SEPTEMBER 21, 2016
WCCM: Ecumenical-Buddhist-New Age “Christian Meditation” institutionalized in the Archdiocese of Bombay
Registered Office: Mount Carmel Church, Bandra, Mumbai
The WCCM is the World Community for Christian Meditation. IT HAS NO CANONICAL RECOGNITION.
Further, according to an August 17, 2011 letter from the Benedictine Abbot Primate Dr. Notker Wolf OSB, its current leader Fr. Laurence Freeman is NO LONGER A BENEDICTINEMONK though its Indian proponents Fr. Joe Pereira and Christopher Mendoncacontinue to use his name with the OSB suffix.
Fr. Joe Pereira is the founder of an NGO called KRIPA Foundation that promotes yoga, a Hindu meditation system and other New Age stuff like Jungian psychology. Christopher Mendonca is its main spokesperson.
Fr. Joe Pereira is the Indian National Coordinator of the WCCM.
This so-called “Christian Meditation” is not Christian but Buddhist, ecumenical, and New Age.
The Examiner, the official weekly of the Archdiocese of Bombay, is the de facto mouthpiece of both KRIPA and WCCM. All archdiocesan facilites are at their disposal.
Two successive Cardinal Archbishops of Bombay have given full and open support to KRIPA/WCCM.
Since I have reported on it in great detail, especially the first in the list (see the list of files at the end of the present file), I will not go into much detail here on why “Christian Meditation” is New Ageand not Catholic.
[Of course, as one will see, there are many other reports in the FR. JOE PEREIRA-KRIPA-WCCM series.]
Moreover, I have already, just yesterday, released a direct sequel to that report:
WCCM-NEW AGE CHRISTIAN MEDITATION INSTITUTIONALIZED IN BOMBAY ARCHDIOCESE
The present report, part 2, (prepared with information retrieved from the Kripa Foundation blog),is a further update thatcontinues to document that the WCCM-KRIPA combine is hopelessly New Age, Hinduised-- apart from the images, I present a sampling of Fr. Joe Pereira’s “homilies” for the reader -- and irretrievably associated with the heretical “Catholic” ashrams movement… and yet most shockingly is blessed and encouraged by the very Cardinals and bishops of Bombay Archdiocese, and many other archbishops, bishops, priests and nuns who should instead be warning the faithful against these spiritual dangers.
I have tried to present the information retrieved from the KRIPA blog in groups and inchronological order.
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Fr. Joe Pereira teaching yoga at the JDV Seminary, the Papal Athenaeum, Pune
Kripa Foundation Iyengar Yoga Intensive at Pune
February 26, 2011
Kripa Foundation Iyengar Yoga Intensive workshop with the students of the Bandra Iyengar Yoga community was held at Pune. A visit to Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar was the highlight of the workshop.
The beautiful new premises of the post graduate wing of JDV (Papal Athenaeum) offered an opportunity to try out standing Bhismasana too. The most Indian Chapel with the centre figure of a Dancing Jesus was ideal for including the Mass within the workshop.The daily programme consisted ofthree hours of Asanas, two hours of Pranayama and two hours of Meditation.
NEW COMMUNITY BIBLE 02-THE PAPAL SEMINARY, PUNE, INDIAN THEOLOGIANS, AND THE CATHOLIC ASHRAMS
Note the aberrations at this major Catholic seminary where Fr. Joe Pereira conducted his yoga workshop.
The tabernacle has been relegated to the side.
The mandatory crucifix is neither behind the altar large and visible to all nor on the altar at Mass.
Instead, to the side there is the oxymoron of a “risen Christ” or “resurrexifix” superimposed on a cross. The reminder of the salvific death of Jesus has been subtly eliminated. (See also page 9)
But that is the new norm in the post-Vatican II Church:
THE RISEN CHRIST ON A CROSS
THE CRUCIFIX IS GRADUALLY VANISHING FROM OUR CHURCHES
NO CRUCIFIX BEHIND ALTAR IN BISHOP THOMAS DABRES CHURCHES
QUO VADIS PAPA FRANCISCO 35-RESURREXIFIXES AND A STRANGE CROZIER One of a series of four
DISTORTED CRUCIFIX INSTALLED AT ST MARYS CHURCH DUBAI-02 One of a series of four
Fr. Pereira’s squatting-Mass “table” with the idol of theHindu deity Nataraja in the background
Fr. Joe conducts Intense Kripa Foundation Iyengar Yoga in Frieburg
June 8, 2014
“After Every Yoga Practice Fr. Joe celebrates The Eucharist with the Group. This Eucharistic celebration was in Frieburg.”
