Cults Inside the Roman Catholic Church?

 

CULTS INSIDE THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Is Neocatechumenate a Cult?

Article posted below has undergone minor editing.

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF MENTAL CONDITIONING INSIDE THE NEOCATECHUMENATE COMMUNITY

The organization called The Neocatechumenal Way has given rise to doubts, perplexities, and opposing opinions within the Catholic Church for many years. Some people, whether they are lay or ecclesiastical, see the Way as being a blessing of the Spirit. Other individuals, likewise of importance, consider the Way to be dangerous in doctrine and methodology; they have compared it to a sect, having come to call it “a church within the Church.”

The Neocatechumenate insist their intention is to return to a way of being in the Church that’s similar to that of the first Christian communities. The Way defends itself from accusations of being a sect by saying that they are being persecuted. The Neocatechumenate insist that whoever follows this path will be able to bring about very radical choices, and, therefore, that this person will be subject to persecution just like everyone who seriously follows Jesus in his or her daily life.

Since I used to be in a Neocatechumenate community for many years, I’d like to write 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 the 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.

Before I begin, I’d like to take this opportunity to clear up the meaning of the word, “sect.” For some scholars, the word comes from the Latin secta, past participle of the verb sequor, which means, “to follow.” Therefore, a sect is a group that teaches doctrines that a person follows. Other scholars contend that sect comes from the Latin sectus, which is the past participle of “to cut.” “Sect” in this respect then would be a group that has cut itself off from the body.

Whatever the correct etymology is, the term “sect” has taken on deeply negative connotations in the world today. It connotes closed-mindedness and greatly limited participation in the “outside” world, meaning that those who don’t belong to the sect don’t share the same ideas and activities as those in the “outside” world.

The limited amount of space here prevents me from giving an in-depth account of all the types of sects there are. That would be useful to see whether the Neocatechumenate is an example of a sect. Despite the limited discussion of sects, I hope that what I have to say here will be cause for reflection.

The subject of psychological conditioning inside a sect is still the subject of debate among scholars. According to Frank (1974), the mental processes used to draw a person into a sect are very similar to those used in psychotherapy where one of the results is the development of a reassuring relationship between the psychotherapist and patient. In a sectarian organization, the follower, in the company of the brothers and sisters of the community, feels better and is able to face life’s problems with more serenity and confidence. The other people in the organization often become the unconscious projection of a reassuring father or parent figure.

Sectarian organizations have always been accused of what is commonly called “brain-washing,” but today the term “thought reform,” coined by Lifton (1961), is preferred. The person who becomes part of a sectarian group modifies his or her behavior. The change comes about so subtly that the subject hardly ever perceives it. It is quite a different story for those who are close to the subject and notice the changes, sometimes even radical changes. Thus, we have the term “conversion.” But is it a true conversion?

For those of you who are not familiar with the Neocatechumenal Way, it is necessary to provide a brief description of what happens to the people who belong to it over the course of many years—sometimes twenty or more years, depending on a person’s “spirit of conversion.” Whoever reaches the end of the Way will be able to affirm that he or she has understood what baptism is or, even better, he or she will have rediscovered it.

Very often, the person who joins the Way is either a relative or a friend of someone who already belongs. This member talks about the Way with such enthusiasm that it borders on pedantry; he or she feels compelled by some “missionary” duty to share the “wonders” of the Way with other brothers and sisters.

Whoever decides to get in touch with the movement has to participate in fifteen catecheses which in general are held in the parish every other week. After completing them, the member is obliged to participate in a “convivence,” meaning, a time of living together, which starts on a Friday evening and finishes on Sunday afternoon; from participation in this activity the community will be formed.

The “convivence” elicits a crescendo of feelings and new experiences. The experience—especially for someone who has never been a person of faith—triggers something in the person so that they decide to become very deeply involved. It stirs and awakens something that is present in every person: the need for what’s holy and for meaning in one’s life. Unfortunately, sectarian organizations profit from these needs.

The “convivence” starts off with a very suggestive rite called “skylight.” The room is left completely dark for a few minutes. Then a presbyter enters the room holding a lit Easter candle that rips through the darkness. On a Saturday, after a long catechesis on how the Hebrews prepared for Passover and how the Jewish Passover paved the way for Christian Easter, the community celebrates the Eucharist according to the ways set forth by the Neocatechumenate for Saturday evening celebrations: an altar is decorated with flowers set in the middle of the church with the brothers and sisters of the newly formed community, and the catechists circled round it.

