BRAINWASHING AS CHARISM
Brainwashing is indoctrination in only one version of the truth when truth inhabits a spectrum of interpretative points of view—it works in subversion of truth because it imposes a way of proceeding that depends principally or solely on the exposition and proclamation of religious and spiritual authority. This way of pursuing the truth is unduly constraining because truth is advanced and attained in a variety of ways, e.g. the scientific method.
Bullying and censorship in Opus Dei entails spiritual abuse, including the abuse of the right of conscience and the right to information.
Propagation of the contingent claims of the Opus Dei cult—often enough, questionable and objectionable—transgresses the basic obligation of the Roman Catholic clergy to teach the truths of the Roman Catholic faith.
“Can. 528 §1. A pastor is obliged to make provision so that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish; for this reason, he is to take care that the lay members of the Christian faithful are instructed in the truths of the faith, especially by giving a homily on Sundays and holy days of obligation and by offering catechetical instruction. He is to foster works through which the spirit of the gospel is promoted, even in what pertains to social justice. He is to have particular care for the Catholic education of children and youth. He is to make every effort, even with the collaboration of the Christian faithful, so that the message of the gospel comes also to those who have ceased the practice of their religion or do not profess the true faith.”
—“Title III. The Internal Ordering of Particular Churches (Canons 460-572),” Code of Canon Law
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2021/12/three-capital-sins-of-opus-dei.html
One important negative—I would even describe it as evil—attribute of the institution is that indoctrination, meaning, rote recital of doctrine, which in Opus Dei is a mixture of what is true, what is religious opinion, what is possibly untrue, and what is plainly untrue—is given precedence over truth—religious, spiritual, and/or scientific truth. Now, this systemic attribute of the institution is ungodly and in some cases even evil, because God is Truth itself, so that the search for truth and the propagation of truth is godly. Indoctrination in what is not true, either wholly or in part, is ungodly. If Opus Dei propagates the true doctrine of the Roman Catholic faith, it is doing the work of God, surely, but in many instances the institution is propagating its own bigotry, biases, wrongheadedness, and untruths—and it propagates these ideas as if they were dogma, that is, as claims to be accepted without questioning and sometimes even without understanding. This habit of indoctrination is in my view the result of demonic influence. We can place the distorted construction of Escriva in this category—his inflated, imaginary biography is the propagation of untruth, and for what purpose, we might ask? It is to propagate the organization. The organization has become its own end, an idol, in fact, substituting the worship due to God alone, according to the first and second commandments.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/is-opus-dei-cult.html
begin
...Some similarities between Focolare, Opus Dei, and Legion of Christ
Even though each founder has received a “divine inspiration” and each movement possesses its own peculiar “charism”, (unity for the Focolare, holiness in the ordinary for the Opus, evangelization of the world for the Legion of Christ), it is evidently clear that they all possess the same sectarian aberrations which play out in similar characteristics:
end
—“Legion of Christ, Opus Dei, Focolare Accused as Sect-Like Aberrations by French Catholic Experts,” Regain: Religious Groups International Network, translation of an article by Pascal Hubert, La verité vous rendra libres, Golias, Magazine, #174, Mai-Juin 2017, pages 2-13
The article is pointed and incisive, and we observe the underscoring of thought control.
...Thought control is probably the most defining characteristic of the latter-day cults in the Church.
Therefore, while I don’t have any detailed recommendations as of this time—the subject requires thoughtful deliberation and careful argument—I would say that for a start any reforms should begin by dismantling the mechanisms that illegitimately maintain thought control over the members.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2021/07/cults-were-established-and-maintained.html
begin Another Opus practice that disturbs critics is censorship. Escriva said, “Don’t buy [books] without advice from a Catholic who has real knowledge and discernment. It’s so easy to buy something useless or harmful.” To ensure good reading habits, a division, euphemistically called the Department of Bibliographical Studies, categorizes books, newspapers, magazines, and films. One circle means that members should exercise care when reading or seeing the work. Only Opus Directors or specially trained members may read or see material with two circles, three circles means the work is prohibited to all. In the third category are Marxist theory and liberation theology. …Members are discouraged from reading the works of twentieth-century writers unless they are by an Opus Dei member or sympathizer. Opus is particularly insular about theology, sending its seminarians to study at its own institute in Rome and discouraging any theological innovation. “Intellectual control is so complete,” said a Spanish priest and former Opus Dei member, “that members accept a life without discussion of anything.” A former Colombian member agreed that the lack of intellectual freedom contributed to a tendency among members to be imperceptive about themselves and to attribute all criticism to ignorance. end
—Penny Lernoux, People of God: The Struggle for World Catholicism (1989), page 311
“Spiritual childhood demands submission of the mind, which is harder than submission of the will. In order to subject our mind we need not only God’s grace, but a continual exercise of our will as well, denying the intellect over and over again, just as it says ‘no’ to the flesh.”
