En los primeros tres meses de su pontificado, el papa Francisco se refirió varias veces a la New Age, esa corriente a la que llamó “panteísta”, tal como recoge la agencia AICA. El 20 de junio fustigó en una homilía al “dios cósmico” de la “moda politeísta”, que llega con “la cultura light”. “Ni Jesús hubiera creído en el dios New Age” de hoy, dijo. “La oración no es magia”, remató. El doctor Roberto Bosca, autor del libro New Age, la utopía religiosa de fin de siglo, explicó a Claudia Peiró, periodista de Infobae, por qué este “autismo espiritual” es contrario a la doctrina cristiana.
It is not the first time that Francisco refers to the subject.He had already done it at the meeting with a group of Chilean religious, who transcended for his reference to a "gay lobby" in the Vatican.It is also evident that it seeks to resume the initiative to stop the progress of these currents.In this context, on May 16 it took place at the Santa Marta Casa, precisely where the Pope resides, an expert encounter on the new religious movements, convened by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.In the center of concerns were the neopentecostalism and the New Age, among others.
The conclusions of this meeting are not yet known, but the concern of the pontiff is evident to affirm the truths of the Gospel and Catholic doctrine in a clear and discernible way to limit certain syncretisms that leaked even in some Catholic fields and to which whichconsiders more dangerous than a sect of defined contours. Una corriente difusa de espiritualidad
“The New Age cannot be defined as a religion, but as a stream of spirituality, diffuse and quite inperhensible because it takes heterogeneous elements of different places;It is like a constellation, and hence the difficulty of identifying it, ”said Roberto Bosca, who is a professor at the Universidad Austral.
"In addition," he added, "the New Age does not necessarily be presented as such: it adopts different forms and names, for example, the magazine" yourself "is one of the most important of this current and the greatest proportion of new age elements noIt is in the specific books or magazines but outside them, we could find in any publication New Age content ”.
- How do you explain the expansion and persistence of this phenomenon?
- When I published my book, I said that the New Age was a cultural fashion, then they asked me: will this happen?And I replied that cultural fashions are not from one season for the other like those of clothing.But they can last years and even decades.They are very long processes.We have seen how a phenomenon, which was growing since the 60s, especially in intellectual circles and expanding in the 80s in the United States, towards the end of the 90s had already spread throughout society and what I saw in recent yearsIt ceased to be a matter of small nuclei to now be a heritage, to call it in some way, of the whole society.What was previously some intellectual thing, is now in the supermarket gondola.And people buy it as the most natural.
- Without knowing what it is?
- It happened to me once, giving a talk, that when I finished explaining what the New Age was, some girls told me: "I am like that", "what you are explaining is how I am".And they had no idea what the New Age was.But they breathed her because it is steamy, that one does not perceive but that is breathed in the culture, because the New Age collects elements of cultures outside her and integrates them.Self -help, for example, is an element that exists independently of the New Age but it takes it and gives it a form of spirituality, a way of understanding man and his relationship with the world.
In reference to the infiltration of this current in the Catholic Church itself, the Pope commented recently that he had known a superior that encouraged the sisters of his congregation not to pray in the morning, but to take a spiritual bath in the cosmos ...
And in a Catholic bookstore I could point out the new age books that are there exposed, and that some priests and nuns and catechists use delighted.In some cases there are imbued spiritual retreats from these elements.Once in a class I defined the Mass as a sacrifice and said that it is not a party even if it looks like celebration.And after a while he asks me clarification telling me that he was a catechist and that he taught that to the children.And so it could give you many examples of New Age influence on catechesis.
- Is there also syncretism?
- Yes, today it happens that there are people who go to the Catholic Church but also participate in Umbanda rites or believe in reincarnation. Massimo Introvigne, un experto en estos temas, habla de una doppia pertenenza, una doble pertenencia: uno no tiene que dejar de ser católico para ser budista, por ejemplo.
- But the Church does not allow it ...
