Source: The Independent

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=531952

On June 16, 2004 The Independent reported, "Catholics from more than 25 countries are in Rome this week to hammer out a strategy for combating the threat posed to Christianity by 'New Age' religions and fads. 'Astrologers believe that the Age of Pisces - known to them as the Christian age - is drawing to a close,' explained an exhaustive report on the New Age produced by the Catholic church last year. And as priests around the world watch their congregations dwindle through boredom or plain disbelief, the Church believes that the moment has come to fight back. Monsignor Peter Fleetwood, one of the authors of the report, said those at the closed-door conference include priests and lay people from Latin America 'worried that they can be pushed out by something that has come from abroad,' and from Asia where 'a lot of traditional religions are reviving.' But for Fleetwood the greatest challenge may be in England and North America, 'where the New Age began ... and where it has become such a part of everyday life that we don't notice it.' That makes it harder to attack, he says: 'Where one sees a threat, it's easier to battle it.'" The report, "Jesus Christ-The Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the 'New Age,'" can be accessed on The Vatican's website at the following link.