Generational Healing

or: Healing the Family Tree

Big news from Spain last week: the Spanish Bishops’ Conference released a “doctrinal note” about “generational healing,” also called “intergenerational healing” or “healing of the family tree.” The document concluded that the practice has no basis in Catholic teaching and leads to liturgical abuse.

What is generational healing?

Bishop Francisco Conesa explained in a video:

Generational healing is a practice that is spreading (above all in Catholic groups tied to charismatic tendencies), which starts with the idea that the faults of my ancestors weigh upon me… my ancestors committed some misdeed, and I am paying for the consequences of it, and this manifests itself in one’s psychological makeup or in illnesses, due to the guilt of my ancestors. [Generational healing] attempts to heal this relationship.¹

How might the sins of my ancestors affect me? Believers in “generational healing” say that, if one of your ancestors committed serious sins or was involved in spiritual evil, you yourself, even if you have been baptized and are practicing the Faith, may experience breathing and stomach disorders, fertility issues, early death, death by accident, and the death of children. Those bound by ancestral sins are also more likely to abuse alcohol or commit sins against the sixth commandment.

According to practitioners of generational healing, the first step in healing the family tree is to look back and identify ancestral sins. Taking a cue from Deuteronomy 5:9,

I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,

those seeking healing of their own ailments are instructed to go back at least four generations and identity family members who died by suicide or murdered someone, had an abortion, suffered severe trauma, was involved in superstition, freemasonry, the occult, or demonic activity, manifested patterns of serious sexual sin, etc. The second step for healing is prayer, which may take the form of deliverance prayer, exorcisms, and especially the celebration of the Eucharist, to break “generational bonds” so that a person affected by his ancestors’ sins is healed, sometimes instantaneously.

What's wrong with that?

“Generational healing” does not align with the Catholic understanding of personal sin and punishment, Baptism, and the Eucharist. Original sin is not something we commit, but something we contract without willing it. A personal sin is a deliberate choice to do what you know to be wrong. Personal sins, and the punishment due to them, belong to the person who committed them. The only sin that is passed down from one generation to the next is original sin.

Catholics can and should pray for their deceased relatives; indeed, this is a Christian duty. We can help those in Purgatory because all the members of the communion of saints share in spiritual goods. The key word here is goods. The communio sanctorum is a sharing in holy things, in good things only; for example, the saints in heaven interceding for us, or the living offering prayers and sacrifices for the members of the communion of saints who are being purified prior to entering heaven. The doctrine of the communion of saints does not include belief in a sharing in spiritual evils or “generational curses.” In the Catholic teaching about the communion of saints, there is no notion of

the transmission of the consequences of the sins of the dead members of one’s own family tree to the living. On the contrary, it does include the possibility of a mutual benefit of intercession between the living and the dead, unconnected to the idea of intergenerational sin. Also foreign to the doctrine of purgatory would be the idea of a “posthumous forgiveness” of extremely grave sins, such as abortion, since it is the individual himself or herself, in his or her personal identity, who is purified by encountering God, and there is not a posthumous biography that modifies one’s personhood or adds substantial events to a life story already concluded during one’s earthly life.²

We become members of the communion of saints, and thus able to assist the deceased with our prayers, through Baptism. Baptism forgives both original sin and all personal sins one may have committed, as well as all punishment due to sin. In one who has been born again through baptism, there remains no obstacle to entering the Kingdom of God. This means it is impossible to believe in a transmission of sin from one generation to another without contradicting Catholic teaching on Baptism.³

The Church’s liturgical books include Masses offered for the faithful departed, but in them we do not ask for healing of intergenerational relationships. The Spanish Bishops therefore point out that introducing such an intention into the celebration of the Mass essentially changes and seriously distorts the meaning of the Mass (desnaturaliza y distorsiona gravemente la celebración eucarística).

Where did these ideas come from?

