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Recently, my two oldest sons (ages 18 and 17) have been dating
two sisters whose family has been critical of the concept of "guilt" in the Catholic faith.
Yesterday, the two girls brought in a book called:
"The Enneagrams"
by Maria Beesing, O.P. Robert J.
Nogosek, C.S.C. and Patrick H. O'Leary, S.J.
I'm troubled by this book and would like your thoughts about
the risks or, if any, the rewards of using this method of "self
discovery". If your thoughts are like mine, then the use
of enneagrams is not consistent with Catholic teachings.
Do you have any suggestions on how to explain its problems
to my sons?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Rod and Cindy
{
I'm
troubled by this book: "The Enneagrams". What are
your thoughts? }
Richard replied:
Hi, Rod/Cindy —
The "Enneagram" scheme of personality types comes with
claims that it is based on ancient wisdom from Sufi Muslim mystics,
but there isn't any evidence that it is any older than the Chilean
occultist Oscar Ichazo who developed it.
Besides having a dishonest historical basis, it doesn't have a scientific
basis either; in fact, only a handful of psychology researchers have
found it worth studying. In contrast, the more accepted (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality
type classification has been used and evaluated in
hundreds of research studies.
Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. (a frequent presenter on EWTN, who is knowledgeable
about new-age movements) has written an article about the Enneagram;
you can find a copy on Catholic Culture.
The document library on EWTN also has a few articles on
the subject. You can run a search there for the word "enneagram" to
find them. In one:
Rick Kephart explains how Enneagram proponents hide their unorthodox
doctrines behind a facade of Catholic-sounding terminology.
Fr. Mitch Pawac also offers a 30 minute audio talk on the enneagram (Number 24) on the
EWTN web site.
I hope this helps! God bless —
Richard
John replied:
Hi, Rod —
Hi, Cindy —
Beyond the point Richard has made, I'd like to address
one other point you mentioned. Your sons are dating girls
who question Catholic truth.
Why are they dating them?
After all dating, even at an early age, is for the purposes
eventually finding a mate for life. While dating non-Catholics,
or non-Christians is not forbidden, it is not wise. Your
sons can become emotionally attached and later have to
make choices that may cause them pain. Even though the
Church gives dispensations for interfaith marriages,
and yes, I realize this may be a long way off. it is
not always the best idea, in particular, if the spouse
to be is not at least a God-fearing Christian. I'd go
much further and suggest that you'd advise your boys
to seek out solid Catholic women, as opposed to your
run of the mill "Church, two or three weeks out of a four-Sunday month variety" . Scripture gives us the following advice.
14 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what
do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or
what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What
harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does
a believer have in common with an unbeliever?
2 Corinthians 6:14-15
Hope this helps.
Under His Mercy,
John DiMascio
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