During the Prayer of the Faithful, anyone can pray out loud, freely expressing whatever feelings he or she has. Even before the presbyter’s homily, anyone “can share with his fellow brothers and sisters what the Lord has communicated to him in the readings and how his life has changed because of the Way.” Opening up oneself to others is a very important element of the program. By revealing oneself under the light of what’s read in the Scriptures, one gives a personal existential interpretation to one’s own life. Personal disclosure also prepares one to open up to the brothers and sisters of the community about the most hidden things, unconfessed ideas, facts, and episodes in his or her life.

However, what is an apparent liberation becomes a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if the “brother” or “sister” feels “liberated,” “released,” and accepted, it’s because the catechists continuously repeat, “God loves you as you are.” On the other hand, the person who has confessed realizes that every lay person there now knows every little nook and cranny in his life. This knowledge creates an ambiguous dependence on the community. Lay people are not held to the secret of the confessional like a priest is, so, as one can easily imagine, by self-disclosure of the “brother” or “sister,” community members become armed with the potential for gossip that is certainly not edifying.

The Neocatechumenal celebration of the Eucharist ends with a final dance based on that of David around the Ark of the Covenant of God.

The community follows a biweekly rhythm made up of activities to prepare for celebrations: celebration of the Word, and Saturday evening’s celebration of the Eucharist.

Usually, after two years, one gets to the “first scrutiny,” but whether community members reach this stage depends mostly on how receptive they have been to what the catechists have been teaching. The first scrutiny is supposed to be the member’s first powerful and moving experience. It’s at this stage that the follower starts to unveil the depths of his heart. At this stage, there is a strong call to “test oneself in the treasures.” This test consists in ridding oneself of those things one is most attached to, for example, money. The catechists “invite” you to donate something personal, something you are particularly attached to—it doesn’t necessarily have to be money, it can be jewelry or something else—to someone who would never know who donated it or where it came from.

During this rite, there is also a moment which can take on a dramatic quality for the person who experiences it. It’s the moment when every “brother” and “sister” has to say, in front of the whole community and the catechists, what his personal cross is. This moment is marked by very powerful emotions because to make one’s cross known—often confessing with tears and with great internal resistance—has a cathartic and liberating effect. Many people will lie at this point because they are too ashamed or embarrassed. It’s the first powerful stage in the Way, and at this point many people quit. However, the catechists reassure those who stay, “Not everybody gets asked to be salt and light. The Lord has invited you.”

An apparently stronger “I” or self-identity is thus created. One takes on the identity of the one who has been saved who’s a bit special—the one who is called on a mission for the Church. Not everyone has been given this chance. Subtly, the straitjacket begins to tighten. It tightens even more for those people who have a weak “I.” After a few years, they are unable to find any source of self-identity outside the Way or by relating to anybody other than the “brothers and sisters” in the community.

One year after the first scrutiny one faces the “shema,” or “Listen, Israel.” Here the community drives home the idea that a sign is necessary and that sign is to do away with valuables.

But the real turning point comes with the “second scrutiny” when the “Precatechumen” must make some big, serious decisions about his or her life in regard to being called to be salt and light. At this stage the belief that salvation lies only in the Way is emphasized even more. It is said that outside the Way one would be outside the Church. Often the catechists repeatedly tell the ones who have tried to quit, “Outside the Way you’ll be with the dead because this is the road the Lord has chosen for you.”

Similar statements are repeated at other occasions and for other reasons. On page 20 of “The Orientations for the Catechist Teams for the Second Baptismal Scrutiny”—one of the “holy texts” of the Neocatechumenal Way—Kiko Arguello says, “I saw a parish priest who spent his whole life battling against us and who hated us. It only took one night when he was struck with a tachycardia so strong that he started taking his life seriously, and he completely changed.” Therefore, according to Arguello, that priest had to experience a providential tachycardia in order to accept the Way! Many stories like this are frequently told among in the community, especially by the catechists. The storytelling influences the members to see the Way as the only way, or at least, the best way that the church has to offer them.

The second scrutiny is characterized by the renouncing of one’s “idols,” so-called. Once the members have passed this stage, they are requested to turn over ten percent of their earnings. This donation is made in the same way that all the collections are done in the Neocatechumenate. With contempt and scorn, the contributions are put in a bag called “the garbage,” making money a negative symbol.

