[Traditional Enneagram] Position of the RCC on Enneagram

[BlackDog]

So, I was wondering how many people knew the position of the Roman Catholic Church on Enneagram, and if they did, what the basis for that position was.

Some people have told me bits and pieces, but I'd be curious for a broader input.

Also, if you know the position, do you agree with it?

 

[Seymour]

This is hearsay, but my mother learned of the enneagram by going on an enneagram retreat given by an RC nun. She has said that the enneagram is a reasonably popular spiritual direction tool for nuns in the US. Have no idea if there is any official stance, though, or how true that is.

A quick google yields this.

 

[brainheart]

You know, this is one of those things where it's really going to depend on the Catholic. There is such a wide spectrum of thought and teaching in Catholicism. I was introduced to the enneagram by a friend's mom who is a practicing Catholic. It's entirely possible she learned about it on a retreat. I took my first MBTI test in my Catholic high school. I also know that my mom has some religious book on temperaments and using it to understand the people in your life to improve your relationships. In general I would say the Jesuits and religious orders of nuns tend to be the most liberal- and interestingly the most connected to higher education- while parishes often tend to be more conservative.

Overall, though, there is an increasingly growing segment of the Catholic population that is far more conservative, and with conservatism often comes a suspicion of alternative self help methods that don't emphasize church and prayer as the primary instrument for growth. It's been my observation that in the United States the Catholic Church is way more conservative than it was when I was a kid. This is probably because many of the more liberal-leaning Catholics in the past couple of generations left the church once they reached adulthood. I would say that around ten percent of my friends who were raised Catholic still go to church. I'm not one of them.

 

[BlackDog]

You know, this is one of those things where it's really going to depend on the Catholic. There is such a wide spectrum of thought and teaching in Catholicism. I was introduced to the enneagram by a friend's mom who is a practicing Catholic. It's entirely possible she learned about it on a retreat. I took my first MBTI test in my Catholic high school. I also know that my mom has some religious book on temperaments and using it to understand the people in your life to improve your relationships. In general I would say the Jesuits and religious orders of nuns tend to be the most liberal- and interestingly the most connected to higher education- while parishes often tend to be more conservative.

Overall, though, there is an increasingly growing segment of the Catholic population that is far more conservative, and with conservatism often comes a suspicion of alternative self help methods that don't emphasize church and prayer as the primary instrument for growth. It's been my observation that in the United States the Catholic Church is way more conservative than it was when I was a kid. This is probably because many of the more liberal-leaning Catholics in the past couple of generations left the church once they reached adulthood. I would say that around ten percent of my friends who were raised Catholic still go to church. I'm not one of them.

Isn't that kind of sad, though? I am not Roman Catholic and have no connection to the RCC (not even a single relative or friend that I know of), but I have a great respect for the tradition of the organization. It's incredible to me that they can even hold together with such incredible diversity of membership, even if it is less so now than it was in the past. Just the idea of the continuity of the medieval Western church holding mostly together into the present day is absolutely staggering. What other institution has even come close to such a record?