Cults Were Established and Maintained under John Paul II, the Saint

Saint John Paul II and Father Marcial Maciel Degollado

CULTS WERE MAINTAINED AND ESTABLISHED UNDER JOHN PAUL II, THE SAINT

John Paul II, the saint, should be faulted for allowing the proliferation of cults under his reign. By their defining attributes, cults are necessarily psychologically and spiritually harmful.

No matter how virtuous the man, John Paul II, in the individualistic sense of the word, his policies with respect to the occurrence of cults in the Roman Catholic Church can hardly be described as impeccable.

When we evaluate the legacy of an individual, we should take into account not only their personal conduct but also the influence of their ideas upon those over whom they exercise authority and upon the larger world. In this regard their influence has a structural and systemic aspect.

The article below is recently published—2017—yet it repeats critical statements, decades ongoing, about the proliferation of cults in the Roman Catholic Church (or Church, for short).

Highlighting in boldface is mine.

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...What is a cult-like aberration? (Fr., dérive sectaire)

According to France’s Interdepartmental Mission to oversee and combat sect-like aberrations (acronym Miviludes), it has to do with the “corruption of freedom of thought, opinion or religion” characterized by “the employment by an organized group or an individual (…) of pressures or techniques aimed at creating, maintaining or exploiting in a person a state of psychological or physical subservience, depriving them of part of their free will.”

The characteristics usually associated with a cult-like aberration are the following: adulation of founder or foundress, totalitarian authoritarianism, blind obedience to the superiors, depersonalization, loss of identity and autonomy, recruitment pressure, harassment, proselytism, members informing on each other, being kept busy to prevent critical thinking, unhealthy relationship to money, moral and sexual abuses, verbal and physical threats to members wanting to leave. Based on numerous testimonies, Sister Chantal-Marie Sorlin [14], circuit judge in Dijon and chief of the CEF sect-like aberrations bureau, has drawn up four major criteria:

Personality cult; the founder takes the place of Christ,

Cut-off from the outside world: from family and from outside news,

Mental manipulation: fast recruitment, pressures, inducing guilt (“doubting is from the devil”), blurring the line between internal and external forums, forbidden to criticize the leaders in the name of holy obedience…

Practical incoherence (money, morals…).

One single criterion is not enough to define a group as cult-like aberration but when you have a handful of these signs you can start thinking of a pathological group.

...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:

Theological and moral conservatism,

Anti-intellectualism,

Aspiring to ecclesiastical and temporal power, based on their financial strength,

Tendency to function as a “Church within the Church”,

Strongly hierarchical structure,

Strict control of the members and the organization.

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https://regainnetwork.org/2018/11/04/legion-of-christ-opus-dei-focolare-accused-as-sect-like-aberrations-by-french-catholic-experts/

—“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.

We would remark that only the contemplation of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, has the capacity to fully satisfy the human heart. However holy, the saints do not even begin to approach this divine capacity, which is infinite.

That is why the substitution of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ with that of the founder of a cult is an especially harmful form of idolatry. It sins against the first and second commandments.

The following personal account of a priest formerly of the Legionaries of Christ is particularly revealing of the recruitment of youth by Church cults and the extremist control exerted over the proper exercise of their legitimate rights in the Church, notably that of their intellectual freedom.

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I am a Catholic priest, the pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Church, a large Catholic parish in Silver Spring MD, just outside Washington D.C.

In 1965 at the tender age of 16 I finished the Leaving Certificate at Drimnagh Castle and, with some 20 others, joined the Legionaries who were then at Belgard Castle in Clondalkin.

The postulancy ran through the summer months after which we entered the novitiate (two years) and then took our religious vows. I was sent to Salamanca in Spain for a year to study the classics and Spanish and from there to Rome for studies of philosophy. After three years in Rome I was assigned to the Irish Institute, a Legionary school in Mexico, where I worked from 1971 to 1975. I then returned to Rome and studied theology for the next three years. In 1979 I was assigned to the novitiate in Connecticut where I continued working at the novitiate until the summer of 1985 when I left the Legionaries of Christ. I am now a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington.

