Sadly enough, this ain't the first time something like this happened in San Antonio. This article also shows a good way to fight back against this sort of nonsense...
Parishioners Disrupt New Age Ritual In Church (Special to The Wanderer)
August 16, 2001
SAN ANTONIO - More than 100 Catholics disrupted a week long New Age nature worship workshop led by local Amchurch religious educator Deborah Hanus, held here at St. Dominic's Church, in order to draw attention to the Archdiocese of San Antonio's promotion of objectionable spiritualities through the "ecumenical" Center for Spiritual Growth and the Contemplative Life.
Parishioners became alarmed at the "Nurturing and Creativity" service, for which 20 participants paid $250 each, when they noticed the sanctuary of the church had been rearranged for the program.
Arriving for morning Mass on Monday, July 23, parishioners found their church rearranged into a strange configuration. The altar had been removed and placed in a corner, and a prop doorway put in its place. Behind the doorway stood a little altar with a basket holding loaves of bread.
Chairs were arranged in concentric circles around the little altar. All of this was positioned in front of the tabernacle.
Five parishioners, all members of the lay activist organization Defenders of the Magisterium, understood immediately that that their church was being prepared for New Age rituals, since Dr. Hanus, one of Archbishop Patrick Flores' top religious educators, has had a long and public career as a promoter of New Age spirituality.
A frequent workshop leader for Catholic school and religion teachers, who must attend her sessions for certification by the diocese, Hanus hosts such seminars as "Exploring Your Soul Map."
At one session, held on the evening of November 11, 1998, Hanus intoned:
"Salute to the sun. Become aware of your body, breathe in the spirit, exhale resistance. Call upon your God, who is God for you tonight, call upon that name. Call upon your own name, breathe it in, breathe it out, what does your heart desire? Pray our mantra, salute to the sun."
As the Catholic school teachers went down on the floor, lying prone on their bellies, she continued: "Pray your mantra over and over. Feel the moment of the spirit, turn to the people with whom you are making your journey, bow to them with hands folded. Bow to the God within each person honoring the God within. Let us all say, 'Amen'."
As the teachers laughed and sat down, Hanus continued:
"Awaking to the God within, and crossing the threshold to the new life, sometimes we have resistance. God became man, so man could become God. We are called to become divine. We make that through a love of what it means to be human. We are called to be embodied spirits as Catholics. It's our body which makes us experience spirit, not the other way around."
Hanus was also featured in a San Antonio Express-News article in April 1999, accompanied by a large photograph of her and her friends praying before a crystal ball, surrounded by a ring of 13 candles.
One month before Hanus' "retreat" was scheduled at St. Dominic's, Ed Hinojosa, a parishioner, met with the pastor, Fr. Paul Cleary, and asked if he had approved the program.
Cleary responded, "Who is Deborah Hanus?"
Hinojosa then produced the picture of Hanus praying before the crystal hall, and gave it to the priest and left. Several days later, an angry pastoral assistant, Sue Graves, confronted Hinojosa, and informed him that Archbishop Flores had approved the "retreat.”
The retreat began on Monday, July 23. Parishioners had found their church different that morning; but by that evening, when the prayer groups arrived, many parishioners were visibly upset by what they found, particularly a tablecloth covered in what appeared to be Wiccan symbols.
While most of Hanus' retreat did take place in the religious educational center, the church was available to the retreat group, and parishioners were advised not to be in the church when the retreat group was there.
Later that evening, Hinojosa was called and informed that people were "freaking out” in church and told to get there fast.
Hinojosa found women crying and saw someone sprinkling holy water on the small altar and its objects.
The next day, Hinojosa spoke with Fr. Paul again, and pleaded with the priest to put an end to the retreat. Other parishioners complained as well but to no avail.
No one knew what to do because Fr. Cleary had given his pastoral assistant full backing on bringing Hanus to the parish, and the parishioners knew that Archbishop Flores approved of Deborah Hanus.
Parishioners decided to call other parishioners and Hinojosa called the president of the Defenders of the Magisterium, Edmundo Vargas. Vargas agreed to meet Hinojosa and other Defenders at, the parish on Wednesday night.
On Wednesday, the Defenders learned Hanus was going to give a party, with entertainment by local New Age promoter and musician Rudi Harst of the Celebration Circle (see his web site: www.celebrationcircle.org), which proclaims:
"Welcome to the Celebration Circle of San Antonio. Please join us as we celebrate the Sacred Oneness within ourselves, each other, and all Creation. Our Purpose is to affirm and support you in being who You truly are - whatever your lifestyle, circumstances, or spiritual beliefs.
"The Circle has been meeting since 1992. We follow a ritual for- mat influenced by a variety of spiritual and cultural sources. We learn from the wisdom of the Native American, Christian, Jewish, Celtic Hindu, Taoist, Muslim, and Buddhist teachings - as well as contemporary science, psychology, and the recovery movement.
“We explore our common ground by experiencing and expressing Spirit through the Sacred Arts - music, meditation, movement, ritual, prayer, and poetry."
Again, the Defenders knew exactly who Harst was, for members had videotaped a performance he gave at a New Age ceremony it the University of Incarnate Word in October 1999.
The party started in the religious education building and parishioners began to arrive in the church to pray. Over 100 people came, along with a reporter from the Express-News, Scott Huddleston.
Accompanied by Huddleston, several of the parishioners crashed Hanus' party, and went up to Harst, and told him flatly they knew who he was, for they had videotaped his performance at Incarnate Word. He turned red, and looked to Hanus.
Then Vargas showed Hanus photographs of her New Age altar in the church, and she shot back, "You have violated my copyrights. I asked that no pictures or recordings be made."
Vargas then explained the photograph and the occultic symbolism in the multicolored altar cloth, with its figures of the four directions and a mandala magic circle in the center.
Hanus abruptly ended the party and her group left.
The next morning people were seen removing the strange items from the church. While the retreat continued in the religious education building, Hanus and her group never returned to the church; parishioners had their church back. But many are wondering, does the church need to be reconsecrated?
Hanus told the Express-News' Huddleston that her "ecumenical" sessions were consistent with "accepted forms" of Christian worship.
"We have done only things that are within the scope of the Catholic tradition," Hanus told him.
Hanus also told Huddleston that she "didn't mean to upset the parishioners. She said the symbols and religious practices taught in the workshop were not an affront to Catholic tradition. She denied her group was worshiping nature."
Mark chapter 13. 'Nuff said.
