Erika Gibello & Fr Rufus
Read what Fr Rufus Pereira wrote about Erika Gibello in the Forward of her Book "A Helard in the New Age"
FOREWORD
A New Herald in the New Age
It was the second day of the Second International Charismatic Convention that was being held in June 1978 at Dublin, Ireland. I had just given a talk that morning at the special Workshop meant for the huge number of Irish Missionaries, who were on holiday from their respective mission stations all over world. I had spoken from my heart and my words seemed to have made an impact on them. During the lunch break a lady came up to the five of us, participants from India, as we were sharing our experiences at the entrance of the Convention venue, and inquired from where we came. When I replied, “From Bombay”, she recognised my voice, even though she had not seen me clearly from afar, “You then were the speaker at the Missionaries Workshop. Your input and your voice intrigued me and I was hoping to meet you in person”. That chance encounter was the beginning of a friendship that would greatly influence and enhance my priestly and charismatic ministry.
The first thing that struck me, a stranger in a strange land, was the welcoming approach and trusting openness of this remarkable woman. Who else would after such a brief chance meeting invite us foreigners to her place, – and welcome us to stay at her house, if we happened to pass through London, and, harder to believe, even give me the key of her house, - if I should ever be stranded, and had no where else to go. As things turned out to be, this was a life saver, for my close relative, who would have otherwise put me up, was out of town, and my priest friend, who had been my classmate at the Pontifical Seminary in Rome and was now a Parish Priest in London, invited me warmly for supper, but had no place for me to stay.
I roamed the streets of London that night, lost and lonely, in search of cheap lodgings, - till I happened to feel that key in my pocket, and started searching the address of that lady I had met in Dublin. I reached her house in the dead of night, let myself in quietly with that key and slept behind the sofa in the hallway. Early next morning I slipped silently out of her house, rang the doorbell, feigning I had just arrived from Ireland, and was made most welcome to stay in her house as long as I needed. That was the first quality I observed in Erika: welcoming and trusting everyone, which would unfortunately often lead her to be taken for a ride even by her so called close friends. She has not changed her habit a bit in spite of this, but following Christ she has always been ready to open her heart and home to all and sundry.
I soon came to know that she had a flourishing art restoration business and that her four children were in boarding school. She herself hailed from Vienna, Austria, and was brought up in the traditions of her family’s musical and religious culture, and trained in the medical career of her family’s pharmaceutical house. But before long I came to know to my great wonder that she was now a very committed and gifted charismatic leader, as she related her experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, her remarkable healing from arthritis as she was prayed over, and her effective promotion of the Renewal in a number of prayer groups. She was even kind enough to take me in the evenings to the important prayer groups of the city, like the ones led by Myles Dempsey and by Fr. Benedict Heron, OSB. Even today the Pentecostal fire is still burning in her as brightly as ever, both in her personal life and in the very many charismatic retreats and prayer services she has been conducting all over the world during these last 30 years.
I next met her two years later, at the Fourth National Charismatic Convention held in Bangalore, South India, in May 1980. I was greatly surprised and edified to learn that she had really come to India, entrusted with an unusual mission of rescuing western youth from the clutches of certain eastern new religious movements. In their naïve search for ‘peace’ they had said ‘goodbye’ to their families and their religious culture, and were now caught up in certain sinister so called ‘religious’ experiences from which they could not now extricate themselves. Seeking solace and ‘freedom’ in drugs and narcotics was often the next step.
Then out of the blue Erika was asked to share the platform with Bishop Valerian D’Souza of Pune, to substitute Dr. Trevor D’Netto, consultant psychiatrist to the Armed Forces, and later vice-chairman of the National Service Team of the Charismatic Renewal, a scheduled speaker at the Convention, who had suddenly taken ill. She spoke on the topic closest to her heart, the great harm that was being done to our youth by their involvement in New Religious Movements (NRM) and the consequential psychological and spiritual damages.
That was the beginning of her ‘apostolic journeys’ into India, during which she was led by the Holy Spirit to do three things. She founded or helped in starting, with the assistance of the Pallottine Fathers, one rescue centre for Western youth and one rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, where they were helped not only through the usual therapeutic practices, but also through prayers for inner healing and deliverance, with astounding success. Secondly, she personally visited various ashrams throughout the country, and made a list of what she called Christian ashrams, where Western youth seeking a knowledge and experience of Indian ashram life could be accommodated. (See her book: “Kleiner Führer durch Christliche Ashrams in Indien” ISBN3-921513-60-X). She accordingly started an association called ‘Satsangam’, (meaning ‘the meeting together of truth’ in Sanskrit), for this very purpose.