Next, the Way has the “initiation to prayer.” After the appropriate catechesis, the brother or sister discovers or re-discovers the beauty of prayer and begins to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. Couples who “walk” the Way together are taught that children might be another example of our “idols,” so parents are asked to sometimes leave them at home at night with the babysitter, grandparent, or someone else if the parents—in a moment of pity–decide to spare the children the long-windedness of the evening celebrations!

Another step is the “Redditio,” where the Creed or “Traditio” are given to the “Neocatechumen.” After this, the “Neocatechumen” tells the story of his or her whole life in front of the entire assembly, often interspersing the story with details about how much the Way has changed his or her life. Then the “Neocatechumen” recites the Creed. The Way ends with “election” and the renewal of baptism.

Such a brief account allows me to give only the gist of the Way and to leave a considerable amount out.

I would also like to offer a few considerations. Throughout the Way, a subtle and imperceptible control is exercised over the individual by his or her taking part in the community. In fact, in the beginning, the commitment is relatively light—one must attend only two weekly celebrations and take part in their preparation when necessary. In doing this, a person ever so slowly takes on a language and a way of doing things that is nearer to the spirit of the Way. Everything in his or her life begins to change in relation to the Way, which is claimed to be the only thing that can bring satisfaction to one’s life.

Information is kept secret. The texts the catechists use aren’t published. Once a parish priest was told there were no reference texts, and then he was told, “You, too, must convert…you haven’t reached that phase of the way yet”!

By carrying out the duties of the Way, which catechists tag as “time given to God,” a person is persuaded not to have to think anymore. When one conveys any kind of doubt or perplexity, one is told that it is the influence of Satan who wants to lead him or her away from God. When someone has temptations of this kind, he or she is usually told to speak about them with the catechists. Slowly, the catechists begin to run your life. Knowledge about one’s past sins is used to control, or worse, to denigrate him or her. After many years, one becomes deeply convinced that the catechists are never wrong!

One of the most serious things is the control exercised over a person’s emotions through the use of guilt and fear. The first catechesis talks about the baptismal pool which one must submerge into in order to look at one’s sins in the face. One catechist has said, “You must go down into the sewers in order to rise up again with Christ.” Another catechist has said, “The community begins to grow when you begin to argue with each other and hurl out of you all the putridity you have inside.” This way is very different from what the Church teaches us about conversion, “metanoia.” The Church reminds us above all that we are saved by the love of God and that he makes us feel the joy of his mercy even in the midst of our miseries.

Laying on guilt—which is quite different from humbly recognizing oneself as a sinner— is one of the most important methods used to control a person’s feelings and emotions. Humility is badly interpreted when a person is led to reject him or herself, which leads to alienation. Making a person feel guilty develops a personality which tends to hold up an ideal that’s out of reach so that the person ends up feeling guilty for not being able to live up to that ideal.

Members of the community are indoctrinated that they are part of a privileged elite in the church. They are told they are destined to bring salvation to the people they work with and to their families, and they are even sent to missionary work abroad, which we see in the case of “itinerant catechists.” Catechists’ typical expressions include, “The Lord has chosen you and has invited you and no one else.” This and other similar expressions persuade people to believe that they have been “specially elected.” This conviction unconsciously satisfies a frustrated sense of self.

Another characteristic of the Neocatechumenate is the zeal with which they carry out what the catechists, and most of all, the founder of the Way, tell them to do. For example, community celebrations don’t take place in a church but 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 altar, paten, chalice, cross, songs, etc.

Whoever has become accustomed to this way of doing things for years will find it incredibly difficult to separate one’s relationship with God from this way of living one’s faith in the Church! The Way creates a psychological dependence so that a person ends up controlling others in the community and demonizing everyone else, including bishops and presbyters, who don’t share the Way with them. One catechist said, “It’s good that we have bishops and priests who don’t believe because this disbelief strengthens us in our journey. It’s a sign that we are on the right path.”

Many of those in the Neocatechumenate seem to have lost their critical and logical faculties, faculties which define a true Christian. Scriptures say that the true Christian is one who makes sense of his faith! It’s true that many in the Neocatechumenate criticize the Way, but they don’t have the courage to leave it because they identify the Way with the Church. 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!

At the Passover Vigil a euphoric and self-aggrandizing atmosphere is created inside the community. The vigil is celebrated throughout the night, and it is during this time that young children are baptized. As time goes on and these children grow up, they will be subjected to a dubious religious formation.

