A U.S. apologist writes to a priest who mentions the Enneagram during his homily

03 August 2003

St. Mary Catholic Church

242 North State Street,

Painesville, Ohio 44077

Attn: Rev. Fr. Michael Stalla

Dear Fr. Stalla,

Yesterday evening I attended the 5 P.M. vigil Mass at St. Mary’s wherein you were the celebrant. I am not a parishioner but attend Mass at your parish once or twice a year when in the area. First, I would like to commend you on having such a moving and beautiful Holy Mass. You seem to be a wonderful priest that our diocese is quite fortunate to have. Thank you for answering the call and becoming a priest! You are in my prayers.

The remainder of this letter may seem to be an oxymoron based on what I just said, but I assure you, it is not.

During your otherwise excellent Homily, you mentioned (almost in passing) the Enneagram and where you placed on it – a procrastinator. Fortunately, you did not recommend that Catholics participate in the Enneagram. I have done a considerable amount of research on the Enneagram and have found that it has occult roots. There is no question that it is part of the New Age practices, is contrary to Catholic teachings and should be avoided. Merely mentioning this during your Homily will be accepted as an endorsement by many whom heard you and will be a temptation to look into it.

“The Enneagram originates in contemporary Sufism, Sufism being an offshoot of Islam. Contemporary Sufism, which claims 40 million adherents, has become a mix of pantheism, magic and rationalism with a belief in telepathy, teleportation, foreknowledge, transmigration of souls and a denial of a personal God. The man primarily responsible for transmitting the Enneagram into the West was George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, an Armenian occultist who lived in Russia from 1877 to 1947. For Gurdjieff, the Enneagram had secret powers not particularly allied to personality typology. He believed all knowledge can be included in the Enneagram and with the help of the Enneagram it can be interpreted.”

“For example, on the cover of the Hurley-Dobson book, What’s My Type? readers are enticed to use the Enneagram in order to: Identify the secret promise of your personality type; Break out of your self-defeating patterns; and Transform your weaknesses into unimagined strengths. The more you read about it, the more it begins to resemble a college-educated horoscope; and that is not compatible with Catholic doctrine or practice. The more one runs into claims of an ‘upward spiral of self-transformation’, the further we seem to be away from Christianity and the more we get involved in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. As a tool for Spiritual Direction, it seems to me most deficient, even dangerous. The Enneagram is really built on a theology (?)-perhaps ideology-of self-renewal and self-regeneration that is a far cry from (perhaps contradiction of) the Gospel teaching (read John 12:24 here).”

Do not the above quotations seem to conflict with Holy Scripture? “Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, or one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of such abominations The Lord, your God, is driving these nations out of your way.”

If the Internet is available to you, there is a website that has several excellent articles written by Catholic priests and laity about the dangers of the Enneagram. The site is http://www.petersnet.net/. I get the site through the Yahoo search engine. The first choice in the menu will be Petersnet: Home. Click this choice. At the top of the page is a search mode. Type in Enneagram and ‘Go’ and it will take you to a list of articles.

Sincerely in Christ,

Ronald Smith

11701 Maplewood Road, Chardon, Ohio 44024-8482 Email: hfministry@roadrunner.com.

Categories: new age