Thirdly, she proceeded in her sociological study of the Indian based new religious movements, as member of Dialogue Centre International based in Aarhus University, Denmark. From quite early, in her regular articles on this subject, she warned Church leaders about the rise of New Age and its anti-Christian philosophy. Being a qualified pharmacist, however, her special interest and study centred on Alternative Medicine and its spread with often questionable practices. She published the results of her findings on both NRMs and on Alternative Medicine in Catholic journals, and shared with counsellors her expertise on how to deal with problems arising from them.
As early as 1978, realising that the problem was not just a local one, but was universal, she had the foresight and the courage to approach the Vatican itself and apprise the highest officials of the Pontifical Council on Religious Dialogue, (then called the Pontifical Secretariat for Non-Christians), and other relevant dicasteries of the seriousness of the situation, supplying them with the necessary information and documentation. Finally, to the joy of all those who felt they were alone in this field and were fighting a losing battle, the Roman Curia began issuing a number of letters and documents, the first being ‘New religious Movements, a challenge to the Church`(1986) followed by ‘Letter to Bishops on Christian Meditation’ (1989), which contains some guidelines with reference to Eastern forms of prayers’ and the most recent one being ‘Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life’ (February 2003), on the errors of the New Age Philosophy and the dangers of the New Age Movement. At the same time she was instrumental in stopping Transcendental Meditation from being taught and practised in some Catholic schools, and New Age practices from being used in some charismatic prayer groups.
I am therefore happy and grateful to write this foreword to her book, which she has been working on for many years and which has finally seen the light of day, for its purpose is to acquaint the reader with the tenets of these New Age theories and New Religious movements (NRMs), and to equip him with the knowledge on how to evaluate them in the light of our Christian and Catholic Faith. It has been a hard labour of love, but it is the answer to the many questions that have been and are being addressed to me every day on this pernicious modern phenomenon that has deceived even the elect and the very teachers of the faith.
On the other hand, Erika has over the years been networking with me so that whereas she, the expert on these movements, has been enlightening me on their teachings and practices, I, with my knowledge and experience of the ministries of inner healing and deliverance, have been enlightening her on the only way of dealing with this problem both in individual cases as well as in society and church at large. For it has been our experience that just enlightening the besieged individual, who has fallen a prey to this evil both with the ‘truth’ about these false systems, teachings and methods, and with the truth of their Catholic faith, is not sufficient. There is need to set the person free from the particular religious movement, and some of its cultic practices, which have taken hold upon his/her will, mind and heart, through the specific ministry of inner healing and of deliverance concurrently, so that what Jesus himself promised then becomes a reality, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (Jn 8:36).
It is therefore in first supporting and then joining my ministry over all these years that Erika has gained much knowledge and experience and in the process has been an invaluable help to me personally both in the actual ministry itself and in organising and conducting these vital programs of Inner Healing and Deliverance, both in playing the busy Martha even as a simple but resourceful chauffeur, and in acting the attentive Mary as a mellow but persuasive speaker, and as a tender-hearted but quick-witted counsellor. I must acknowledge here the debt of gratitude I owe her, and with me the church owes her, in being the English Secretary of the International Associations of Exorcists and for Deliverance, and thus helping to promote these associations in all her own retreats and programs.
For this she has had a heavy price to pay not only due to the unfair and sometimes malicious criticism from the most unexpected quarters, but also because of the unforeseen problems in her own personal and family life. Rarely have I met one with such incredible burdens that would have just overwhelmed a person with lesser faith and endurance, and rarely have I met one, who in spite of her genuine call to this important but demanding and dangerous ministry, is so devoted to her family. God has always had the first place in her life, then her Family, the Domestic Church, and then only the Universal Church and the Ecclesial Ministry.
Fr. Rufus Pereira,
Chief Editor ‘Charisindia’, New Delhi,
former Director of the Catholic Charismatic Bible Institute, Mumbai,
former member of the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services (ICCRS), representing West Asia, and coordinating the ministry of healing worldwide, Vatican City,
President of the International Association for Deliverance,
and former Vice-President of the International Association of Exorcists, Rome,
Parish Priest of St. Pius X Church, Mulund (W), Mumbai 400080,
Email: <frrufus@vsnl.com>,
15-5-2005.