Speaking of children, the Neocatechumenate are prolific because they are very pro-life. However, since children mustn’t be idols, they are left in the care of baby-sitters or grandparents until late at night because God comes before all things and God is identified with the Way. In the second scrutiny, when one is asked to dispose of the idols in their lives, who knows if anybody in the Neocatechumenate ever once suspected that one of their idols might just be the Way itself! Many forget that a way must be a means to arrive at God and not an end in itself.

I’d like to wrap up these reflections on the Way by summing up the following:

1.    Kiko and his catechists have reigning authority. What one catechist once said is telling, “Even priests should become part of the Way and convert!”

 

2.    Those who follow the Way consider themselves to be predestined and chosen to become the salt and light of the Church for the world.

 

3.    Members of the Way are promised salvation by accepting the Way as a style of life that’s unique and for a privileged few. Often said by the catechists is, “If you take on this way, you will have the spirit of Jesus Christ. We feel that’s been true for us in our lives.”

 

4.    The community exerts a huge amount of pressure on its members. Members are subject to iron-handed discipline in the Way. As the catechists say, “It will bring you to the point of having to make a radical choice in your life.”

 

5.    The Neocatechumenate create an attitude of segregation against those who do not take part in the Way. People who are excluded include Christians who are part of the Church, those who are active in other Catholic movements, even Catholics who go to Sunday Mass. Personally, I have seen many people who are richer in mercy than most in the Neocatechumenate!

 

6.    Followers of Kiko focus on missionary activities even if they have large families.

 

7.    After the second scrutiny, members must turn over ten percent of their monthly earnings, but on top of that there are collections for other purposes! No yearend budget is ever produced from all the fundraising. The catechists justify this lack of accountability with the evangelical teaching, “Don’t let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.” So, I have to ask myself, why does every parish and ecclesial body have a finance council? Contributions, income, and expenses are made clear across the board.

 

8.    Often, without even realizing it, the Neocatechumenate take on a language, a particular jargon that makes them stand out and distinguishes them from others.

 

9.    Generally, the Neocatechumenate react quite violently when someone criticizes the Way. They try to avoid the subject, or, as is especially the case with the catechists, they resort to dialectics—a sign of who is the better sophist. Once I was really struck by how a person from the Way reacted to a man who said he didn’t believe in it. At first the follower of the Way calmly gave his own personal life’s testimony. Even though he was vulgar in his criticism of the pope and bishops, he didn’t get angry until the moment the man criticized the Way. Hardly an example of loving one’s enemy according to the spirit of the cross!

 

10.  The Neocatechumenate often feel persecuted, and they demonize those who don’t belong even if those people should be considered their brother and sisters in Christ. Sects typically demonize those who don’t think like they do because they need to create an external enemy—a scapegoat—upon which they can target all their individual fears and anxieties.

To grow in the faith is to grow in love, not to busy oneself for years with a lot of activities, preparations, celebrations, passing through different stages, or anything else. Many in the Neocatechumenate have this illusion that it is “carrying out deeds,” “doing things,” and “being active” for many years that brings about personal conversion.

People should be told about a document that was published by the Holy See in 1986 by the Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity. It was titled, “The Phenomena of Sects or New Religious Movements: A Pastoral Challenge.” On page three, in reference to the intolerance present in sects, it says, “a similar spirit can be encountered in congregations of people who belong to churches or ecclesiastical communities.”

Now, let me ask a few questions that still have no answers: Why are the texts by Kiko so rigorously held secret? Why doesn’t the Neocatechumenate make their income contributions public? Have they never considered that criticisms made against them, both doctrinal and methodological, just might have been made out of love for the truth and not made by persecuting devils that have a grudge against them? Seeing how familiar they are with the Word, haven’t they ever reflected upon that verse from Hosea that says, “Faithful love is what pleases me, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6).

Copyright (c) 2000 Fundacja Antyk. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone.

For further information: http://members.xoom.it/alterinfo

To send comments or to request copies of this transcript (in Italian or on English), write to: alterinfo@mail.xoom.it

—“The Psychological Mechanisms of Mental Conditioning Inside the Neocatechumenate Community,” 2000. http://www.antyk.org.pl/wiara/neokatechumenat/inside.htm (accessed April 2011).

Kiko Argüello

Although the article is somewhat dated, it still raises the question—so far inadequately addressed—about how the institution, the Roman Catholic Church, allowed organizations, cults, so harmful and sometimes lastingly damaging to the faithful, to propagate themselves successfully, in the tens of thousands of members globally, with official approval?

