Editor’s Note: Following up on our recent reply about Centering Prayer, we are pleased to publish the following comments from Connie Rossini, author of a book and editor of a website on Centering Prayer. Here are her comments:
“I just read your Catholic Replies column on Centering Prayer. I have been studying the subject intently for the past two years or more. I authored the book Is Centering Prayer Catholic? Fr. Thomas Keating Meets Teresa of Avila and the CDF. Two of my articles on Centering Prayer have appeared in the National Catholic Register. I have also recently set up a website (iscenteringprayercatholic.wordpress.com). The Quick Questions page spends 3,500 words answering the most common questions people have about Centering Prayer.
“For a little background on me, I was OCDS for 17 years, until I was unable to continue getting to monthly meetings because of our move away from the Twin Cities. I have written a spirituality column for diocesan newspapers in La Crosse, Wis., and New Ulm, Minn., for about a decade, starting under then-Bishop Raymond Burke. My book Trusting God With St. Therese was reviewed in The Wanderer by Donal Foley in 2014.
“Your answer on Centering Prayer gives the impression that it is acceptable for some people at a certain stage of their spiritual life. Unfortunately, Fr. Thomas Dubay also left that impression in at least two of his books. I hate to disagree with Fr. Dubay on anything. I can only assume that he had just a surface knowledge of Centering Prayer, as most people do (at best).
“Centering Prayer does have some similarities to what is traditionally known as acquired recollection, but it is not the same thing. It’s important to use the right terms because confusion abounds. The term Centering Prayer was coined by Fr. Thomas Keating, who along with Fathers William Menninger and Basil Pennington created the method. Centering Prayer is not the least bit orthodox. It is Eastern meditation under another name.
“Let me give you some examples of problematic statements from Fr. Keating’s Open Mind, Open Heart. These quotes are from the 20th anniversary edition. Fr. Keating defines original sin as ‘a way of explaining the universal experience of coming to full reflective self-consciousness without the inner conviction or experience of union with God’ (p. 189). ‘Contemplation…is not so much a gift as a given’ (p. 40). ‘The method consists in letting go of every kind of thought during prayer, even the most devout thoughts’ (p. 21). ‘God and our true Self are not separate. Though we are not God, God and our true Self are the same thing’ (p. 158).
“Practicing Centering Prayer leads to non-dual thinking, as in the last quote. That’s because the emphasis is on consciousness, not conversion. Nor is there much talk about Jesus. Fr. Keating also has numerous problematic statements in YouTube videos and online interviews. In one video that was just released in June, he says that contemplation ‘resolves all opposites,’ and in particular it ‘moves beyond the dichotomy of good and evil.’ In another video, he says that while he personally thinks assisted suicide is a bad idea, sometimes people have ‘no other choice’ and it may even be God’s will for them, a way for them to pursue detachment. (A passage in Open Mind, Open Heart indicates his view of death may be more Buddhist than Christian, seeing it as more or less an illusion.)
“He also says in various online interviews that there are no real differences between Eastern religions and Christianity — we just use different words. He is a ‘spiritual adviser’ for The Garrison Institute. Housed in a former monastery, the Institute appears to have an enthroned Buddha sitting where there was once an altar, as you can see on this page https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/about-us/our-purpose/.
“In short, the errors associated with Centering Prayer are numerous and grave. Some people of goodwill may make their own version of Centering Prayer and so make it orthodox. But then it is not really Centering Prayer and should not be called by that name. Nearly every caution in the CDF [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] document On Some Aspects of Christian Meditation applies to Centering Prayer as taught by Fathers Keating, Menninger, and Pennington, and by Keating’s organization Contemplative Outreach. Remember, these are the men who created the method and coined the term.”
Q. Did you not once upon a time have a column or two about the Harry Potter books? They’re back in the news again, and there’s a whole new generation of kids who are being targeted. Can you let me know of some Catholic critiques? — T.L., Colorado.
A. We have never read any of the Harry Potter books and don’t recall having mentioned them in Catholic Replies. For critiques of the books, Google “Criticism of Harry Potter Books.”
Q. Bishops of the United States and Western Europe support immigration to their respective countries from the Third World. They seem little concerned whether the immigrants are legal. Our Pope seems to support this endeavor.
From my perspective, the Third World is launching a vicious attack on Western civilization by introducing a completely alien culture and values. Such practices as honor killing, polygamy, demeaning treatment of females, killing of domestic animals for sacrifice and food are being foisted upon the established Western societies. These immigrants demand not only approval of their conduct, but also government subsidies for food and shelter. All these things are spotlighted in the positive focus of “diversity.” I believe this is a critical clash of opposite cultures which will lead to the plunging of Western civilization into a dark age. Please comment. — J.D.H., California.
A. The problem is how does one balance the obligation expressed by Jesus to welcome the stranger with the fact that some of the “strangers” are intent on wrecking the countries to which they have been welcomed? Unlike previous waves of immigration where those coming to a foreign country sought to assimilate themselves and become productive citizens of their new land, many immigrants today isolate themselves in enclaves where their own law takes precedence over the country’s laws and where they become not productive citizens but dangerous enemies of freedom and harmony.
One spokesman for radical Islamic terrorism recently urged his followers in other countries to “smash their heads with stones, butcher them with knives, run them over with cars, throw them from high places, suffocate or poison them.”
While the Pope and some bishops seem to give unqualified support for all refugees and immigrants, wouldn’t it make more sense to show some prudence in determining which ones are legitimate refugees and which are intent on harming the countries which admit them? This is the course advocated by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2241):
“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants’ duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws, and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”
Yet anyone who suggests such a prudent course of action is branded as a nativist or a xenophobe, as a cruel and heartless foe of innocent refugee children, or as an opponent of peaceful coexistence with, for example, Islam. One Catholic prelate who does not buy these slurs is Raymond Cardinal Burke, who has said that “there’s no question that Islam wants to govern the world.”
In a recent interview with Religious News Service, Cardinal Burke said that when Muslims “become a majority in any country, then they have the religious obligation to govern that country. If that’s what the citizens of a nation want, well, then, they should just allow this to go on. But if that’s not what they want, then they have to find a way to deal with it. There is no place for other religions…as long as Islam has succeeded in establishing its sovereignty over the nations and over the world.”
The cardinal said that “it is important for Christians to realize the radical differences between Islam and Christianity in matters concerning their teaching about God, about conscience, etc. If you really understand Islam, you understand that the Church really should be afraid of it.”
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