After reading "Apparitions and Mystics - True or False" you ask about Charismatics. Using the same criteria stated in the book, this is the results of our investigation and personal experience.

We strongly recommend a book called "The Tongues of Satan" distributed by "Unity Publishing". There have been some negative comments regarding the book. One is the fact that it does not have an Imprimatur. The fact is that it does. We have in our file the Imprimatur for the book. It was the author’s decision to not put the imprimatur in the book in order to protect the Cardinal, who was in the middle of a battle with President Marcos of the Philipines.

The book, however, was checked by nine priests of Opus Dei, who of whom had written a combination of over thirty books themselves. The Cardinal’s Censor Liborum stated in part that

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It suffices to say that the author was a member in good standing with the Charismatics for many years. In fact, he was a leader in the prayer groups. He spoke in tongues. He knew most of the leaders personally. He was a true believer. For those of you who will not be reading the book, we will give a brief outline of the problems. For those of you who have read the book or will read it, we must present some new developments that have occured since the book was written more than ten years ago. One of these new developments is the Charismatic Mass held in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The following account of the Mass prayed at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome was printed in the "International Catholic Priests Association" published in England. The report was by its contributor, Simon Keegan.

So you see, we can’t bring ourselves to accept even those prayer groups that have orthodox practices. It has been argued that there are many abuses, but there are also many Charismatics who pray rosaries, have devotion to the Eucharist, to Mary, and to the Teaching Authority of the Church. This may be true, although we have not seen it; however, amongst the Arian heretics there were many who did not know they were not in the Body of Christ, the Church. There were many Arians who truly did not know they were praying with heretics. All they knew is that the Bishop and the priests in their town had changed. There are many Charismatics who are very innocent of the main thrust of the movement. This does not make the movement OK or even tolerable in our eyes, anymore than it made the Arians tolerable. It must be tested like any other movement that claims direct contact with Heaven.

When you consider the universality of the movement in the Protestant and Catholic circles [we are speaking of thousands of prayer sessions every week and millions of people], you would expect at least one miracle. When we speak of a miracle, we mean by Church standards. We challenge anyone to show one provable miracle, whether Protestant or Catholic, in the entire movement spanning over 80 years. We have personally seen hundreds of cures with our own eyes in the Charismatic Movement, but not one could be attributed to anything but hypnotic emotionalism. Not one was a cure by Church standards. Not one lasted beyond the day or even the hour.

We have read about, heard, even recorded thousands of prophecies from Charismatics. We have taped them over and over again. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can be attributed to anything but human spiritual egotism. In fact, we can show countless contradictions, not only from one prophet to another, but from the same person.

It is true that the Church has not condemned the movement formally in our day. But the same movement was condemned at the Council of Vienna in 1311. In those days it was known as the Franciscan Spiritualists. At the Council of Vienna the Franciscan Spiritualists were condemned because they placed their own inner feelings about God above the Teaching Authority of the Church. It was exactly the same as the movement today. It was condemned in 1311 AD because Spiritualism was preferred to the Authentic Doctrine of the Faith and to dogmatic reasoning, there own inner feelings to Church Teaching. How does that compare to statements by the Holy Father today?

The Holy Father, John Paul II, in addressing the first congress of Charismatics in Rome, warned them that they "must be guided by the DISCERNMENT OF THOSE IN AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH" and offered them three principles for use in judging what is truly of the spirit: "FIDELITY TO THE AUTHENTIC DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, and second: The use of the gifts of the spirit for the COMMUNITY, and: The presence of LOVE."

Later on (November 20, 1974), Pope John Paul II lamented about the Charismatics, "No longer is it fashionable to seek a logical and systematic defense of religion, Charismatic Spiritualism is preferred to dogmatic reasoning."

Now, these are the main tests of anything supernatural: OBEDIENCE, FIDELITY, UNITY,

The Charismatics are not obedient, although many do not know that they are not. They violate every law of the Church. As long as they speak in tongues, nothing else matters, because they are filled with the "spirit", and they KNOW they are special.

Never have I talked to a Charismatic who would quit the movement if it was condemned. Obedience is not in their vocabulary as you will see later.

Fidelity is the firm faith in the Holy Bible and the Teachings of the Church. Fidelity means to believe that anyone who willfully stays outside the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, the Church, cannot be saved. Fidelity means that anyone who believes that the Holy Spirit can be outside the Church is a liar and should not be associated with.

The greatest contradiction to Scripture and the Teaching Authority of the Church is that of pluralism. The Catholic Charimatic Movement started with the "Spirit" of Protestantism. Canon Law 1258 forbids Catholics from actively participating in any way whatsoever in non-Catholic worship or ceremonies. It is a formal act of apostasy for a Catholic to make an act of total adherence to a heretical sect. Why? Because "how you pray is how you believe" (lex orandi, lex credendi).