The question at the center of the discussion I heard on your program seemed to be whether the Legion was a religious order in the normal sense of the word or a sect. In my own experience the order combines elements of both realities . It is an extremely conservative order which has modeled the formation program for its students on the early Jesuits and much of its apostolate is copied from Opus Dei. It has a Constitution and Rules, specific apostolates and activities such as other order have.

At the same time the Legion uses many of the strategies and policies more characteristic of sects or cults and in this it parts company with mainstream religious congregations of the Church. Let me give some examples.

The order has the most high-powered recruiting program known to the Catholic Church. Numbers of recruits are important, seen as proof of the validity of the Legion and a way of impressing authorities in the Church. However, the screening process is minimal, and there is no true discernment of a vocation, of whether this way of life is good or healthy for the given individual. The good – human, psychological or spiritual – of the candidate is never a consideration. Everybody has a vocation to the Legion until the Legion decides otherwise. Once the order gains access to a young person, all its powers of persuasion and attraction are trained on the unwitting target.

The Legion recruits many young people, the younger the better, in their mid-teens for the novitiate, even earlier for their Vocation Centers. In these schools boys as young as 11 and 12 are influenced and guided toward a life in the Legion. These schools exist at least in Mexico, Spain and the U.S. (Center Harbor New Hampshire). The idea is to influence the person as early as possible, to “form” that person in the spirit of the Legion so that no other influence can distort or stain his vocation and “legionary personality”. He must be removed from any other influence. The youthfulness and immaturity of the candidate make him vulnerable to brainwashing.

Once in the order the person is subjected to the most intensive “formation” program, i.e. brainwashing. The Legion’s for this is ‘formation’. Brainwashing [boldface mine] is brought about by a combination of different elements which influence and control the person with great effectiveness: for example, ‘spiritual direction’ and ‘confession’. Canon Law states that seminarians and religious should have complete freedom to choose a confessor and spiritual director. In the Legion that is not the case, there is no freedom at all: all Legionaries have spiritual direction and confession with their Superiors, in the novitiate, through their years of formation and even as priests.

This is an aberration because it places the person completely in the control of the superior. It means that that superior who recommends or not a person for promotion to vows or orders or positions of responsibility in the order has access to the internal conscience of the person in question. Confession and spiritual direction are essentially tools in the hands of the Legion to brainwash the individuals to stay in the Legion, to convince them that they have a vocation from God to the Legion, to conform totally with the Legion and the wishes of the superiors, and a way in which the Legion gains total access to the conscience and mind of the person.

Legionaries are constantly exhorted to tell the superior / spiritual director everything , to hold back nothing, to have no secrets. Other tools of ‘brainwashing’ are the continuous series of conferences, talks, retreats, exhortations that the communities constantly receive and which repeat and reinforce the essential message.

In all this, the basic message, the bottom line, is that the members have a ‘Vocation’ to the Legion and this vocation is from God and they have received this vocation from all eternity. It is God’s will that they are in the Legion. If they are not faithful to their vocation they are endangering their eternal salvation, they risk damnation and hell. This message is a constant drumbeat throughout life in the Legion, perhaps the most consistent and all-pervasive ritornello that is communicated and repeated in many different ways.

From the moment he joins, a person in the Legion of Christ is submitted to total control in everything he does, everything he says, everything he thinks. The Legion refers to this as ‘integration’ and a Legionary must strive to achieve perfect integration of behavior, of mind and of will. This means conformity with the will of the Legion in everything. He must be transformed into the legionary personality and to do this must lose his own personality. All forms and expressions of ‘individualism’ must be stamped out. This is stressed from the very beginning. However, it is done in a subtle way, very gently at first, with smile and good humor, barely noticeable to the victim.