It is apparent to analytical and observant third parties that the hierarchy—Saint John Paul II particularly, under whose authority and approval abusive cults had flourished—are reprehensibly negligent for coopting the spiritual abuse cults represented.

It is also apparent that at the time and even in the present day as well, that the sociological dysfunction that cults beget along with the psychological harm they inflict has been poorly understood by the hierarchy from a scientific standpoint. Depending exclusively or inordinately on theology for interpretation, with inadequate scientific understanding, the hierarchy allowed cults to spread under the rubric of allegedly salutary spirituality inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Is Focolare a Cult? 

Article posted below has undergone minor editing.

THE CULT OF CHIARA

Starring prominent film and TV actress Cristiana Capotondi in the role of Lubich, directed by Giacomo Campiotti, director of the 2002 TV series Doctor Zhivago starring Keira Knightley, and filmed on the original glorious locations in Trento, the Dolomite mountains and Rome, shooting on Chiara Lubich - Love Conquers All was completed in mid-2020, amidst the strictures of the pandemic. This production followed in the wake of feature films reverently depicting the saintly lives of other 20th century Catholic colossi such as Mother Teresa and John Paul himself, both already canonised remarkably fast, while Chiara Lubich’s cause for sanctification has passed through the diocesan stage and is currently careening through the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints at warp speed.

In an article by Ferruccio Pinotti in the Italian major daily, Corriera della Sera, which appeared the day after the screening of Chiara Lubich - Love Conquers All, former members of the Movement protested strongly against the white-washed image of Lubich and the Focolare Movement presented in the film. Many ex-members have recently brought charges of abuse of authority and mind control against the organisation, they pointed out, not to mention a major investigation currently underway in France against an internal member of the Movement for sex crimes against minors and a cover-up by its leaders over many years. At this point in time, they suggest, Focolare should be taking a much humbler attitude, rather than continuing to blow its own trumpet in the triumphalistic fashion which has always been its hallmark.

Of course, Lubich herself, represented in an idealised manner in the new film, cannot be held directly responsible for recent examples of sexual abuse by members of the Movement. There are core aspects of its culture, however, such as extreme secrecy, manipulative use of authority and the priority of protecting the Movement’s image and status at all costs - which were developed under Lubich’s sixty years of leadership - that can directly facilitate this kind of abuse.

My book The Pope’s Armada, published 25 years ago, was the first international investigation into the Focolare Movement and other similar ‘new movements’ in the Catholic Church. It was also the first to point out its similarities to organisations generally termed cults (see previous post: The Pope’s Armada: 25 years on). But at the centre of it all is the personality cult around Lubich herself - the Cult of Chiara.

Looking back, I can now see clearly, from my own experience as an internal member of the Focolare Movement for nine years, the almost invisible induction process I was put through from the moment I first encountered it at the age of seventeen in 1967. There was a great deal of talk about ‘understanding’ aspects of the movement - as though this were a kind of private revelation, like evangelicals and charismatics talk of baptism in the Spirit, or apparently random individuals are the ‘elect’ in doctrines of predestination. Leaders of the Movement - none from the UK at that time as I was the first English Catholic man to become a full time member - would declare who had ‘understood’ Chiara (the word used was ‘capito’, in Italian, the Movement’s official language); who had ‘understood’ her ‘spirituality’, (known as ‘the Ideal’); who had ‘understood’ its essential points such as ‘unity’, ‘Jesus in the midst’, ‘Jesus Forsaken’. Although the latter appear to be ideas drawn from the New Testament, they had to be ‘understood’ in a very particular way, the way Chiara repeatedly re-defined them in speeches and pamphlets. At the beginning, end and centre of it all, however, was ‘understanding’ Chiara.

When I was based at the men’s Focolare community in London, the leader of the male section of the Movement in the UK, a priest, would frequently issue decrees during our evening meals on who had and who had not ‘understood’ Chiara, ‘unity’ etc. Pope Paul VI, for example, had been a loyal supporter of Lubich and the Focolare Movement from the early fifties, having defended it from enemies in the Vatican long before he became Pope and later, as Pope, met frequently with Lubich, offering warm encouragement. But he, according to our leader ‘had not understood Chiara’. Furthermore, one of the Movement’s greatest proselytisers in the UK, a saintly Benedictine priest who had introduced hordes of new followers to the Movement, we were instructed, had also ‘not understood Chiara or the Ideal’. Pope John Paul, on the other hand, who, among other favours, donated the audience hall at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo to Focolare as its expanded international conference centre, had understood Chiara and was referred to by the term ‘popo’, a word from the Trento dialect meaning ‘child’, which in the Focolare lingo signified someone who had definitively ‘understood’. On one occasion, Chiara Lubich showed remarkable cheek at a formal dinner when she suggested to John Paul that he was also a member of the Movement.

