Enneagram Versus The Catholic Church

[fix]

Is there any legitimate use for this tool in Catholicism?

…The Enneagram is a system of assigning a number from 1 to 9 to oneself and every human being. This number is said to reveal the hidden motivation for everything a person does. Intelligence is given three “centers”: thought, emotion, and instinct. Mainly because of the environment, the three centers are always imbalanced. The result of this imbalance is that a person’s “true self” is always hidden beneath a “false self”. The Enneagram is supposed to enable a person to gain knowledge of his true self, exposing the true motivations for actions and illusions developed regarding himself and regarding how to deal with the world…

In promoting the Enneagram, an effort is made to take Sufi objectives, their kind of self- knowledge and knowledge of others, for the sake of promoting Christian objectives. But it’s the opposite that happens: Christian goals are used for the sake of promoting the aims of the Sufi religion: the Catholic religion is assimilated into the Enneagram and the Sufi religion…
ewtn.com/library/NEWAGE/ENNEAGRA.HTM

 

[Fidelis]

The Enneagram, no matter how “Christianized” is an occult practice that leads one to place one’s trust in something other than God. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

**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.

The definitive article about this subject remains one written a number of years ago by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, a Catholic expert on cults and the occult. Read this first, then come back and discuss.:

iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0146a.html

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[fix]

Fidelis:

The Enneagram, no matter how “Christianized” is an occult practice that leads one to place one’s trust in something other than God. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: The definitive article about this subject remains one written a number of years ago by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, SJ, a Catholic expert on cults and the occult. Read this first, then come back and discuss.:

iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0146a.html

.

I agree with your view. In another thread I was discussing this with another poster and his position is that he rejects the occultic aspects, but finds it very useful to his spiritual development.

 

[Ahimsa]

My perspective: Enneagram is a system of self-knowledge. It can’t tell you how to live your life, but it can provide insight into one’s strengths and weaknesses.

Besides, Sufis are some of the nicest people I know.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

The enneagram is a bunch of bunk and it’s use by some in the Church (for example, Father Richard Rhor at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is foolish. Psychology (and this is SUPPOSED to be a psychological tool) makes a useful servant to theology, but a poor master. The enneagram is one of those cutesy ways in which we don’t have to take responsibility for our own actions (“I can’t help it, I’m a 4 !” or “it’s not my fault I’m a Blue,” etc.). Sin is the problem of the human condition.

Link to Center for Action and Contemplation, which “does” the enneagram.
cacradicalgrace.org/aboutus/aboutus_index.html

 

[tjmiller]

See the Magisterium’s criticism of the Enneagram as a “New Age” practice in the Vatican Instruction “Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of LIfe.”

 

[asteroid]

The Enneagram, while having some ideas drawn from elsewhere, was put together by Oscar Ichazo.

Here’s the history of it from an enneagram source:

enneagraminstitute.com/history.asp

There’s enough on there to worry me. But I looked up Oscar Ichazo on Google and found he also founded “Arica”. Here’s some pages from the official website of Arica. It’s not very Catholic is it?:

arica.org/system/medinfo.cfm

arica.org/system/addtrain.cfm#BEPHC

Of course, just because Ichazo came up with both things doesn’t necessarily mean BOTH are contrary to Christian teachings.

 

[Chickamauga]

Father Mitch Pacwa, SJ, of EWTN fame, is a former enneagram user. He writes about it extensively in his book, "CATHOLICS AND THE NEW AGE." He also wrote this article: http://www.cfpeople.org/Apologetics/page51a076.html

 

[fix]

JKirkLVNV:

The Enneagram is a bunch of bunk and it’s use by some in the Church (for example, Father Richard Rhor at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is foolish. Psychology (and this is SUPPOSED to be a psychological tool) makes a useful servant to theology, but a poor master. The Enneagram is one of those cutesy ways in which we don’t have to take responsibility for our own actions (“I can’t help it, I’m a 4 !” or “it’s not my fault I’m a Blue,” etc.). Sin is the problem of the human condition.

Link to Center for Action and Contemplation, which “does” the enneagram.
cacradicalgrace.org/aboutus/aboutus_index.html

I started this thread because here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=92156

A poster, #67 and later, was claiming it has legitimate spiritual use.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

fix:

I started this thread because here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=92156

A poster, #67 and later, was claiming it has legitimate spiritual use.

We would all do better to find a good confessor.

 

[JKirkLVNV]

I would like to apologize to the thread for my less than charitable renaming of the Enneagram. I ask pardon of anyone who may have taken offense.

 

[fix]

JKirkLVNV:

We would all do better to find a good confessor.

So far I have read plenty of evidence that the technique is not good, and have seen no evidence it is a legitimate thing for Catholics to use?

 

[Augustine]

Ahimsa:

My perspective: Enneagram is a system of self-knowledge.

Indeed. The Gnostic heresy has been plaguing the Church for about 20, going 21, centuries.

Ahimsa:

Besides, Sufis are some of the nicest people I know.

Including those supporting Al-Qaida? For those who don’t know, Sufism is a branch of Islam.

 

[Ahimsa]

Augustine:

Indeed. The Gnostic heresy has been plaguing the Church for about 20, going 21, centuries.

Including those supporting Al-Qaida? For those who don’t know, Sufism is a branch of Islam.

Enneagram is hardly “gnostic”, no more so than Greek humor theory.

Al-Qaeda isn’t a Sufi-lineage. In fact, Wahhabis detest Sufis.

 

[Augustine]

Ahimsa:

Enneagram is hardly “gnostic”, no more so than Greek humor theory.

Any body of thought that states that only knowledge can free a person from his vices is gnostic.

In Fr. Pacwa’s article it’s clear that Enneagram is much like Astrology.

Ahimsa:

Al-Qaeda isn’t a Sufi-lineage. In fact, Wahhabis detest Sufis.

In fact, Sunis (including its mystic branch, the Sufis) detest Shiites who detest Wahhabis, yet all are found in Al-Qaida. Go figure…

 

[Ahimsa]

Augustine:

Any body of thought that states that only knowledge can free a person from his vices is gnostic.

What would you call a body of thought that says that knowledge is an aid, but not sufficient, to free a person from his/her vices?

In fact, Sunis (including its mystic branch, the Sufis) detest Shiites who detest Wahhabis, yet all are found in Al-Qaida. Go figure…

Well, you know, you have Sufis among both Sunnis and Shias (though more so among Sunnis, since the Shias are already naturally mystical).

I wouldn’t say Sunnis detest Shias, no more than I would say Baptists detest Catholics. Many Baptists simply adore Catholics.

 

[tjmiller]

I don’t think the Enneagram is so much Gnostic, per se, so much as it is what the Vatican’s “Christian Response to the ‘New Age’” document calls a “narcissistic pseudo-spirituality”…

Navel-gazing, one might say.