mankind.” sel f, “(who) and to tell of Saul’s bitter fate. There are also examples (Hill & Williams, p. found U3) Unlike his ghostly sponsor, Davis ha in the New Testament, such as the incident in the City d little education, yet of in 1847 his transcription of the discou rses was published as t)

THE ATHANASIAN 4 MARCH 1, 1991 The Principles ofNature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice N. Talmadge, former Governor of Wisconsin; and philosopher to Mankind, the first of 26 books he would write. He has been Henry James, Sr. The spirits were talking in Europe too. In called “not only the Thomas Aquinas of modern spiritualism France a medium calling himself Allan Kardec published a but also its John the Baptist.” (Robert Somerlott, “Here, Mr. collection of their messages, The Book of Spirits, in 1857. OQ syitioor”: An Informal Exploration into Modem Occultism, This work has had great influence in many countries; Hill and Viking, 1971, p. 77) Davis’ writings, which even spiritists Williams write that “in 1957 the Brazilian Government issued concede make for tedious reading, are today almost five million stamps protraying Kardec with the legend: ‘Brazil unobtainable but an inkling of their opposition to Christian — Correio — 1957 — 1st Centenary of Organized Spiritism.’” dogma can be drawn from the following description of (pp. 107, 109) Kardec had his rivals. The Scotsman D. D. Principles ofNature, given by one member of the Swedenborg Home’s feats astonished audiences from New York to Moscow Society to another: “a kind of new Koran to one section of the (once, during a sitting with three British aristocrats, he is Unitarians.” (Cited, Alan Gaul, The Founders of Psychical reported to have fallen into a trance, levitated, floated out of Research, Schoken, 1968, p. 49n) one window and into another across the room — a room seventy feet from the ground). Home held seances for But the event that really propelled spiritism into its “Golden Napoleon III, Czar Alexander II, poetess Elizabeth Barrett Age” happened in Hydesville, a village in western New York. Browning and other leading figures of the day. Italy had Ina modest frame house, which already had the reputation of Eusapia Palladino who held seances where tables rapped and being haunted, a Methodist farmer, one John D. Fox, and his moved, objects floated, and the hands and faces of spirits were family began hearing strange noises at night. On March 31, seen. In 1882, a number of English professors formed the 1848, only months after the knocking started, they grew Society for Psychical Research to study such phenomena, and louder and his daughter, Katie Fox, then age twelve, suddenly an American branch was established three years later. In the called out the words that were to mark the beginning of early twentieth century Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the lapsed spiritualism: ‘Here, Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do!’” (Somerlott, p. Catholic and Freemason who wrote the Sherlock Holmes 74) A system of communication through rapping was stories, became such a promoter of the movement that he has developed and the spirit identified itself as that of a peddler been called “the Saint Paul of Spiritualism.” Illusionist Harry who had been murdered there by a previous tenant. Katie’s Houdini spent years exposing phony mediums (but was a sister Margaretta, 15, found that the spirit would answer her as believer nonetheless) while Thomas Edison attempted to ev Their story was spread quickly with the support of New design a machine that would facilitate communication with York Tribune editor Horace Greeley (who lived awhile in the spirits. In the 1960’s, defrocked Episcopal Bishop James Pike house to publicize it) and showman P. T. Barnum, who turned employed a medium to contact his son who had committed the sisters into professional mediums. Though they were suicide, and London housewife Rosemary Brown made discovered to be frauds by three doctors who attended a headlines by producing musical compositions she claimed seance in Buffalo in 1851 (the raps were nothing more than were dictated to her by the spirits of Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin the cracking of knee and toe joints), the match had already and other masters. been lit that would start a wildfire. “Spiritualism reached epidemic proportions,” writes Somerlott. “Within three years Oops! … Wrong Channel after the Hydesville sensation there were more than a hundred Spiritism has taken ona different garb in the past two decades, mediums in New York City and between fifty and sixty seance being performed under the New Age label of channeling. The groups assembling regularly in Philadelphia.” (p. 75) term medium was discarded in favor of “channeler.” This The craze didn’t stop there. During the Civil War President change was made not only because the earlier expression had Lincoln allowed seances to be conducted in the White House. the taint of fraud attached to it but also to indicate an Some of the interest that he and his wife had in this area came expanded agenda. from the grief they felt over the loss of their son, Willie, who In the past the spiritists usually were bereaved family members died at the age of 12 in 1862. (Some spiritualists claim that a who used a medium in the hope of contacting a departed loved few of Lincoln’s decisions concerning the war, as well as his one and the messages they received were such as dealt with Emancipation Proclamation, actually came from otherworldly mundane, personal affairs. The kind of thinking found in these advice he received.) Other prominent Americans who Sroups is demonstrated in this passage from a pamphlet print- expressed interest included novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe; ed by the Psychic Press, a British publisher of occult books: lawman “Wild Bill” Hickok; Robert Hare, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania; J. W. The dead come back to guide, help, cheer, sustain and & Edmonds, a judge on the New York Supreme Court; inspire us with glad tidings of another life where injustice

