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Can Freedom Be Hazardous to your Spiritual Health?

by Annalisa & Giampiero Cara

In this article about the spiritual transformation that's currently taking place in Italy, the "Cradle of Catholicism", and the obstacles it is encountering, we all can find a reflection of our own inner struggle to overcome old habits of thought that interfere with our inner growth. And from the role of the Catholic Church in this story a question arises: do we really need mediators in spiritual matters?

"Smoking can be hazardous to your health." We've all read this warning on cigarettes' packets. But would you ever expect to find a similar warning on a book's cover, referred to your spiritual health? No? Then come to Italy, enter a bookstore and pick the Italian edition of one of Anthony De Mello's books.

On the back cover you will read: "In august 1998, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith decided that Anthony De Mello's positions are not compatible with catholic faith and can cause serious damages." The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith is an organ of the Catholic Church that bears a disquieting resemblance to the notorious Index of the XVI century. And since he was a catholic priest, a Jesuit, if De Mello were alive today he would probably have been excommunicated by the Pope John Paul II (like another catholic priest, the Italian Mario Mazzoleni, has been recently, guilty of having written a book on Sathya Sai Baba). But why?

Any open-minded person would have problems in understanding what damages beautiful and inspiring books like The Song of the Bird and The Heart of the Enlightened, full of faith in the divinity that's inside any man, could ever cause to anybody. And why now, anyway? Why has the Congregation decided that De Mello's books are dangerous only in 1998, since he died in 1987 and hundreds of thousands of catholics all over the world - Italian ones included - have already read his books?

Again, you should come to Italy to understand. Or, better, you should know at least part of the religious history of this country, also to comprehend what obstacles the spiritual transformation of Italian people is encountering at the dawning of the new millennium.

The New Age in the Cradle of Catholicism

To cut a very long story short, since the IV century a.D., when the Church, after an agreement with the roman Emperor Constantine, officially established its headquarters in Rome, Italy (even long before it became a nation) has always been the cradle of Christianity first, and then - after the Reformation in the XVI century - of Catholicism, and the Catholic Church has always considered spiritual freedom a heresy to punish, rather than an aim to achieve.

The days of the Inquisition are definitely over, but although it has become increasingly tolerant over the years, the Holy See has always used the means at its disposal to "protect" believers from the "danger" of free thinking, at least in spiritual matters.

So when, in the Eighties, the first echoes of the New Age movement, as a paradigm of spiritual renovation, resounded in this country, you could expect that, sooner or later, this new and spiritually liberating current of thought would have incurred the censure of the "guardians" of catholic faith. It was just a matter of time.

And in fact, it took several years for the axe to fall, but finally it did. In the first months of 1998, rumours began to spread about the new encyclical the Pope was writing, in which he would condemn the New Age movement.

No surprise. The only question was: "Why has the Church waited for so long?" The answer probably is that, at the beginning, Vatican authorities tried to ignore the movement, or even to appreciate its general focus on spirituality, thinking it would have been just a passing fad, an exotic plant which needed Protestant climates and therefore couldn't take root in Italy.

But, especially in the second half of the Nineties, New Age ideas continued to spread through books, magazines, meetings, exhibitions, seminars, until they even caught the attention of the most powerful media, the television.

Holy Censorship

That's why, at a certain point, the Holy See realized that it couldn't keep on twiddling its metaphorical thumbs. Something had to be done.

The most effective part of this something was the spreading of rumours. Just hearing that the Pope could have condemned New Age in his new encyclical was enough for some of the "New Age publishers" that flourished in recent years.

The publisher of one of the New Age magazines we contributed to, for example, was so scared at the idea that the Pope didn't like New Age he even decided to change his magazine name and orientation, and abruptly shifted its attention from new spirituality to more or less alternative medicine. Of course, we quit our contribution as soon as we heard of this sudden and ill-motivated shift.

Someone else even thought of changing the name of the movement from New Age to Next Age, focusing more on the practical aspects of the new ideas and skating a little over the spiritual side.

The media continued to give attention to the movement, but took a more critical stand towards it. They even implied it was somewhat dangerous for the minds of the people involved, probably intending to anticipate the papal condemnation in this way.

But when the eagerly awaited encyclical actually came out in october 1998 with the title Fides et ratio (Faith and reason in latin), it wasn't as severe against the New Age movement as many thought it would be.

Marino Parodi, an Italian writer and expert in spiritual matters who tries to balance an open-minded interest in new spiritual movements with his catholic orientation, told us that "at first the Pope really wanted to put people on their guard against New Age, but then he thought better, maybe also for political reasons, and decided to take a milder position. In my opinion, now the Church doesn't really want to condemn New Age; rather, it wants to study it, probably to find a common ground and to better understand where the man of the third millennium is going spiritually".

Maybe it's true, but the Pope's condemnation still stands in at least one point: he firmly rejects the idea of man's independent self-realization, the possibility of a direct relationship with an inner God, which wouldn't require the mediation of the Church. Unfortunately, this point is essential to New Age thinking, for it represents the basis for the spiritual development of man in the new millennium.

When the Going Gets Tough...

Anyway, the ecclesiastical censure did at least one good thing. It scared off people who used the term New Age just because they thought it would sell (and in fact, it was applied also in advertising to promote anything from wines to cars), and not because they believed it meant something.

It's true, though, that little has remained in some areas, like the press for example. At the moment, we don't know of any reliable, sincere New Age magazine in Italy, at least at the national level.

For years, we have written for several "New Age magazines" we didn't particularly like, just because we thought there wasn't anything better and we had to take pot luck. But finally we decided to quit when we realized that we didn't have to settle for less than we wanted: if there wasn't for us a real New Age magazine in Italy, then we had to create one.

And we just did. It is the online magazine you're reading just now, freely accessible on the Web in two languages (Italian and English), and open to the contribution of anybody who sincerily thinks, like we do, that the New Age movement, no matter how you want to call it, is a sign of a real transformation taking place inside us and inevitably extending to the world around us, since this world is created by our perception.

No Mediators Required

It is a new faith in the possibility to become fully aware of our unlimited potential, a new belief that, no matter how things went in the past, they can be changed, and can be changed here and now.

We know that, even if the present situation can be difficult, there are many people in Italy who share this vision. We see it in the ever growing interest in New Age books, music and seminars, in vegetarianism, in organic and cruelty-free products, in alternative medicine and self healing, and in communities based on the practical application of new spiritual principles, which are spreading all over the country.

It's true that most of the New Age books published here are translated from other languages, because an original New Age thinker from Italy has not appeared yet. But ultimately it doesn't matter. We don't really have to worry about the shadows, because the light will dissolve them at once.

We only have to intensify the light, to let it shine through all our fears and limiting beliefs, until we discover its true source inside ourselves. Then we will not worry about what anybody says about anything, because we will know the truth directly. No mediators required.

Copyright © 1999 Annalisa & Giampiero Cara