Nonetheless, that is how it all started in 1967 at Duquesne University. Four professors had read and studied the books of the Protestant Pentecostals. They decided that they wanted this power of the spirit, so they prayed and prayed, put they could not get it inside the Catholic Church. They decided to go OUTSIDE to the heretical sect. They called on a Protestant Minister and within a few days had a group of Pentecostals praying over them. They were BAPTIZED IN THE SPIRIT. From there the movement spread into the Catholic Church. To this day Catholics and Protestants of the movement still pray together in violation of Canon 1258.

Just a week ago we attended a Woman’s Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. Some of the members were from Calvary Chapel, some from Evangelical Churches, some from Fundementalist Churches. Father Michael Barry of Riverside led the prayers. This was not in the Church but in a classroom. No one made the sign of the cross, but tongues and prophesy were common. Father Barry is the same priest who passes out Communion to non-Catholics. When confronted about it, he replies, "Why not? They are Christians."

In order to accommodate the non-Catholics and Satan, himself, Catholic Charismatics do not make the sign of the cross before praying, after praying, or at anytime. They do not use Holy Water. They do not kneel when praying. They do not use blessed Crucifixes or relics. They do not conduct their prayer sessions inside a Church where the Blessed Sacrament exists, except when forced by circumstances.

Since, the sign of the cross, blessed articles, Holy Water, and the Blessed Sacrament are instruments against the domonic, one would have to wonder whose spirit this is anyway.

[Note: In recent years some groups have taken up these practices; the Rosary, sign of the Cross, etc. However, this is not the norm, and those who are doing so will find themselves leaving the movement.]

Unity is the constant work of the members of the Body of Christ, the communion of Saints, the Church. It is the duty of all Christians to work towards the common community of God's people. To say that it is all right to belong to any Christian Church is disunity. It is PLURALISM. It has been condemned by the Church hundreds of times over the centuries. Unity is the last will and testament of Christ at the Last Supper (John 17). It is the prayer and work of the Church in the Twentieth Century. It was the dream of Pope John XXIII, Pope Paul VI, Vatican II, and Our Holy Father today. But unity is not accepting all Christians as they are, anymore than love is accepting what our children do no matter what it is. Love is a study of truth and morals; and then the correction of sin and false belief. This kind of love brings unity.

Catholic Charismatics are filled with the kind of love that hugged each other, held hands, and spoke nicely of each other. They even speek nicely of sinners. Almost never do they practice any of the Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy. Love is a verb, an action, and therefore is something that we must DO, not something that we FEEL. To feed the hungry, to admonish the sinner, to forgive, to bear wrongs patiently, this is love. There is no love in basic core of the Charismatic Movement.

"NO LONGER IS IT FASHIONABLE TO SEEK A LOGICAL AND SYSTEMATIC DEFENSE OF RELIGION. CHARISMATIC SPIRITUALISM IS PREFERRED TO DOGMATIC REASONING." We thought it appropriate to repeat the words of the Holy Father.

This is a great trick of the Demonic, to make man his own authority as to what is right or wrong; true or false. To do this, man must think he is getting his inspiration direct from Heaven. It is the same heresy as the Gnostics of the first century. It is the same method Satan used to trick Adam and Eve. "You will be like God, knowing good and evil."

A few year back, locutions [messages from Heaven] were being sent by the "spirit" all over the world to the effect that the next Pope would be a Charismatic. His name was given. At the time we didn’t know this man, so we had no way of testing the locutions. He was, and is, a Cardinal. Later we had the misfortune to meet him. The best way to introduce this future Charismatic pope is the Mass he conducted in Rome that we described above..

This Cardinal was Belgian Cardinal Leo Suenens, the next pope, or so said hundreds of Charismatic prophets. This is the same Cardinal we personally heard say that no Catholic need obey the Holy Father's encyclical, Humane Vitae.

This may, in fact, be the master plan of the Charismatics; for many true prophecies predict a false pope in our time. If, as we believe, there is a master plan of Satan for our time, then having the Charismatics throughout the world ban together and declare Cardinal Suenens as pope would not be out of character for them. We know from Don Bosco’s prophesy that the next pope will be one of the holiest popes in history. It could never be Cardinal Suenens. Another thing that bothers us is the prophecy of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. She saw a dark and sinister church growing inside the Catholic Church. This sinister church grew so big that it was almost impossible to stop. Nothing in the past 150 years has been that theatening within..

Ask a Charismatic what he would prefer, a prayer meeting or the Mass. Ask what he would do if the Church condmned the movement. We have asked. They prefer Spiritualism to the Teaching Authority of the Church, and even to the Sacraments. Does this mean all Charismatics are bad? Yes! As we stated above, just because good people are in amongst them, does not make it from God.