This is both blasphemous and sacrilegious. Here he is on his yoga mat prior to setting up the table for Mass on the same site.I can confidently suppose that, as personally witnessed by me at “Masses” in the Catholic Ashrams, anyone, regardless of their religious affiliation or spiritual condition, may receive Holy Communion at Fr. Pereira’s Masses just so long as they practise yoga under his tutelage.
Squatting Indian rite Mass where yoga mats are the new pews
Says Fr. Joe to Catholics in Brazil -" You don't need to leave the church to practice yoga."
October 17, 2014
WAS JESUS A YOGI? SYNCRETISM AND INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE-ERROL FERNANDES
NBCLC-HARBINGER OF THE INDIAN RITE MASS AND LITURGICAL ABUSE
THE TWELVE POINTS OF ADAPTATION FOR THE INDIAN RITE MASS-WAS A FRAUD PERPETRATED ON INDIAN CATHOLICS?
THE PAGANISATION OF THE LITURGY IN INDIA-C B ANDRADE
**
Images of Fr. Joe doing what he does best (apart from consorting with celebrities):
Is Jesus Christ a yogi, even the Supreme Yogi? Fr. Joe repeatedly asserts that He is (previous page).
Christ the Supreme Yogi- Article by Fr Joe in Times of India on 10th April 2009
April 12, 2009
When an Indian reads the gospels for the first time, one is impressed by the energy that radiates from the person of Jesus. William Johnston in his Mystical Theology says that it is a reminder of the `ki' the `chi', the prana, the energy that forms the very basis of Asian Culture and religion. Energy goes out of Jesus when he heals the sick and casts out demons. Light, blinding light, radiates from his body and clothing when he is transfigured on Mount Tabor.
On Good Friday, as we recall his last days on earth, as he says, "I am'' in response to those who came to arrest him, the crowd falls to the ground overpowered by his magnetic presence. And finally with a burst of energy he dies as recorded by the evangelists, "crying out with a loud voice, he yielded up the Spirit'' (Mark 15, 37).
Those Christians who practise Iyengar Yoga as a path way to God and as contemplative prayer, do consider Jesus as a supreme example of a Yogi who claims that the "Father and I are One'' and prays that we may be one as he and the Father. This journey is absolutely yogic. For his call to discipleship is, "if you wish to be my disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me''. It is a lifelong process like the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies to bear much fruit. When Bill W, the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous described addiction as "self-will running riot'' he was referring to the third step of the Twelve Step programme which suggests, "to make one's will and life over to the God of one's understanding''. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the prayer of Jesus was, "Father if it is possible let this chalice of suffering pass away but not my will but thine be done.''
The Supreme Sadhana is a way of the Cross. Iyengar always repeats his own journey of Yoga as "Pain being my Master''. It is by dying to oneself that one is born to eternal life. This energy is at work in the world even today. In the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, it is said that, "Christ is now at work in the hearts of men and women through the energy of the Spirit. But the greatest energy and the greatest gift is love. For "greater love than this no one has than to lay down one's life for one's loved ones''. And again, "If I speak in the language of mortals and angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong and clanging cymbal'' (I Cor, 13, 1). For as St John tells us, "God is love''.
In the process of dying to oneself lies the pathway of forgiveness. In the world of growing individualism and self-righteousness, the path of forgiveness demands a supreme act of surrender. To extend this love and understanding even to one's enemies by finding an alternative to "a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye'' demands a unique sense of transcendence into the realm of the 'Purusha'. It is only from that realm can one interpret the words of the crucified Jesus, "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.'' Only an act of total 'Ishvara-pranidhana', the final 'Niyama' can generate the energy to utter such words of love at the height of agony. Paradoxically as a supreme yogi, Christ had entered into the final state of 'Anandamaya-kosha' (the blissful body) for his cry of forgiveness itself was a cry of Joy and Resurrection at the victory over sin and death.
As Fr Tony D'Mello(sic) who often spoke like a Sufi Mystic would say, "If you `look' at the serene countenance of the crucified Saviour, you may see a `laughing Buddha'!''
Fr. Joe Pereira’s narrative is chock full of New Age-ese. The Vatican Document of February 3, 2003, on the New Age explains this concept of cosmic energy, chi, ki, as esoteric and occult. In explain Christ’s miracles in such terms, the priest is denying the divinity and power of the Son of God. He even trivializes the mystery of the Trinity. How do the bishops let him get away with it? Wait to read his “homilies”!
Jesus is not, never was, a yogi. Briefly, a yogi is one who strives through renouncing the world (yama, niyama), physical contortions (asanas) at times using mantras, breathing of prana (pranayama), going inward through meditation on nothing, and ascends three higher stages finally uniting with an impersonal “god” into which he merges, with the “enlightenment that he and god are one. Jesus did none of that.
Fr. Pereira is a liar. So are all who claim or depict Jesus as a yogi.
