From ........ Religion Watch

October 1995

CATHOLIC USE OF ENNEAGRAMS GROWING, QUESTIONED

While enneagrams have often been associated with the New Age movement, the use of this esoteric personality typing system is also finding a large following among American Catholics, according to 'Common Boundary' [September/October], a magazine on spirituality and psychotherapy. The enneagram was developed by mystical scholar Oscar Ichazo as a way of classifying core personality motivations or "sins."

The system was introduced among Catholics by Jesuits who had studied the technique in the 1970s and today "Catholics are attending workshops.....in droves as well as devouring books and tapes on the subject," writes Tori Deangelis. There is some debate as to why Catholics are drawn to enneagrams. The system provides Catholics with "an easy recognition....and translation of the language" of their religion, with a stress on virtues and sins, says Clarence Thomson, a former Catholic priest who edits the "Enneagram Educator" newsletter.

For liberal Catholics and those influenced by New Age currents, the enneagram encourages a less strict view of sin, viewing spirituality as a journey out of unconscious destructive life patterns. Enneagram founder Ichazo, however, criticizes Jesuits and others who have "lifted randomly from his work and in the process ended up touting a theory that, as conceived, is not very Catholic at all." He says that Catholics tend to underplay the system's emphasis on sexuality and humanity's potential for divinity. [Common Boundary, 5272 River Rd., SuiTe 650, Bathesda, MD 20816]

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Religion Watch

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From ............ National Catholic Reporter

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