R. Kenneth McCall was a British physician and psychiatrist, an Anglican born to Protestant missionaries in China. Although Dr. McCall was not Catholic, the practice of offering Masses for the dead inspired his ideas about healing the family tree. In 1982 he published Healing the Family Tree, which led the American Catholic priest John Hampsch, C.F.M. to study generational healing and write his own book, Healing Your Family Tree (1986, rev. 1989), as well as promoting the practice through audio and videotapes, and offering Masses for generational healing. Another American priest, Robert DeGrandis, S.S.J., published a book on Healing Through the Mass in 1992 and another in 1999 called Intergenerational Healing: An Intimate Journey Into Forgiveness. His work has been translated into Spanish and has been influential especially among Catholic charismatics.

The fact that Catholic priests have published books embracing these ideas and practices should not stop us from noticing that the doctrine of “ancestral sin” does not appear in Catholic literature prior to the second half of the 20th century. If you read the comments on a Youtube video promoting generational healing, you’ll see someone has written, “12 years of Catholic school and never heard one percent of the information in all of these wonderful talks.” The implication is that the commenter was somehow shortchanged by the Catholic schools he attended. A better explanation would be that he did not hear about “healing the family tree” during 12 years of Catholic schooling because it is not part of the Catholic Faith.

The video in question was produced by the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. In it, the priest explaining generational healing recommends books by Fr. Hampsch, Fr. Christopher Anuoha, and Fr. Chad Ripperger, as well as ministries established by Catholics, including the John Paul II Healing Center (Dr. Bob Schuchts), Heart of the Father Ministries/Unbound (Neal Lozano), Encounter Ministries, and the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal (Msgr. Steven Rossetti). Another video from the same religious congregation, found on the website of EWTN, says, “no magisterial document promotes this concept. So does that mean we have to reject it?” The bishops of Spain have given a definitive answer: yes, we must reject generational healing, not merely because it is not mentioned in any magisterial document, but because it is opposed to the constant teaching of the Church.

While the Spanish bishops’ statement was a big story in the online Catholic universe, a quick look around the internet shows that their statement seems to have had little effect in the English-speaking world.

Well-known Catholic speaker Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers presents a teaching on generational sin and how the sins of your ancestors can affect you in this video.

Dr. Mary Healy of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit devoted a section of her 2015 book Healing: Bringing the Gift of God's Mercy to the World to generational healing.

On the more traditional end of the Catholic spectrum, celebrity exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger has promoted generational healing and spoken about “generational spirits” and “generational curses” rather extensively, including the teaching that the effects of a “Freemason curse” can be manifested in the descendants of a man who swore a masonic oath, causing his descendants to suffer from alcoholism, respiratory problems, or sexual molestation. His videos have been viewed by thousands.

Generational healing and the Eucharist

Masses for healing the family tree are still being offered in many places, including this parish in Lansing, Michigan that holds a special Mass for Generational Healing every year, and offers other teachings about generational healing, based on the work of Dr. Bob Schuchts. It’s easy to find many other Masses for generational healing being offered, including this one in New Hampshire…

and this one in Louth, Ireland…

and this one in Benburb, Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile, in Spain, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal quickly issued a response to the doctrinal note of the episcopal conference, promising to adhere to its teaching “with filial obedience, agreeing with its content and the concern that underlies it.” Why haven’t Catholic priests, scholars, parishes, and ministries in the United States done the same?

Faithful Reader, I know what you are thinking: “Now, now, Father, just be patient. Not everyone has had a chance to read and digest the letter from the Spanish bishops, and not everyone can read Spanish. The Church is just finding out about these concerns now.” If you are saying that, you are thinking what I used to think also. But I was wrong. In fact,

Last week’s news is not new

This is not the first time that a national conference of Catholic Bishops has investigated this matter. In 2015, the Polish Bishops’ Conference published the document Generational Sin and Intergenerational Healing, Theological and Pastoral Problems. The study concluded that the idea of “generational sin” and the practice of “intergenerational healing” have no foundation in the Bible, and cannot be justified by appeals to Scripture or the official teaching of the Church, and that it denies the truth of the mercy of God and his forgiving love, as well as the efficacy of the sacramental grace received through Baptism and Penance.

