Tom Nash gives advice on how to begin correcting Catholics who mix their beliefs with New Age spirituality.
Transcript:
Host: Claude from Facebook gives us the following question: “How can I approach someone who says she is Catholic, goes to church, and gets Communion, but she says that ‘All we put in the universe gets back to us,’ and also she says that ‘We are energy,’ and also ‘We have to think positive so the good energy comes back to us’?” Looks like kind of a blend of New Age language and a confession of Catholic faith.
Tom: Yes. Well, I would say, Claude, I’m not sure if Claude is Catholic himself or not, but I would say this person needs to check their non—these beliefs about energy and all the rest of this with the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and that which is in conflict needs to be put aside. Now we do need to take care of the environment, we need to be loving each other, etc., etc. But to think that somehow, like, it’s a pantheistic—that we are all God and God is us, etc., etc., Star Wars Force or whatnot; no, that’s just not true.
And so, what can we do? We can encourage that person to check their beliefs that are in conflict with the Church against the Catechism and therefore to hopefully see for themselves that what they are doing is at odds with Church teaching; and if they don’t, then you keep praying for them and look for opportunities.
But periodically with correction—we try to be friends with people, and we try to interact with them, and only periodically, not all the time so that we needlessly alienate them, that we wanna bring them around. Now I’m glad to hear the person isn’t saying that they’re, you know, promoting abortion or things like that, they’re a little off on their spirituality; but you would also maybe encourage them to talk to their local pastor. And if it’s your pastor, then maybe you could have them talk to, you know, your mutual pastor.
Those would be some suggestions—or maybe some other person that they know, who’s in their life, who’s a faithful Catholic, who might be able to have a little more access and credibility–standing, if you will–to make a difference. Thank you, Claude.