When we joined the Legion we thought it was a mainstream order like the Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits. We were deceived in that many things were not disclosed to us until a later date. There was always a shroud of secrecy – visits home, the apostolate of the Legion (Regnum Christi). The ground was constantly shifting and changing. It would take years before we would get the full picture.

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https://culteducation.com/group/1029-legionaries-of-christ/12707-one-catholic-priests-story-about-life-in-the-legion.html

—Father Peter Cronin, “One Catholic Priest’s Story about Life in the Legion,” Cult Education Institute

The author passed away on July 10 this year.

His account conveys important, credible, and relevant information about the cultic experience. It is worth reading in its entirety.

The article confirms for me that the Legionaries of Christ is similar to the historical Opus Dei. I always imagined the Legionaries as the clerical version of Opus Dei, the Legionaries a little more extremist.

Notorious among the latter-day cults in the Church is the Neocatechumenal Way, or the Neocatechumenate. Negative literature about it abounds.

See, for example, this page of links:

http://thoughtfulcatholic.com/?page_id=766

—Charles White, “A Critical Look at the Neocatechumenal Way,” The Thoughtful Catholic

Below is an excerpt of a personal, detailed account of the thought control exercised by the Neocatechumenate.

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Since I used to be in a Neocatechumenate community for many years, I’d like to write about some of my reflections. I want to make my small contribution to help people understand the psychological make-up of those who subscribe to the “Way”. Another motivation for me to write down my experiences comes from a book I read by American psychiatrist, Jerry Bergman. The title of the book was Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mental Health (1996) and in it I came across vivid analogies between the Neocatechumenal Way and the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

…The members of the community become inculcated that they are part of a privileged elite in the church; they are destined to bring salvation to the people they work with, to their families, or even in missionary work abroad which we see in the case of “itinerant catechists”. As is written elsewhere, the people often hear the catechists’ typical phrases, “The Lord has chosen you and has invited you and no one else”. This and other similar phrases let the people believe that they have been “specially elected”. This unconsciously satisfies their own frustrated sense of self.

Another thing that characterizes the Neocatechumenate is their zeal in carrying out what the catechists (and most of all, the founder of the Way) tell them to do. In the communities, in fact, the celebrations don’t take place in a church, but rather in a room. The altar has to be a table and the paten, the chalice, the cross, the lectern, and whatever else is used, absolutely must be signed “Kiko”! Everything borders on the maniacal! Once, a bride who was in a parish that wasn’t Neocatechumenal insisted that the ceremony be conducted in the style “inspired” by Kiko, with his cross, altar, chalice, paten, songs, etc...

Whoever has been accustomed to this manner for years finds it incredibly difficult to separate one’s relationship with God from this style and to live one’s faith, still in the Church, but in a whole other way! It creates a psychological dependence that makes the person end up controlling others and demonizing everybody, too, including bishops and presbyters, who doesn’t share the Way with them. One catechist once said, “It’s good that we have bishops and priests who don’t believe because this strengthens us in our journey; it’s a sign that we are on the right path.”

Many Neocatechumenate seem to have lost their critical and logical abilities [boldface mine] – faculties which make a true Christian. The Scriptures say the true Christian is one who makes sense of his faith! It’s true that many people criticize the Way, but they don’t have courage any more to leave it because they identify the Way with the Church. Perhaps they don’t know or they don’t want to know that the Church is a place that’s much more spacious and free than the church Kiko and his catechists present!

A euphoric and self-aggrandizing atmosphere is created inside the community which reaches its culmination at the Passover Vigil. The vigil is celebrated throughout the night and young children are baptized. As time goes on and these children grow up, they will be subject to a religious formation that is very debatable.

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http://www.internetica.it/neocatecumenali/english/mental-conditioning.htm

—“The Psychological Mechanisms of Mental Conditioning inside the Neocatechumenate Community,” Is the Neocatechumenal Way...Roman Catholic?

It’s about time—long overdue, I’d say—that Church authority puts up the guardrails necessary to protect the faithful, clerical and lay, from the abuses of cults operating inside the Church’s formal structure.

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.