"Many times, the sincere people who leave our Church do not do that for what the non-Catholic groups believe in, but basically for what they experience; not for strictly dogmatic but for pastoral issues, not for theological but for methodological problems within our Church". This was said by mgr. Walmor Oliveira De Azevedo, archbishop of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) as he spoke today at the XII National Congregation of the Episcopal Synod. "Cults are really a huge challenge", he went on, pointing out that "many people who join different religious groups do not want to leave our Church but are sincerely looking for God". According to the Brazilian bishop, "most people who crowd the cults originally come from Catholicism. As soon as they enter such cults, they start to behave differently: they adopt dignified moral behaviours, leaving behind what they consider unworthy, in their lives as believers. So the Word they listen to becomes performative in their lives, feeds their spirituality and their choices to bear witness to the religious values they now internalise". Hence the need to ask oneself "why the performative character of the Word did not touch them before when they were Catholics" and "what have they found in these cults which they had not met before in our communities".
