St Catherine Of Siena, Pray For Us

A post by Msgr Charles Pope about St Catherine of Siena caught my attention earlier this week. One of her achievements, according to Msgr Pope, was to end the Avingnon papacy entirely by writing letters of complaint. This is a practice that's always been dear to my heart. Sometimes it gets results, but even when it's ignored, I know deep down that people have been tweaked. This in itself is deeply satisfying.

Msgr Pope suggests this is a remedy that laity should revive, and I certainly agree. Inspired by Msgr Pope and St Catherine of Siena, I sent the following:

September 25, 2018

Fr. Joe Moons, CP, Provincial Superior
The Passionists of Holy Cross Province
660 Busse Highway
Park Ridge, IL 60068

Dear Fr Moons,

I attended a weekend retreat at the Passionist Mater Dolorosa Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, CA, September 21-23, 2018. I learned that the center has a new retreat director, Dr Michael Cunningham, who has radically changed the focus of retreats since his arrival this past summer.

What’s of concern to me is that Dr Cunningham has clearly and wholeheartedly embraced the “centering prayer” movement, which he and other Mater Dolorosa staff represent as coming from the desert fathers, St Theresa of Avila, and St John of the Cross. However, there is nothing traditional about the movement, as it was developed in the 1970s at St Joseph Abbey in Spencer, MA, in consultation with Buddhist representatives.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has addressed these issues, especially in the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of Christian Meditation, October 15, 1989. It quotes St John Paul II emphasizing that St Theresa of Avila specifically rejected the type of meditation that the “centering prayer” movement practices.

But even if one might consider that such practices could be of optional interest to retreatants, a problem that I see is that “centering prayer” was in effect compulsory to all attendees unless they chose to stay away from all conferences, and homilies and prayer sessions in the chapel made frequent references as well.

I have a particular concern that, when I cited sections of the Catechism that contradicted statements Passionist Dcn Manuel Valencia made in the conferences, he refused to consider them and strongly implied to the attendees that I was a “skunk” who “wanted to spray on everything”.

At minimum, it seems to me that retreatants should be advised at the start of the retreat that they are being exposed to highly controversial practices that some have suggested leave believers open to demonic influence. An alternate program really should be provided to retreatants who do not wish to be exposed to this controversial material.

However, I think a greater concern is that this material is simply Buddhist and not Christian and not appropriate for a Catholic retreat.

Very truly yours,

John Bruce

I haven't heard back from Fr Moons, and I don't know if I will. From a e-mails I've received from Dr Cunningham and Dcn Valencia, though, the powers that be are aware of my concerns, and these guys have been tweaked.