Catholic Priest links Yoga and Satan during Satanism Sermon

yoga-leads-to-satanism

The Hindu community has asked Pope Francis to discipline the Catholic priest who says yoga and Indian head massage lead to Satanism.

Two Sundays ago, a Catholic Reverend Roland Colhoun was asked to say mass in Drumsurn, Ireland. He stood before the congregation, and gave a sermon on the devil and exorcism. During his sayings, he told the crowd that “both practicing yoga and getting Indian head massages will lead to the Kingdom of Darkness.” It’s no surprise that Hindus’ everywhere, including their statesman, Rajan Zed, are demanding that Pope Francis publicly reprimand Colhoun.

Yoga and Satan: Colhoun’s Connection

Colhoun spoke to Derry Journal about what happened. He says he mentioned “a number of things that are part of the new age movement.” He said that though it has gained popularity and “a kind of respectability”, the practices are “certainly not good for us and the Church is very concerned about people employing them and has written specific documents on the new age movement.” There have been psychological, spiritual and theological studies done on it.

“The Indian head massage, while I haven’t done a great study into it, the difficulty is that it involves the laying of hands on another person’s head. There is risk when you do that because it is a rite we use in the sacramental practice for the communication of the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation, and ordination as well. But if you do that outside of a sacramental rite, you’re running the risk of communicating a bad spirit, not the Holy Spirit.”

Colhoun’s connections have caused anger in the Hindu community. Rajan Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, made his own statement. He asked that Pope Francis “discipline a Derry Catholic priest who reportedly linked yoga to Satan.” He added that the Vatican’s library holds a number of yoga-related books, and that they “would inform Diocese of Derry Bishop, Donal McKeown, about this.”

Resources

Follow the Conversation on Twitter