Jesuit Fr. Tony de Mello was a virtual Buddhist at the time of his sudden and premature death.
FR ANTHONY DE MELLO-WRITINGS BANNED BY THE CHURCH
FR ANTHONY DE MELLO-WRITINGS BANNED BY THE CHURCH
Meeting the World Community of Christian Meditation (WCCM), in Brazil
October 8, 2009
This post is included only to document the close alliance between KRIPA and WCCM. In Pereira, they merge.
This blog post is an advertisement for a book:
The Journey of a Priest - Book by Fr Bill
May 4, 2010
“Fr Bill” is Fr. William Whittier.Who is he?
[
A 5-Day Intensive Voice Dialogue training program was held at Kripa Foundation - Vasai from 5th to 9th May 2008. This program was conducted by Rev. Fr. William Whittier, U.S.A.
The program was based on the teachings of Hal Stone PhD and Sidra L. Stone PhD, U.S.A and touches upon the different personalities that rule a person's life.
INTENSIVE VOICE DIALOGUE TRAINING PROGRAM
Intensive Voice Dialogue Training Program
Date: 5th to 9th May 2008
Venue:Guruji B.K. Iyengar Hall, Kripa Foundation, Vasai
Resource Person:Rev. Fr. William O. Whittier
Participants: Counselors and Staff of Kripa Foundation centres in the Western Region (Pune, Andheri, Bandra, Vasai, Mangalore and Goa), Delhi and Imphal … A similar program was held in Imphal in the month of April 2008, and attended by staff from North-Eastern region. […]]
He is WCCM. From the web site of the Camaldoli Benedictines who are 100% New Age:
Welcome To Fr. Bill Whittier's Global Website
A Tribute to Bede Griffiths
I write this to share in the 10th anniversary of Bede Griffiths' death as celebrated by the World Community for Christian Meditation at the University of Reading, England this August 2003.
wccm.org/BedeGriffiths.html
Bede Griffiths and my life journey
EXTRACT: Forty five years ago Bede Griffiths touched my life when I was a young seminarian at the St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. I read and reread his autobiography, The Golden String. Little did I know or he know that my life journey would take me from his inspiration to being open to Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Teilhard de Chardin, John Main, Thomas Merton, Bill W. and AASpirituality, Drs. Hal and Sidra Stoneand many others of this caliber.
His broadness of vision opened me to the essential core of all world religions and to see the unity at that core, a God who is love poured forth in the Cave of our Heart by the Holy Spirit as Paul teaches in Romans 5.I putthis truth in different terms coming from the Hindu tradition. In the Upanishadsthey speak of the spirit of the One who created the universe as dwelling in our heart. This same spirit is the One who in silence is loving us all…
-Fr. Bill Whittier, Written at AssumptionCollege, Manila, Philippines, April 24, 2003
Now, we know. Fr. Bill Whittier is part of the WCCM organization, a "Christian Meditator", a disciple not only of John Main and Bede Griffiths, but also influenced by the teachings of theZen BuddhistThich Nhat Hanh, the world’s leading New Ager Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,Trappist monk Thomas Merton who was actually a proponent and Master of Zen meditation,etc.
This New Age priest is training KRIPA staff who then contaminate others whom they treat in their centres; his book is advertised for and sold through KRIPA/Fr. Joe Pereira.
WCCM website Launched
kripafoundation.blogspot.in/2010/05/wccm-website-launched.html
May 20, 2010
This link is included only to document the close alliance between KRIPA and WCCM. In Pereira, they merge.
Lecture by Fr Joe at St.Mary's University – Calgary
October 6, 2010
Fr Joe illustrated through his presentation and lecture how Bede Griffiths pioneered this spirit which made the Church fully at home in India's culture and ethos.He explored how Bede and Mother Teresa's approaches complemented each other and impacted the masses through their unique blend of contemplation and selfless service. Fr Joe highlighted how Bede Griffiths fostered genuine interfaith dialogue and shared his own personal encounters with people from different faiths.
Fr. Bede Griffiths OSB, a Camaldoli Benedictine, pioneered the heretical, New Age “Catholic” ashrams movement in India. His Indian rite “Masses” were travesties of the Holy Mass. Western New Agers lived in his Shantivanam, Saccidananda Ashram and some wrote their theses there. His legacy lives on in the Hinduisation of the Indian Church and inspires many like Fr. Joe Pereira.
CATHOLIC ASHRAMS
CATHOLIC ASHRAMS AND THE CAMALDOLI BENEDICTINES
Fr. Joe Pereira celebrates the birthday of Krishna, the avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu:
Gokul Ashtami celebrated at Kripa Vasai
August 25, 2011
:
Krishna Janmashtami also known as Krishnashtami or Gokulashtami, or sometimes simply as Janmashtami, is an annual celebration of the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu.(See page 9)
EAST MEETS WEST- Fr Joe teaches yoga to exchange students from Germany
February 1, 2012
Fr. Joe Pereira sporting the Hindu “OM” while doing yoga(See pages 7,10)
The group was accompanied by Fr. Anthony Fernandes, Director of Vocation and Youth, Archdiocese of Bombay.