THE ATHANASIAN MARCH 1, 1991 expression of all is redressed, where rank and station no longer hold lam the Christ force, God-energy, the ma ni ty , th e ex pr es si on of all na tu re . Ch ri st force isthe sway, where mankind is given a second chance. And so hu re and, if they come back, not a privileged few, not the haloed flow of energies that vibrate through all of natu l see and saints, but human beings, men and women of all colors, you will but harken in your humility, you wil ves that \¢@ classes, races, of all creeds or none. (Cited, Hill & hear the full expression of those creative wa not the Savior. I Williams, p. 104) prove the Force to be the Spirit… I am nd coming am not the Star in the East. I am not the seco so, in There are obvious theological errors here (that the dead — to this planet. I am here, and have always been any and all dead — can freely communicate with the living via , for to see Energy. You see me not, but you shall see me mediums, that souls can work out their salvation even after me remember I am the Light of your eye, Tam the hand ing; I death, that the “spirit world” is one, big, happy pluralistic that rocks the cradle of the newborn understand community where the sainted dead regularly rub ghostly am the Force that pervades your being, I am yo ur elbows with the worst examples of unregenerate humanity) but fullness, your expression. (Cited, Levine, p. 232) the tone is sentimental, directed at the vulnerable emotions of grieving relatives. This is the sort of religious level that is to be Such distortions of Our Lord’s Person and His character have found in the spiritist churches, some of which still exist. long beena staple of New Age thought, from the writings of its precursors (like Theosophy’s H. P. Blavatsky, the But this has changed in NAM, the channeler claiming to have “channeled” 1911 Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ, Alice a broader range of potential contacts. In a New Age Bailey of the Lucis (nee Lucifer) Trust, the 2,100 page Urantia “consumer guide” to occult practitioners the following Book); to trance mediums like Arthur Ford and Edgar Cayce; explanation is given: up to the present-day messages like the 622-page Course in Today the term medium has been replaced by the word Miracles (given by “Jesus” spirit and popular in Conciliar “channel,” “channeler,” or trace channeler,” which im- “Catholic” New Age circles) and the numerous “Seth” books plies the ability on the partof the psychic to assess notonly of the late channeler Jane Roberts. Cayce, for instance, ties the spirits of those who may have been close to the client reincarnation into one of the “readings” in his blasphemous but all forms of spiritual energy, including spirit guides,” life of Christ: “guardian angels,” the spirits of great religious leaders Q.: When did Jesus become aware that he would be such as Jesus and Buddha (not to mention those of rock the Savior of the world? e stars and political leaders), beings from other planets and even, in some cases, animals suchas whales and dolphins. As When he fell in Eden. (Jeffrey Furst, Editor, Edgar (Frederick G. Levine, The Psychic Sourcebook: How to Cayce’s Story of Jesus, Berkley Books, 1968, p. 23) Choose and Use a Psychic, Warner Books, 1988, p. 44) The theme underlying all NAM’s spirit contacts is that Christ In addition, the discarnate entities being channeled by NAM was simply a man who achieved “cosmic consciousness” and are using their “air time” to further the errors taught by the that His mission on earth was merely to teach others that they New Age leaders. The following examples of channeled could find “salvation” through the same means used by Him teaching are “tried” according to Saint John’s admonition. and other “ascended masters.”

