Excerpt from An Anthology of Texts of the Catholic Church 1986-1994, edited by the Working Group on New Religious Movements in the VATICAN. For full text, click here.
Note: New Religious Movements is abbreviated as NRMs.
Within recent years every continent has witnessed a multiplication of new groups that define themselves as "churches" or "religions" but offer themselves as alternatives to the traditional Christian Churches. They are called, by those who do not belong to them, "sects" or "cults" (terms that generally have a negative connotation) or else "new religious movements (NRMs) or "alternative religious movements."
The final communique of the consistory of cardinals of 1991 describes this complex phenomenon, which concerns the Catholic Church insofar as the faithful are not immune to the attractions exerted by such groups:
This is a changing phenomenon with alarming proportions, and is present almost everywhere, even though with different tendencies and manifestations. In Africa there is the dominant problem of the multiplication of "autonomous churches" that are syncretistic in nature. In Latin America there are communities of an evangelical, fundamentalist, spontaneous nature, which take people away from the unitive Catholic tradition, thus harming the social fabric itself. In the West there are especially groups of a gnostic inspiration. In Asia also the Catholic population of some countries is subjected to an intense sectarian propaganda of independent Christian types.
IV Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals, Doc. 24
In the same consistory, cardinals from different continents described the most striking aspects of this reality in their respective areas:
Africa
Only at the end of the last century did the sects, religious movements and "independent churches" begin to multiply in the subSaharanAfrica.... Today we must say that it is difficult to determine their number with mathematical certainty, and even more difficult to determine their membership. Every day new sects appear and they in turn give rise to other new movements. Every day members leave one sect to join another.
Cardinal Alexandre do Nascimento. Doc. 27
Americas
The Christian sects are the most numerous: the majority are Pentecostals; there are Baptists, Adventists and independent denominations. Almost all these groups call themselves "evangelical churches." The most widespread pseudo-Christian sects are the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons. The sects of Eastern origin are less widespread.... There are also societies of a sectarian nature.
Cardinal Ernesto Corripio Ahumada, Doc. 26
Asia
It is not easy to describe the religious phenomenon because day by day we speak of "sects" or "cults," whereas many people prefer to call them by the more generic name of "religious movements": Examining this phenomenon in regard to its presence in Latin America, we see them as separatist religious groups or movements that were created in a northern country—the United States—or also, in many cases, at the local level; their characteristics are always their exclusive and exaggerated reliance on the Bible, which is interpreted in a fatalistic sense, and they are generally oriented towards seeking an exclusive society and psychological security through an emotional cult with strong moralistic tones accompanied by anti-Catholic attitudes; they are extremely aggressive and have an immoderate desire for expansion and proselytism.
Cardinal Miguel Obando Bravo, Doc. 28
. . . emergence and proliferation of fundamentalist and evangelical groups in the Philippines. The need for revitalization became even more acute when these so-called fundamentalist groups began to make inroads even in traditionally Catholic families and institutions, and in the young people....
Cardinal Ricardo J.Vidal, Doc. 31
Europe
We must focus our attention on the phenomenon of the proliferation of the sects and new religious movements. The majority of them originated in the West and come mainly from Christian sectors and Eastern movements; others derive from the occult or the irrational. As a whole, though, they are syncretistic in nature, since they integrate elements of various religions or of other cosmic life principles.
Cardinal Angel Suquia Goicoechea, Doc. 29
Preamble of Sects and New Religious Movements
An Anthology of Texts from the Catholic Church 1986-1994
edited by The Working Group on New Religious Movements in the VATICAN.
Last updated August 19, 2000 23:57