CARDINAL OSWALD GRACIAS SAYS THAT CATHOLICS MAY NOT CHANT THE OM MANTRA
MANTRAS, 'OM' OR 'AUM' AND THE GAYATRI MANTRA
Fr. Joe Pereira performs Hindu pooja
THE FESTIVAL OF HOLI -CELEBRATED AT KRIPA VASAI
March 8, 2012
On 7th March, being Holi eve, a traditional poojawas performed and the lighting of the Holi fire, amidst a gathering of In-house clients & Staff of Kripa Vasai.
:
Pooja is a prayer ritual performed by Hindus to host, honour and worship one or more deities, or to spiritually celebrate an event.
MAY CATHOLICS CELEBRATE THE FESTIVAL OF HOLI?
Under the shadow of the “OM” and the Hindu kuthuvilakku or nilavilakku
Fr. Joe conducts a Multi-Faith prayer meeting for boat disaster victims-Assam
May 21, 2012
WHAT DOES THE KUTHU VILAKKU OIL LAMP SIGNIFY?
CHARISINDIA ERRORS-10USE OF KUTHU VILAKKU AT NATIONAL CHARISMATIC CONVENTION
Announcing another pooja with pride. A pooja is a dedication to or propitiation of a deity or the invocation of a deity for the success of a venture. This is what Fr. Pereira participated in.
Bhoomi Pooja by Shri Raju Patil-Mayor of Vasai-Virar and Fr. Joe of Kripa Vasai
November 29, 2012
The date, November 25, 2012, will remain a major landmark in Kripa Foundation’s 31 year history: On this Sunday, the blessing of the foundation’s latest project of Kripa Vasai Convention Centre (KVCC), was held at a multi-religious ceremony held at the construction site.The Mayor of Vasai-Virar Municipality, Shri. Raju Patil, the first person to hold this post, participated in the traditional Hindu ritual of breaking a coconut and invoking prayers for a successful execution of the 1st Phase of Construction called “Kripa Pharma” of the KVCC project. Fr. Joseph H Pereira, Founder Trustee, Kripa, blessed the construction site by sprinkling Holy Water amongst chanting of prayers.
Training with New Age Jungian techniques. Jung is world leading New Ager number two:
Fr. Joe organises a video conference with Dr. Ashok Bedi-Carl S. Jung Centre, US - for All India staff meet in Kripa
December 20, 2012
Carl Jung Institute and Kripa to enhance mutual cooperation for patients’ benefit
Kripa has a tie-up with the Carl S. Jung Institute in US, throughMumbai Jung Centre,India for cooperation in advanced psychoanalysis aimed at improving recovery of substance addicts. Dr. Snehal Mehta, Medical Director-Psychiatry, Kripa also participated in the videoconference.
Let me quote from the Vatican Document on the New Age:
2.3.2. The essential matrix of New Age thinking
The essential matrix of New Age thinking is to be found in the esoteric-theosophical tradition which was fairly widely accepted in European intellectual circles in the 18th and 19th centuries. …
Marilyn Ferguson devoted a chapter of The Aquarian Conspiracy to the precursors of the Age of Aquarius, those who had woven the threads of a transforming vision based on the expansion of consciousness and the experience of self-transcendence. Two of those she mentioned were the American psychologist William James and the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. James defined religion as experience, not dogma, and he taught that human beings can change their mental attitudes in such a way that they are able to become architects of their own destiny. Jung emphasized the transcendent character of consciousness and introduced the idea of the collective unconscious, a kind of store for symbols and memories shared with people from various different ages and cultures. According to Wouter Hanegraaff, both of these men contributed to a "sacralisation of psychology", something that has become an important element of New Age thought and practice. Jung, indeed, "not only psychologized esotericism but he also sacralized psychology, by filling it with the contents of esoteric speculation. The result was a body of theories which enabled people to talk about God while really meaning their own psyche, and about their own psyche while really meaning the divine. If the psyche is 'mind', and God is 'mind' as well, then to discuss one must mean to discuss the other". His response to the accusation that he had "psychologised" Christianity was that "psychology is the modern myth and only in terms of the current myth can we understand the faith". It is certainly true that Jung's psychology sheds light on many aspects of the Christian faith, particularly on the need to face the reality of evil, but his religious convictions are so different at different stages of his life that one is left with a confused image of God. A central element in his thought is the cult of the sun, where God is the vital energy (libido) within a person.