—The Way, 856
What is problematic about this regime of censorship in Opus Dei is that it unjustifiably assumes that religious and spiritual authority is infallible in adjudicating truth. Yet we know that religious and spiritual authority in the Roman Catholic Church is infallible, or at least claims to be so, according to a very limited domain—far, far smaller, certainly, that the all-encompassing scope of Opus Dei’s Index of Forbidden Books. Opus Dei’s system of intellectual control, therefore, amounts to, simply, brainwashing.
In Opus Dei, truth is sacrificed on the altar of asceticism, through the “mortification of the intellect.”
The Opus Dei regime is particularly abusive when it comes to the so-called “spirit of Opus Dei,” which is accorded the status of religious dogma. By far many aspects of this “spirit” do not deserve anything approximating the seal of infallibility.
See “The Infallibility of the Opus Dei ‘Spirit’”:
http://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-infallibility-of-opus-dei-spirit.html
And “The Fourth Level of the Magisterium”:
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-fourth-level-of-magisterium.html
Also, “The Fallibility of the Ordinary Magisterium”:
...There are many aspects of the Opus Dei “spirit,” such as deception, manipulation, and the violation of fundamental human rights, that are demonstrably unchristian. It would be immoral to insist that the “intellectual submission” of Opus Dei members to questionable and objectionable beliefs and practices is religiously mandated, or virtuous, especially when the voice of conscience resists.
begin “Problems of perseverance”—as they are known internally—start when the discipline proper to Opus Dei is called into question.
“Problems of logic”…dialogue becomes impossible [because] there is no dialogue at all, only one possibility: “The spirit must be to obey or to leave” (The Way, 941). Given the absence of dialogue, you leave.
…Escriva used to say he was a defender of freedom. However, he did not allow members [of Opus Dei] to discuss any aspect of the Opus Dei way of life. end
—E. B. E., Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016), pages 302-303
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/placeholder.html
Opus Dei would...engage in “brainwashing”—invoking the obligation of obedience and attractively exhorting the pursuit of holiness, Opus Dei directors would subject the members to physical stress, especially sleep deprivation, and to incessant—in some cases, daily—indoctrination and to censorship, both of which imposed undue restrictions on their intellectual freedom within the Roman Catholic Church, in the process denying members their right to information and in particular their right to informed consent.
This regime of brainwashing equates to a type of intellectual rigorism.
At first members would submit in goodwill to the ascetical regime, which would be gradually restricted over time, increasing in intensity and severity. It would be concomitantly joined to cognitive and behavioral programming in extremist belief and practice.
Gradualism in the imposition of a controlling regime accounts for the difficulty many members underwent extricating themselves from the cult.
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2020/07/placeholder-4-of-4.html
“Mussolini is always right.”—Benito Mussolini
“When…you think you are right, you must know that you are completely wrong.”—Saint Josemaria Escriva
https://oddsandendsgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2017/11/placeholder.html
Some excerpts and commentary from Opus Dei as Divine Revelation (2016) by E. B. E.—it is an English translation from the Spanish, not fully corrected, so I have made appropriate corrections of my own.
...The Opus Dei member is always wrong if he or she diverges from Opus Dei authority:
begin “Ninety-nine percent of the problems we have are the product of our imagination: they are snowballs that we create, unreasonable reasoning, a deception we create to hide our concupiscence.” [J. M. Escriva, “Noticias,” August 1966, p. 8]
...If a member feels that he or she is not being comprehended by the organization, there is no chance that Opus Dei could have something to do with that situation. The only two possible causes are blamed on the member who feels that way: the lack of intelligence or the lack of humility. end
—pages 232-35
YOU’RE ALWAYS WRONG
“You’re just wrong!”—Alan Dershowitz, CNN, February 5, 2011
Op Art image is in the public domain.
ReplyDeleteBrainwashing image is licensed for personal, non-commercial use. See:
https://clipart-library.com/clipart/n1031043.htm
Gonzalinho