Madrid - «Spiritual life and the encounter with God engage the whole person: the affective, intellectual and volitionaldimensions.» That is the key line that opens the Doctrinal Note published today, 3 March 2026, by the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Spanish Episcopal Conference: a text devoted to the role of emotions in the act of faith, intended to offer criteria for discernment at a time when, in ecclesial life, experiences and methods that place strong emphasis on emotional impact are becoming more widespread.
This is a recurring weakness, especially in certain lay movements, when internal life centres on the social and identity dimension, while the maturation of faith and discernment remain in the background. In such contexts, forms of abuse of conscience, psychological abuse and sect-like dynamics can take root. A striking case is the Nuovi Orizzonti Community, where over time serious abuses of conscience and problematic practices in the management of people have been reported and denounced.
A valuable note from the bishops
The note bears a programme-like title, Cor ad cor loquitur (“heart speaks to heart”), echoing the motto of St John Henry Newman and the inspiration of St Francis de Sales: faith as a dialogue “from heart to heart”, a continuous movement between the “heart of God” and the “heart of man”. In this perspective, the Commission reiterates that faith concerns more than rational assent to revealed truths or the moral choice of a way of life: it also involves trust, knowledge, spiritual joy, love and peace - without reducing Christian life to a simple “thermometer” of feeling.
The bishops note “signs of a resurgence of Christian faith” and, in particular, the presence of new dynamics among young people (explicitly citing Generation Z). They view positively the creativity of first-proclamation initiatives and the work of the Holy Spirit which, through movements and associations, facilitates an encounter with Christ or a return to faith. Precisely to accompany this season, the note is offered as a tool for maturation: to help apostolic experiences grow, become more robust, and serve better those who draw near to the Church.
The drift into emotivism
The prelates warn against a drift that the note calls “emotivism”: the absolutising of affectivity until it is reduced to feelings and emotions, with a shift from “I think” to “I feel”. On the spiritual level, this risk takes shape when faith is measured by the intensity of experience, turning people into “consumers” of high-impact events and tireless seekers of the “gratification” of religious feeling. The Commission insists on one point: the proclamation of Christ does not exist to “produce” sensations; it exists to bear witness to an event capable of changing history and people’s lives, restoring the essential content of the Gospel to the centre.
The Spanish ordinaries also speak of very practical consequences. The text observes that emotivism makes manipulation easier: in society many public narratives play on emotions such as fear, hope or indignation in order to steer behaviour. In the ecclesial sphere, the note warns against similar dynamics: “emotional bombardment”, group pressure that induces people to “feel” like everyone else so as not to be left on the margins, and, ultimately, the graver issue of spiritual abuse. In this framework it also cites the danger of a “false mysticism” and the use of alleged supernatural experiences to exert domination over consciences or to enable other abuses, identified as being of particular moral gravity.
Emotions and faith: integrating, educating, stabilising
The text, however, does not demonise emotions. On the contrary, it states that the body and emotions are an integral part of psychic and spiritual life, and that ignoring or trivialising them would distort the Christian experience, rooted in the Incarnation. It appeals to Scripture, tradition and recent magisterium to argue that the affective dimension must be recognised, educated and integrated. The proposed line is a stable balance: feelings must remain bound to truth and goodness, because a faith resting only on changing consolations does not endure over time.
At this point the note becomes operational, offering criteria of theological-pastoral discernment for new initiatives in evangelisation. Among the principal points: a clear Trinitarian identity of prayer and liturgy; the personal dimension of faith as an encounter with a Person and not as an emotional technique; the need to be educated in the discernment of interior movements at the school of the great spiritual masters (with examples ranging from Ignatius of Loyola to the spiritual “nights” described by other saints); the objective dimension of faith, with attention to doctrine and formation; the ecclesial dimension, which calls for integration into the community and willingness to be assessed by the authority of the bishops; the ethical and charitable dimension as a criterion of authenticity; the celebrative dimension, with an invitation to avoid showy or unmoored liturgical forms and to safeguard the relationship between the Eucharist, adoration and liturgical norms.
The importance of the note lies in its precise target: to avoid extinguishing the enthusiasm and creativity of first proclamation, while providing a framework of ecclesial and spiritual security. At a time when many proposals rely on strong, immediate experiences, the document calls for processes of growth that lead to discipleship, formation, ecclesial belonging and concrete responsibility. It also sets a boundary against dynamics that, in practice, can slip from legitimate emotional participation in faith into forms of subjectivism, dependence on the group and vulnerability to possible abuses.
The conclusion is an exhortation “from pastors”: to embrace faith “in all its dimensions”, recognising the power of emotions within a healthy affectivity, so as to arrive at an encounter with Christ that is truly transformative, “from heart to heart”, with Mary indicated as the figure in whom the act of faith is fulfilled fully.
Fr.F.G.
Silere non possum