The French Bishops’ Conference released a lengthy study on Healing the Family Tree through the Eucharist nearly eighteen years ago, in January of 2007. That study was cited in the Spanish bishops’ doctrinal note, and reached similar conclusions. Also in 2007, the bishop of Suwon, South Korea, issued a pastoral letter warning against the practice of “healing the family tree,” after concerns were raised by other Korean bishops.

In addition, the International Association of Exorcists considered generational healing during a meeting held in Rome in 2018. On that occasion, Fr. Rogelio Alcántara, chairman of the doctrinal commission of the Archdiocese of Mexico, gave a report concluding that the practice had no theological basis, and that attempts to justify it by appeals to Catholic tradition failed, noting that the ideas behind it closely resemble the non-Christian concept of “karma.”

Finally, over two decades ago, Fr. Peter Joseph, a very learned Australian priest, published an essay in which he explained everything that is wrong with “generational healing” from a Catholic perspective. Please read his essay, recently republished, and ask yourself why his clear and wise teaching was not read and heeded by Catholics throughout the world.

While it is good that the report of the Spanish bishops received a lot of publicity last week, we need to ask why it was needed at all, after the bishops of France and Poland, along with brother bishops in South Korea and learned clergy in Mexico and Australia, had already identified the doctrinal problems with generational healing and the liturgical abuses associated with it. These aberrant teachings and practices originated in the English-speaking world. If the bishops of the countries that gave birth to it had exercised appropriate pastoral oversight in a timely fashion, perhaps there would have been no need for their brothers in France, Poland, Spain, and South Korea to dedicate time and resources to the problem. There would have been no need for me to write this post. More importantly, thousands of Catholics would not have been misled by other Catholics, including some who take their time and money from them in exchange for offering teaching that does not align with the Catholic Faith. Faithful reader, do you suppose that Catholic bishops in your own country will take note? And perhaps even take action?

1. La sanación intergeneracional es una praxis que se está extendiendo (sobre todo en grupos católicos ligados a tendencias carismáticas) que parte de la idea de que las culpas de los antepasados, pesan sobre mí porque mis antepasados cometieron algún delito y yo estoy pagando las consecuencias de ello, y se manifiesta en determinados elementos psíquicos y enfermedades por culpa de mis antepasados y se busca sanar esa relación.

2. No se contempla en ningún caso la transmisión de las consecuencias de los pecados de los difuntos del propio árbol genealógico a los vivos. Sí incluye, por el contrario, la posibilidad de un beneficio mutuo de intercesión entre vivos y difuntos, ajeno a la idea de pecado intergeneracional. También sería ajena a la doctrina del purgatorio la idea de un “perdón postmortal” de pecados de gravedad extrema, como el aborto, pues es el mismo individuo, en su identidad personal, el que se purifica para el encuentro con Dios, y no hay una biografía postmortal, modificando la personalidad o añadiendo acontecimientos sustanciales a una biografía ya terminada durante la vida terrena. Conferencia Episcopal Española, Comisión Episcopal para la Doctrina de la Fe, Su misericordia se extiende de generación en generación (Lc 1,50) Nota doctrinal sobre la práctica de la “sanación intergeneracional.” Paragraph 3.C

3. El bautismo perdona todos los pecados, el pecado original y todos los pecados personales, así como todas las penas del pecado. Por tanto, no queda nada en los que han renacido que les impida entrar en el Reino de Dios, ni el pecado de Adán, ni el pecado personal, ni las consecuencias del pecado, la más grave de las cuales es la separación de Dios5 . No cabe, pues, sostener una transmisión intergeneracional del pecado sin contradecir la doctrina católica sobre el bautismo. Ibid.