Is Homeopathy acceptable for Catholics?

To my great surprise, I received an email from the other side of the world. She had Googled for “Catholic homeopath,” found my website, and emailed to ask for my thoughts regarding homeopathy and its acceptability within the Catholic Faith, as well as clarification regarding certain principles in homeopathy. Below is her message and my response, edited to protect privacy.

Inquiry:

My name is XXXX. I am from XXXX. I am a practicing Catholic. 

I wanted to please ask you for some clarification regarding homeopathy as it has been warned in the Vatican document 'Jesus Christ The Bearer Of The Water Of Life.' I know you mentioned already in some way about homeopathy, but I appreciate your help to clarify what you mean by vitality, how it works with the dilutions, water memory, and sucussions and making the dilution potent and what is the energy and frequencies that work with this medicine.
Thank you for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.
In Christ,
XXXX

My response:

Hi, XXXX!  Thank you for writing.  

I was pleased to get your email, as this is a topic I'm deeply dedicated to within the Church and the homeopathy community.   

First, homeopathy is true medicine, based in science, and scientifically researched.  It is not spirituality.  It's natural medicine, just like herbalism is natural medicine, and food is natural medicine.  I completely understand and respect your concern and caution, as this was my concern.  One of the reasons I went to homeopathy college was to study for myself if there was anything intrinsically concerning for Catholics who want to use homeopathy as a holistic health modality, and I am 100% confident that there is not. 

Do people take homeopathy and incorporate it into their spiritual beliefs?  Absolutely.  We see people who are New Age, witches, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu incorporate it into their beliefs - and that is a massive issue for Catholics and non-Catholic Christians who reject those things.  But homeopathy in and of itself is not related to those things and is spiritually safe.  

Second, historically, the Catholic Church has not only not condemned homeopathy for use among Catholics, but also has promoted the use of homeopathy through popes using homeopathy (Pope St. John Paul II), by rewarding homeopathic doctors and researchers, and through the normalization of its use.  

Third, "Jesus Christ The Bearer Of The Water Of Life" is not an encyclical by a Pope.  It is a working document, a "study," which they call a provisional report.  It simply lists various practices and this is taken from a book about New Age spirituality where the author mentions these various approaches in holistic health.  It's notable that the author is not a Catholic at all and has been dabbling in esotericism for a long time.  His list of holistic health modalities also refers to massage, 12 step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, and herbal medicines - all of which are spiritually safe, in and of themselves.  (St. Hildegard of Bingen would be pleased to know that herbal medicine is mentioned!)    

Other points:  

That document was published in 2004.  In 2016, Mother Teresa was canonized.  Mother Teresa used homeopathy in her work with the poor, and several of the homeopathic doctors who worked with her continue working with the poor now.  The Vatican could not have canonized Mother Teresa if it was condemned by the Church previously.    

Exorcist Fr. Ripperger approves homeopathy. 

Read more about the Church and homeopathy here: https://joettecalabrese.com/blog/homeopathy-and-catholicism-saintly-and-wholesome-medicine/

Finally, you asked about vitality and how it works with the dilutions, water memory, and sucussions, and making the dilution potent and what is the energy and frequencies that work with this medicine.  I will give you a shortened version of the long answer to this, which is too complex for email and, really, requires a dissertation on it. 

Vitality or Vital Force is simply the old timey medical language of the 1800s that they used because they were limited at that point with scientific discoveries that were yet to come.  Vitality is homeostasis - balance within the whole person.  Vital Force just means the autonomic nervous system and how it keeps you in check.  One definition is ‘Metabolic equilibrium actively maintained by several complex biological mechanisms that operate via the autonomic nervous system to offset disrupting changes.’        

We know a little about the mechanism behind homeopathy because scientific research is still catching up to it.  You might like to read this article from an interview with Luc Montagnier about how he inadvertently became the poster-boy for homeopathy when he and his scientific research team discovered dilution and succussion and their ability to potentize water through the electromagnetic signal transfer in that process.  https://homeopathy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AH18-The-Facts-Cannot-Be-Denied-interview-with-Luc-Montagnier.pdf

I hope this is helpful to you!    

Mary Sheiko