Letters

Enneagram

Br Con Moloney CFC

Contents - Dec 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Christmas: time for Christians to stand up! - Michael Gilchrist Synod on the Eucharist sets agenda for Benedict's pontificate - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World PRAYER: Melbourne initiative: a spiritual approach can defeat drug addiction - Anh Nguyen Episcopacy: Archbishop Chaput of Denver: America's plain-speaking Pope's man - Peter J. Boyer Formation: St John Vianney's blueprint for the priesthood back in favour - Fr John Cihak The Eucharist: gift of an interventionist God - Chris Hilder Cinema: New movie's balanced presentation of exorcism: The Exorcism of Emily Rose - Shannon Donahoo (reviewer) Letters: Medical research - Maureen Federico Letters: Enneagram - Br Con Moloney CFC Letters: Vatican II myths - Peter D. Howard Letters: Stem cell therapy - Brian Harris Letters: Evangelisation - Michael Dunlea Letters: Church architecture - Barry Ireland Letters: Priestly celibacy - Philip Holberton Letters: Catholic journal Letters: EWTN tapes - Daphne Thorose Books: The Cube and the Cathedral, by George Weigel - John Ballantyne (reviewer) Books: Good News About Sex And Marriage, by Christopher West - Kerrie Allen Books: In Memory of Me / Come to Me, My Children, by Christine McCarthy - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Christmas reading from AD Books Reflection: Journey of the Magi and the search for truth - Cardinal George Pell

I was pleased to read the letter by Leo Leitch (November AD2000) in which he points to the danger of the Enneagram that is still widely promoted in the Brisbane Archdiocese.

Quite some years ago I undertook a course on the Enneagram and even became an enthusiastic supporter of this system that purports to reveal to the candidate the nine personality types and their strengths and weaknesses.

Further down the track I came across the writings of Fr Mitch Pacwa SJ. He clearly showed that the Enneagram was brought into existence around the year 1900 by a George Gurdjieff from Georgia and that the claim it was a 2,000-year-old Sufi system is absolute nonsense. Father Pacwa brought me to the realisation that the Enneagram was nothing more than a modern myth and could easily cause psychological harm to those who embrace it.

Those considering taking on the Enneagram should investigate Father Pacwa's book, Catholics and the New Age, which is still available from the John XXIII Co-op Bookshop (PO Box 22, Ormond, Vic 3204).

If these are accessed with an open mind, they should cause disillusionment as to the supposed merits of the Enneagram as well as a realisation of its dangers.

BR CON MOLONEY CFC
Virginia, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 11 (December 2005 - January 2006), p. 13