Christ: Our Lord once asked: “Who do men say the Son of Man is God. The serpent, tempting Eve, declared: “…you Man is? (Matthew 16:13) The spirits of the New Age teach that shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) NAM He is only a man who tapped into a spiritual power supply that has taken Satan’s deception a step further: humans are not is equally available to all of us. “John,” a spirit channeled just like God, they are God! If this is hard to believe, hear what through Kevin Ryerson and who claims to be the Apostle John, “Ramtha,” a 35,000-year-old warrior from the lost continent lumps Christ with personages from false religions as a of Atlantis, said on the “Merv Griffin Show” through house- “master,” declaring, “always seek that which is deep within, for wife channeler J. Z. Knight: “What is termed God is within the true master of self is within the self. You will find this pat- your being… And that which is called Christ is within your tern in the other masters, in Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, being… And when you know you are God, you will find joy.” Mohammed and all others who have ascended to higher levels (Cited, Ruth A. Tucker, Another Gospel: Alternative Religions of consciousness in their service to reveal God upon this and the New Age Movement, Academie Books, 1989, p. 338) plane.” (Kevin Ryerson & Stephanie Harolde, Spirit Communi- Ryerson’s false Apostle “John,” counseling on meditation, cation: The Soul’s Path, Bantam Books, 1989, p. 148) Some explains that the “higher” consciousness is “the rediscovery channelers, such as Elwood Babbitt, go further by introducing of the point of focus which indeed dwells within the self, which “Jesus Christ” to their listeners. Babbitt’s “Christ” states: is God” and concludes: “The impersonal aspect of self, which

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is God, never judges. It is always present, se eking to draw each live at that higher level of Purpose, joy and of you up to the higher dimension ofth e self.” (Op. cit., p. 144) George Anderson, a. self-described understanding. “spiritual Roman Catholic” and “psychic medium” (he pref ..-As you join daily with the greater YOU of God’s ers the latter title Since he deals with deceased expression, you will stop thinking of death as a family spirits), blends reincarnation, religious indifferentism catastrophic event and can assist others to cope with and universal salvation on his cable television show, “Psychic Channels,” their fear or even terror of death. (Cited, Miller, What do the spirits tell him about God? “They cons p. 172) tantly say that on the other side they are part of God and they praise God…,” This notion is exemplified in the very title We Don’t answers Anderson. “God is a force, Die; the God is light, God is reader is led to believe that the dead enjoy an existe energy, God is everything. God is us, nce not God is animals…” (Joel that far removed from the living. The fatal Martin & Patricia Romanowski, We attraction of Don’t Die: George spiritism is the illusion that the dead have the Anderson’s Conversations with theOt same free her Side, Putnam, 1988, range of activities as the living and can commun p. 262. Sounds like George sat in on icate with Father Matthew Fox’s them as easily as one can dial a 1-800 number. catechism classes!) Hence we have scenes like the one in the television adaptation of actress Shirley MacLaine’s New Age Spirits Of Darkness memoirs, Out On A Limb, where Shirley and her Guru st on Malibu Beach, arms stretched open and The need to compare the message of spirits aga to the sky, shouting, “I inst the light am God! Iam God! I am God!” The of Christ is self-evident. It is the only consequences of such a way to “try” an belief system are frightening: socially, entity whose identity is veiled. “For Satan, the New Ager trends ” writes Saint towards extreme libertarianism and eth Paul, “transformeth himself into an ang ical anarchy (“I’m el of light.” (II God; I make the rules; I can do wh Corinthians 11:14) atever I please!”) and, spiritually, runs headlong toward ruin. One man who was shown many wonder Ultimately, no act is s in the spirit world sinful; any, therefore, is permissible. An d “Ramtha” says just warns: that: “Contemplate the love of God; ho w great this Entity-Self When spirits begin to speak with a is that is all-encompassing; that will man, he must allow you to be and do anything you wish and hold you judg beware that he believe nothing that th eless. God has never ey say. For Qe you or anyone.” (Cited, Ell nearly everything they say is fabricated iot Miller, A Crash Course by them, and ‘on the New Age Movement, Baker, 1990 they lie: for, if they are permitted to na , p. 172) rrate anything, as what heaven is and how things in th e heavens are to There is no death. This echoes the second be understood, they would tell so many lies th lie of Satan in the at a man Garden of Eden: “You shall not die the would be astonished. (Cited, Gary No death.” (Genesis 3:4) rth, Unholy NAM’s doctrine of reincarnation flies in Spirits: Occultism & New Age Humanism the face of Catholic , Dominion truth regarding the human personhood (integrity of body and Press, 1986, p. 396) soul), the resurrection of the just and that the individual has Such a statement is a solid argument agai but one life in which to work out his salv nst participatio n in ation, as Saint Paul such ungodly endeavors. Regrettably, the teaches: “…it is appointed unto men once to die and after man who made it did not learn from it. His name? Emanue this, the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) The me l Swedenborg. ssage here is clear that now is the time to make one’s pe If one reads the Bible and Church ace with God; to think history, he will find otherwise is to entertain false and dang many instances of angels or saints erous hope, to play sent by God to earth Ru ssian roulette with one’s salvation. Wh for a purpose, but nowhere will one en the Ne w Age find the servants of spirits teach that death is not real God seekin g to summon them, When God wish they aren’t disputing the es, he sends obvious separation of body and soul, bu them, but to attempt to bypass Hi t rather are suggesting m is to show lack of trust. that it does not entail a radical division of Hence the Church’s absolute op a person and position to spiritism and judgment, It is merely a transition to a fuller experiencing of its claims , one’s “transcendant” nature, A spirit identifying itself as The teachings set forth by the sp “Jesus,” speaking through California irits of the mediums and channeler Virginia New Age have consistently been Essene, affirms: contrary to the revealed word of God. Far from divine Messenge rs, they are diabolical sowers of destruction. —death is an automatic and nearly imme In the inspired words of diate entrance Saint Paul: “But though we, or into a greater sphere of learning, growth an angel from heaven, and service to Preach a gospel to you besides th e@ which you are well-accustomed alre at which we have preached ady. You then simply to you, let him be anathema.” (Galatians 1: 8) +

