ACTION ALERT: Friends of GDW have been asking “What can we do to help?” Roll up your shirt sleeves and step up to the plate, that’s what. This is a perfect opportunity to “get off the fence”. Below is a sample letter that can be copied and sent, via registered mail and with a copy sent to the Papal Nuncio, to +Bp. Raica regarding the employment of the Diocesan Director of the Tribunal. Please read the prior posts regarding Mr. John Amos and use those resources for composing your letters, or simply copy the sample letter below. Make certain you contact as many friends and relatives as possible and have them sign the letter as well. In any and all cases please treat the Bishop with respect, but be firm in your conviction that his actions in this and future matters will determine how you will support the diocese. Pray before sending. Make sure to select the proper I/WE form and sign with as many signatures as possible. Feel free to change this letter as you see fit, but be honest and humble.
Most Reverend Steven J. Raica
Bishop of Gaylord
611 W. North Street
Gaylord, MI 49735
Your Eminence,
It is with great dismay that I/WE learn that the Director of the diocesan tribunal is also a professed certified instructor of New Age Spirituality, specifically the enneagram. As Fr. Mitch Pacwa has amply demonstrated in articles and a book on New Age practices, the enneagram has origins neither ancient nor verifiable, but rather resembles astrology in praxis. In Jesus Christ The Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the “New Age”, the Pontifical Councils for Culture and For Interreligious Dialogue stated the following:
“An adequate Christian discernment of New Age thought and practice cannot fail to recognize that, like second and third century Gnosticism, it represents something of a compendium of positions that the Church has identified as heterodox. John Paul II warns with regard to the “return of ancient gnostic ideas under the guise of the so-called New Age: We cannot delude ourselves that this will lead toward a renewal of religion. It is only a new way of practicing Gnosticism – that attitude of the spirit that, in the name of a profound knowledge of God, results in distorting His Word and replacing it with purely human words. Gnosticism never completely abandoned the realm of Christianity. Instead, it has always existed side by side with Christianity, sometimes taking the shape of a philosophical movement, but more often assuming the characteristics of a religion or a para-religion in distinct, if not declared, conflict with all that is essentially Christian”.(6) An example of this can be seen in the enneagram, the nine-type tool for character analysis, which when used as a means of spiritual growth introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of the Christian faith.”
Hence, it can be seen that the enneagram is a method of “practicing Gnosticism” and practitioners of Gnosticism have no business on the Marriage Tribunal.
Eminence, please reconsider the employment of Mr. John Amos on the Tribunal. Combined with his inability to remain faithful to his priestly vows, I/WE cannot trust the ability of the Tribunal to adhere to faithful Catholic teaching regarding the indissolubility of valid Catholic marriages.
In response to your letter dated, 8-15-18, “Call us out when our behaviors or words do not correspond with the Heart of Christ”…….
I/WE continue to keep you in our prayers. Please understand that our future support of this diocese in terms of time, talent, and treasure will be a direct reflection of how you handle this and future problems in the diocese.
It is my duty and obligation to inform all in the Diocese of this matter. This is a serious matter that cannot be dismissed.
Yours in Christ,