The church taught reincarnation?

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ErricFiggy

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I attended a class today given by a Benedictine sister. Someone asked about Reincarnation, and she said that the Church taught it about 300 years ago, but stopped because people used it as an excuse to misbehave in this life. That raised a HUGE red flag. She went on to talk about how the planets are going to align soon and that that’s going to mess with the vibrations in our body, and our energy fields. She also said that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are all states of mind. They aren’t places we go to after we die, but things we’re living now. So when you have a bad day, it’s He’ll and when you’re having a good day you’re in Heaven.

I was deeply disturbed by everything she said. She was teaching a room full of catechists, and they all nodded in agreement. They were eating out of the palm of her hand and accepted everything she said without question. These people are gonna go out and teach these things to their classes! Am I exaggerating, or is she deeply wrong about these things?
 
This woman is unwell or confused and she shouldn’t be teaching anyone and certainly not catechists He teaching are not in line with Catholic teachings.
Hopefully the catechists will notify her superior and curb her teaching.

Regarding heaven hell, purgatory, see under the headings in the following link
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/index/h.htm

The Church did not teach re-incarnation, but some heretics did, Gnostics, Manicheans etc, contrary to Catholic teaching
 
Thank you for your responses 🙂 how can i report it? Simply call my diocese?
 
Write down what this nun said, and verify with her that is what she is teaching. Date it at the top. Then get signatures from as many in the class as you can on the same paper as witnesses to what is being taught. Present a COPY it to the priest. If nothing is done then you can send the original affidavit to the bishop. It’s then on their shoulders and not yours.
 
ErricFiggy said:
I attended a class today given by a Benedictine sister. Someone asked about Reincarnation, and she said that the Church taught it about 300 years ago, but stopped because people used it as an excuse to misbehave in this life. That raised a HUGE red flag. She went on to talk about how the planets are going to align soon and that that’s going to mess with the vibrations in our body, and our energy fields. She also said that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are all states of mind. They aren’t places we go to after we die, but things we’re living now. So when you have a bad day, it’s He’ll and when you’re having a good day you’re in Heaven.

I was deeply disturbed by everything she said. She was teaching a room full of catechists, and they all nodded in agreement. They were eating out of the palm of her hand and accepted everything she said without question. These people are gonna go out and teach these things to their classes! Am I exaggerating, or is she deeply wrong about these things?
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The only thing I agree with is that heaven and hell are not places. Which is true because souls are not physical and thus do not occupy a space as we know and understand it. Everything else doesn’t even remotely sound like Catholic to me, or even Christian in general.
 
ConstantineTG said:
The only thing I agree with is that heaven and hell are not places. Which is true because souls are not physical and thus do not occupy a space as we know and understand it. Everything else doesn’t even remotely sound like Catholic to me, or even Christian in general.
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CT your logic is not watertight.
Ultimately heaven is being with God in a mode appropriate to our state of being.

Just because disembodied spiritual souls can experience union with God does not mean that heaven does not have greater depth than that of such a soul.

Mary and Jesus exist bodily in a place - heaven.
Such a place may not be found within that which we call the space/time contimuum.
“Place” may be a concept much deeper than what most people understand it to be.
 
ConstantineTG said:
The only thing I agree with is that heaven and hell are not places. Which is true because souls are not physical and thus do not occupy a space as we know and understand it. Everything else doesn’t even remotely sound like Catholic to me, or even Christian in general.
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Christianity in general, and catholicism in particular, believes in the ressurrection of the body, not just of Jesus, but of all of us. Bodies need places. It may well be that the risen body is able to exist in a manner we are yet unable to define precisely, but what we can say is that it will not be a purely spirit existence.

As for the OP, clearly the nun has been exposed to too much new age stuff, and not enough new testament stuff!
 
ErricFiggy said:
I attended a class today given by a Benedictine sister. Someone asked about Reincarnation, and she said that the Church taught it about 300 years ago, but stopped because people used it as an excuse to misbehave in this life. That raised a HUGE red flag. She went on to talk about how the planets are going to align soon and that that’s going to mess with the vibrations in our body, and our energy fields. She also said that Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory are all states of mind. They aren’t places we go to after we die, but things we’re living now. So when you have a bad day, it’s He’ll and when you’re having a good day you’re in Heaven.

I was deeply disturbed by everything she said. She was teaching a room full of catechists, and they all nodded in agreement. They were eating out of the palm of her hand and accepted everything she said without question. These people are gonna go out and teach these things to their classes! Am I exaggerating, or is she deeply wrong about these things?
Click to expand...
There is a teaching of reincarnation in Judaism in the mystical Kabbala but this form of reincarnation is different from that found in Hinduism, and is also not part of Jewish Law.
 
I have heard this from my fellow Pagans, none have given me the source texts for this however.
 