THE ATHANASIAN MARCH 1, 1991

” The Particular Judgement Fr. Oswald Baker (England)

hat inevitably most concerns us individually, and with serious matters that we accounted mere trifles. No doubt all some apprehension, is the particular judgement we shall that we have done will assume a changed aspect. There will be each undergo immediately after death. The state of our soul at no lawyers to plead our case. No psychiatrists to argue that we death determines the attainment or loss of our destiny, the were not in our right mind when we did wrong. There will be possession of God in heaven, and our success or failure will be only one voice. It will be the voice of conscience, which will made known to us immediately after death. (A definition of strip away all illusion and reveal just what we really are. We this doctrine has never been solemnly propounded. One was shall have our memory, the storehouse of habits, good and in preparation at Vatican I.) bad — prayers said, kindnesses performed, self-control In the early Church it was widely believed that the sentence practised, Sacraments received, as well as violations of passed at the particular judgement is not carried out until the conscience, sins of neglect, sins of lust, sins of pride. We are end of the world, that souls do not actually go into heaven or likely to present a sorry spectacle. In treatment of hell until after the last day. An exception was made for mar- schizophrenia, an electric shock is sometimes applied to the tyrs. They, it was held, do go straight to heaven. That is why all head of the patient. The schizophrenic is so alarmed, feels so the recognized saints in the first three centuries are martyrs. threatened that, in order to escape what seems like the end, The view that all others have to wait till the last day before en- the mind puts off its fantasy and the patient is jerked back into tering heaven was put forward by a Pope, John XXII, ina fa- reality. To think of our death and judgement can have a similar mous sermon he preached in France (1331). His sermon effect on our soul. It can break the spell under which we think and acas t if our self-satisfaction were the purpose of life. aroused such dispute and speculation that he called a special learned assembly to discuss the matter, and promised to abide We come into this life with our fists closed, all set to be by its finding. He died before it closed but not before drawing aggressive and acquisitive. We have a tendency to retain that up a declaration in which he abandoned the view he had disposition. This is an innate defect. It is not poverty, as preached. His successor, Pope Benedict XII, settled the ques- Communism alleges, that makes men quarrelsome and tion. The sentence passed at the particular judgement is unhappy, but an overfondness of material possessions. Even carried out at once. when poverty is relieved, men still, constantly and persistently, When we leave this life we shall go stripped of everything, even want more. There is no limit to man’s demands, once the earth our body, and completely alone. Married or single, priest or is made the be-all and end-all of living. When we leave this life layman, each will go alone, to the scales of judgement. As our hands are open. We neither take nor need anything eH nothing else can, death individualizes all of us. The soul will earth. We take only a balance of merit and guilt, which will stand naked before God, seen at last as it really is. Our reveal where our deepest love has lain. When we have proved guardian angel will certainly be there, at the conclusion of his our love for God above all else, and proved it by detachment task. We shall be called to account for all that we have done — from all that could keep us from Him, then we are prepared to the irregularities, the follies, the inexcusable forgetfulness, the stand before Him. +

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