Sects and new religious movements

(²⁰)

24. People are searching once again for spirituality - more than religion - in a whole variety of ways, in a society which is reminiscent of the Areopagus in Athens, the scene of some of Saint Paul's great debates (cf. Acts 17:22-32). There is a need to recover a spiritual dimension which will also give meaning to life, and a deep desire to rebuild the framework of affective and social relationships which, in some countries, has been dismantled by the increasing instability of family life. This can be seen in revivalist groups within Christianity, or in forms of syncretism which are part of a Aglobalizing» tendency, a search for unity beyond particular religions.

Many very different groups may be classified under the polysemous heading of sects. Some are of gnostic or esoteric inspiration, some are Christian in appearance, and others, in some cases, are hostile to Christ and the Church. These groups succeed quite clearly because they respond to frustrated aspirations. Many of our contemporaries can communicate easily in such groups and experience a feeling of belonging; they find affection, brotherhood, even apparent protection and security. This feeling stems mostly from the simple answers and apparently clear but, in reality, illusory solutions C like the AGospel of success» C which sects appear to offer to the most complex questions, and a pragmatic theology which exalts the self society has treated so badly. In some cases people are psychologically wounded or suffer rejection or total isolation in the anonymity so prevalent in urban life; they readily accept a spiritual vision which restores lost harmony and even offers a feeling of physical or spiritual healing. This shows the complexity and the transversal nature of the problem of sects, which combines the existential ailment with rejection of the institutional dimension of the religions, and is expressed in heterogeneous forms and expressions of religion.

However, the proliferation of sects is also a reaction against secularised culture and a consequence of social and cultural upheavals which have uprooted traditional religion. One of the challenges the Church must take up is that of getting through to people affected by sects, or in danger of it, in order to proclaim to them the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.

Indeed, Aa new age in human history», already detected by the Second Vatican Council, is emerging from one continent to another. This realisation calls for a new pastoral approach to culture, one which can take up these new challenges, in the spirit of that conviction which prompted John Paul II to create the Pontifical Council for Culture: AHence the importance for the Church, whose concern it is, of a careful and farsighted pastoral activity with regard to culture, and in a particular way to what is called living culture, that is, the principles and values which make up the ethos of a people» (Letter instituting the Pontifical Council for Culture, op. cit.).