This all sounds very strange to me as well OP, and I second the poster who recommended that you report this to an authority figure. It would be easier for me to brush it off if she were just speaking figuratively to one person, but it is very concerning that she is actually *teaching *this material in a formal setting.
 
I can’t speak to what the church was teaching 300 years ago, but as I muddle thru the Ante-Nicene Church Fathers, I find that they (especially Tertullian!!!) absolutely opposed reincarnation.

There’s already been some good advice on how to handle this; I have nothing to add.
 
Have to ask…

Did this teacher or any of these student catechists have a copy of the Catechism?

Was there a copy of the Catechism anywhere in this class???

If so - then the teachers comments could be easily checked against documented Church teaching.
If not - well then…there are more red flags than just this sister’s comments…

Sad - very sad…

Peace
James
 
ErricFiggy said:
Thank you for your responses 🙂 how can i report it? Simply call my diocese?
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You say she was teaching catechists. Was this at a diocesan-sponsored inservice? How did she come to be teaching in front of catechists? Was this in your diocese or elsewhere? Remember, religious congregations operate independently of the diocesan bishop even in his territory. So if it was some sort of talk put on by their order, he may not have had any knowledge or control over it.

In our diocese, inservice at the diocese is attended by those in charge and they thoroughly vet those giving inservice talks. If you bring someone into the parish, they must be on the diocesan approved list.

If this took place in your diocese, but outside your bishop’s jurisdiction, I suggest you write in detail all that took place and was said, how many diocesan catechists were there, and how you came to be there (flier in the mail, etc). You send it to your bishop, your diocesan director of catechesis, and the superior of her order.

Recommend in your letter that the bishop issue a statement warning people not to attend her talks in the future.

If this was diocesan or parish sponsored, and your letter receives no action or response, you copy the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
 
JRKH said:
Have to ask…

Did this teacher or any of these student catechists have a copy of the Catechism?

Was there a copy of the Catechism anywhere in this class???

If so - then the teachers comments could be easily checked against documented Church teaching.
If not - well then…there are more red flags than just this sister’s comments…

Sad - very sad…

Peace
James
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Well, that’s sort of an unhelpful statement James. I have been to many diocesan inservice events. I don’t carry my catechism around with me. We are in a large auditorium and then in break out rooms, always in temporary quarters such as hotel conference facilities. It’s not like it is an ongoing class, it is a one day inservice.
 
ErricFiggy said:
I attended a class today given by a Benedictine sister. Someone asked about Reincarnation, and she said that the Church taught it about 300 years ago, but stopped because people used it as an excuse to misbehave in this life. That raised a HUGE red flag. She went on to talk about how the planets are going to align soon and that that’s going to mess with the vibrations in our body, and our energy fields.
Click to expand...
Oh dear.

I believe the only part of what she said we can consider sort of true, and she got it wrong, was that in the every early Church, there were people, including at least one Bishop, who believed in reincarnation. I cannot remember his name but I could maybe find it if anyone cares, but I think it was in the 3rd century there is a prayer from a letter he wrote that said: “God grant that we maybe taken into the Light and no more be thrust back into the illusion that is earth.” Something like that. I think Origen subscribed to reincarnation, but most of his writings were destroyed and it is possibly part of why he fell into disfavor.

The rest is - um - something related to bovine waste.
 
The Church is full of wolves in sheep’s clothing. I agree with a previous poster that you have a responsibility to document these statements and follow your diocese’s procedure for reporting false teachers.
 
Blue_Horizon said:
CT your logic is not watertight.
Ultimately heaven is being with God in a mode appropriate to our state of being.

Just because disembodied spiritual souls can experience union with God does not mean that heaven does not have greater depth than that of such a soul.

Mary and Jesus exist bodily in a place - heaven.
Such a place may not be found within that which we call the space/time contimuum.
“Place” may be a concept much deeper than what most people understand it to be.
Click to expand...
And yet our state of being seems to be transitory does it not? If not, how then can we explain the soul surviving the death of the body? Your vision of Mary and Jesus existing physically in Heaven seems to me to be somewhat limiting to Jesus’ ability to return the manifestation of His substance back to it’s original form without annihilating His identity.

We cannot limit God to man’s existence without limiting Him. Yet He proclaims that, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
 
1ke said:
Well, that’s sort of an unhelpful statement James. I have been to many diocesan in service events. I don’t carry my catechism around with me. We are in a large auditorium and then in break out rooms, always in temporary quarters such as hotel conference facilities. It’s not like it is an ongoing class, it is a one day inservice.
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Thanks for the clarification.

After I posted I sort of second guessed myself, since at least part (reincarnation) seemed to have referred to a historical point…
The other points however could easily be checked against just a single copy of the Catechism…Or…a catechism reference asked for…

Peace
James
 
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