Holistic Doctors
            QUESTION from Tom on March 26, 2004

Dear Bro. Ignatius, May the Peace, Grace, and Love of God forever remain in and with you. Thank you for responding to my previous post. I was the one recently "Confused" about binding and commanding via imprecatory prayer. This was helpful. Do you alsways "Ask God to do the binding and commanding? Why not just say, "In the name of Jesus, God the Father commands you..." Just curious. Now, the main reason for my writing again... I am writing to ask you of your opinion and discernment on what I should do regarding my dentist. I always try to find a Catholic doctor, faithful to the Magisterium. I was successful in doing this for my family's general practitioner, our children's pediatrician, and even my wife's OB/GYN--who only refers for Natural Family Planning and never contraceptives. Priase God! Now my dentist. My wife and I really like our dentist. He would be classified as more a holistic dentist or biological dentist than mainstream in that he does not advocate mercury fillings (i.e., is mercury-free) and also practices homeopathy and cranial osteopathy--both more natural methods. In fact, a couple years ago, I went to him to have my silver mercury fillings relplaced with the white composite ones. Anyway, I am very cautious when it comes to the "new age." Apparently, so many people in the holistic health fields practice new age practices, such as reiki, among others. In fact, I watched a show on EWTN about reiki which really opened my eyes. I would never go near it consciously! God forbid. Now, as far as I know, my dentist does not practice reiki. He never mentioned it, not does his website mention anything about it. He does offer a mercury-free dentist practice that also offers homeopathy and vitamins/minerals/herbs etc. for patients, if appropriate. He actually is a good dentist. He went to Georgetown Medical--where he studied and actually he did not become a mercury-free dentist until much later, when he studied the potential risks associated with mercury fillings. I did notice in his office once that he had a crystal, not one that you wear or anything, but some type of little quartz statue on his window sill--not sure what this was. Lastly, when doing a search on his name online, I found he was listed in a New Age directory--even thogh, as far as I can tell, his dental practice doesn't offer any "new age" services. A lot of times, just because you are a holistic doctor that practices unconventional things such as homeopathy or naturpathy--you are labedled as "new age." This is sad because many alternative doctors do offer good services to patients and they are not new age, but you might label them as such because of their unorthodoxy in practice. I am not sure if he requested to be listed in this directory or if the website simply decided to list him because of some of the services (i.e., homeopathy) he offers. I am posting his website below for you to look at--nothing from his website seemed alarming. http://www.evergreen8.com/ And so, my question is this, can I as a faithful Catholic continue to take myself and my family (my children haven't gone yet) to this dentist without fear that we could be harmed spiritually or in any other way? I need discernment about this. I take this quite seriously. I do not want to put myself or my family in harms' way, but I still really would like to continue to go to this dentist, if at all possible. Say, considering the worse, that he was involved in new age practices. Can we still go to him as a dentist, doing spiritual warfare--if neccessary? Again, not all homeopaths or osteopaths or those in the alternative medicine field practice new age. Many are very orthodox in their approach, but also look to more natural things to help. This is how I view this dentist. The problem is that in today's societies, it's so hard to discern who is pracricing someting contrary to our Faith or harmful spiritually to ourselves or our loved ones, like doctors. I guess this question can open up other discussions. For instance, if it was wrong or harmful to go to a holistic doctor for whatever reason, would it be equally as wrong or harmful to go to a mainstream doctor who practiced contraception? We might have control over this, but what about going to hospitals who practice abortions. I even heard there are supposedly Catholic hospitals who practice reiki. What is our world coming to? Or what about taking prescription drugs from pharmaceutical companies that produce contraceptives and abortaficients? This would mean that we, as Catholics, couldn't take any prescription drugs, because they are produced from wayward companies that produce intrinsically evil products...we could go on and on, but I think you get the point. Where do we draw the line? Anyway, Brother, I respect you and I sincerely request your advice, as a fellow brother in Christ Jesus, our Lord, regarding our continuing to go to this dentist. My guess is that because we are not going to receive any "new age" practice directly, such as reiki or psychics etc., that it may be ok (i.e., we are solely going to receive dental cleanings and services), but I want to be sure. Would you still pray spiritual warfare prayers--which we probably in this day and age should be doing regularly anyway--before I or children go to this dentist? or anywhere else for that matter in today's age? God Bless You! Tom