worth noting . . .

JOHN PAUL II AND THE HUMAN BODY . . . Many Catholic writers and theologians have said that Pope John Paul II’s “theology of the body” is an original contribution to Catholic thought. This month I am pleased to offer you an article on that theology by David Vincent Meconi, S.J., who recently taught philosophy and is now studying theology at Innsbruck, Austria. Our author stresses the “nuptial meaning” of the body and how male and female are ordered to each other. As he reminds us, the Pope teaches that the human person truly finds himself by giving himself to the other in “communion”. 

THE ENNEAGRAM: A NEW FORM OF GNOSTICISM? . . . Most Catholics have never heard of the Enneagram and those who have heard of it probably do not know what it is. The system claims that all human beings fit into one of nine personality types; they are formed at an early age and cannot be changed. In this issue Mr. Christopher Rees, who is now a Redemptorist novice, explains for us what the Enneagram is and evaluates it from the point of view of Catholic theology. He finds it defective and full of errors. He also terms it neo-Calvinistic, neo-Jansenistic and neo-Gnostic. It seems to be another incursion of New Ageism into the Catholic Church.

RETURN TO THE SUPERNATURAL . . . Since the Council most of the good numbers in the Church are down — Mass attendance, baptisms, marriages, births, while the bad numbers are up — divorces, abortions, loss of faith, defections to Protestant groups. What is the reason for this? How do we explain it, especially since we were led to believe that there would be a rebirth of Catholicism after the Council? In this issue Dr. Alice von Hildebrand attempts an answer to the problem. She finds it in the loss of the sense of the supernatural. Many Catholics seem to be confused about the priorities of love of God and love of one’s neighbor.

THE THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA . . . Last year our Holy Father made public the Third Secret of Fatima which has to do with the attempt on the life of the Pope and the sufferings of Catholics in the 20th century. Garry Wills, who calls himself a Catholic, wrote an article in the New York Review of Books in which he tries to discredit the Third Secret and, along with that, the character and veracity of Sister Lucia. In this issue Mr. Edward O’Brien takes issue with Garry Wills’s interpretation both of the facts of the case and the words of Sister Lucia. The Wills article is a typical case of secular media using a dissenting Catholic to trash the Church.