- No, of course not, but we are currently living a culture that is that of postmodernity, syncretist, and that a few years ago was unthinkable, today is quite frequent.It is the case that people who fall in love with Buddhist doctrine do not feel that they should stop being Catholics for that.The Church does not accept that, you cannot be pantheist and Catholic at the same time, but in postmodern culture the square circles fit that is that the current mentality does not have that principle of non -contradiction, the contradictory becomes conciliable. El autismo espiritual
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-Is New Age an exaltation of individualism?
- Yes, one of the characteristics of this current that I mention in my book is subjectivism, I defined it as a spiritual autism, the New Agecollects the sensitivity that is in the mentality of contemporary man and woman, expressly expresses it, so it fits so well.
- What fails in the church to penetrate this easily?
- Bueno, viene un poco del período posconciliar [por el Concilio Vaticano II], ahí empezaron a aparecer estas cosas y, pese a que en los últimos pontificados, con Juan Pablo II y Benedicto XVI, hubo esfuerzos por enderezar las cosas y en algunos casos se hicieron las cosas muy bien, quedó mucho de eso.There is a Vatican document on this subject, Jesus Christ, bearer of living water.A Christian reflection on the New Age, in whose writing Benedict participated even before being Pope, in 2003, which is very good and very complete.But when the garden is not well cultivated, any yuyo grows.
- Is it optimistic about what Francisco can do?
- I see this pontificate with huge optimism, it will have a series of very important consequences for the Church, for the world and for Argentina too. Hay de todo en el supermercado de la fe
In the New Age there is everything: spiritualism, reincarnation, astrology, tantric eros, alternative medicine, macrobiotics, yoga, umbanda, tarot, Zen Buddhism, UFOs, karma, cabal, etc..Its diffusion is facilitated by the expansion of the global network, which allows a virtual and light bond between groups with common concerns and issues.
It is evident that there is a search for responses to transcendental concerns that, at some point, traditional churches stopped giving.In the words of Roberto Bosca, “the New Age converts seem concerned about the search for the sacred, a search abandoned by a theology primarily concerned about secular problems, with a certain carelessness for liturgical life and prayer, which hasGiven a search in other sources ".
In a way, what Pope Francis says is that the responses to that search are in the Catholic doctrine, but, to put it, he does not do doctrinal concessions to neopantist fashion, as some have been tempted to do some within the Church itself.
Pero no todos se dejan confundir: las declaraciones del músico Bono sobre su fe y su convencimiento de que la llegada de Jesús pone fin a un mundo regido por el karma están en la línea exacta de lo que el papa Francisco quiere afirmar cuando dice que quienes adhieren a estas modas “se saltan la Encarnación”, es decir, Dios hecho hombre.The so -called papal to go to the geographical and existential peripheries of the world is in the antipodes of fashion self -compliance. El documento vaticano contra el nuevo gnosticismo
Published in 2003, it is a text that seeks to alert about "spiritual narcissism" through "a good and deep presentation of the Christian message".The objective is to highlight the points at which this spirituality contrasts with the Catholic faith.These currents arise in a world in which "many people range between certainty and uncertainty" and "look within themselves in search of meaning and strength", turning to alternative institutions, in the hope that they can meet their needsdeeper ".The New Age is "attractive especially because much of what it offers satisfies aspirations, frequently not satisfied by official institutions," admits the document.
The elements of this movement "are perfectly in tune with the models of consumption of societies in which fun and leisure are so important".The document considers this current and worrying current than all other sects, because it is not really organized to make proselytists and therefore allows many to believe that it is possible to mix it with Christianity.
Al presentar el documento, en enero de 2003, el cardenal Paul Poupard daba un ejemplo: “La fe en la resurrección de los muertos es sustituida por la ‘fantaciencia’, con el contacto con los seres queridos desaparecidos y la existencia de una vida suspendida entre cielo y tierra”."It is a typical phenomenon of postmodern culture, based on weak thought, ethical relativism and consumerism," he added.
The Vatican stressed at that time the difficulty in fighting the New Age, because it is not a religion or a true philosophy, but rather a "set of mystical-esoteric beliefs and practices" that is presented as an "anchor of salvation forAll the dissatisfied and disappointed.