As a very young man, I found these imperious decrees alarming; had I truly ‘understood’? Apparently I had, as, gradually, more secrets were revealed to me through ancient reel-to-reel tape-recordings of Lubich or privately circulated documents - flimsy sheets of pale and fuzzy carbon copies. I learned, for example, that we internal members of the movement were one soul and that Chiara was at its centre: the source of all understanding. In her own words: ‘There is no unity except where personality no longer exists’ (Nuova Umanita (2007/6) 174, pp 605-611) [Note] or ‘Every soul of the Focolare must be an expression of me and nothing else’ (unpublished manuscript, Rome 23/11/50). Particularly alluring were tidbits we were fed of Lubich’s summer of visions in 1949, known as ‘the Paradise of 1949’.

There was strong encouragement for the internal members to recognise Lubich as our true Mother. The first time I saw her in person at a week-long meeting held at the Movement’s centre at Rocca di Papa, near Rome, the leader of the male members of the Movement in London stood behind me during one of her speeches whispering in my ear, ‘Don’t you feel she is your Mother?’ In meetings restricted to internal members, we sang what were virtually hymns to Lubich, addressing her as ‘Mamma’. On the other hand, our real mothers were somewhat reduced in status by the nickname ‘mammine’ (little mothers).

We were also encouraged to write personal letters to Lubich about our spiritual progress in the Movement. And also to ask her for ‘new names’ (after all, doesn’t the mother name the child?)  One of the male leaders in the Movement was known as ‘Maras’ (Maria Assunta), an acquaintance of mine was dubbed ‘Alleluia’. Some of these names seemed like a joke - such as ‘Ignis’, a make of white goods, or Sprint, which was bestowed on a young Swiss girl. On request, Lubich would also give out a personal ‘Word of Life’, usually a brief quote from the New Testament. We genuinely believed that these choices were inspired and destined for us alone, even though Lubich knew few of us personally.

I wrote to ‘Chiara’ dozens of times (these letters were screened twice - firstly by our local leaders and again by her personal multilingual ‘secretariat’ - to ensure that she would only receive letters that ‘would give her joy’ and presumably show we had ‘understood’). The only time I ever received a reply was via her personal secretary Guilia Folonari (new name: Eli), when I was living in the Movement’s new centre for men in Liverpool of which I was a founder member. I had written that I now realised she was my true mother. ‘Chiara was VERY happy with your letter,’ Eli assured me.

One practice I found difficult to accept was stampeding after Chiara and trying to get as close to her as possible whenever she appeared in public. But it was compulsory - otherwise you hadn’t ‘understood’.  In the early seventies, when I was serving my two year ‘novitiate’ at the Focolare ‘town’ of Loppiano in Tuscany, a young man from England turned up out of the blue, having seen a programme about Loppiano made by the BBC. I had been appointed his ‘guardian angel’ and, following a visit by Chiara Lubich at which he had witnessed the frantic expectancy, the cheering, wild applause, standing on chairs and near-hysteria at her appearance, and the way the crowds clustered around her until she managed to squeeze through the front door of her house, I asked him what his first impression of Chiara had been. ‘A bit like the Queen,’ he solemnly replied.

In her later years, the focus on promoting the figure of Chiara Lubich increased markedly. Tremendous efforts were focused on securing secular awards for her, including numerous honorary degrees in subjects as varied as Psychology, Business and Economics, Social Sciences and Art, and promoting her as a heroine of global significance, like Mother Teresa (see Chiara Lubich Wikipedia entry). It was rumoured in the period 1995-2004 that she would only visit centres of the Movement in various parts of the world if you had secured an award for her. Her major secular awards included the UNESCO 1996 Prize for Peace Education, the Council of Europe 1998 Human Rights Prize and the Grand Merit Cross from The Federal Republic of Germany.

If anything, the Cult of Chiara, far from diminishing, has vastly increased since her death in 2008. The cause for her beatification and canonisation was launched in Frascati on the outskirts of Rome in January 2015. To bolster this, many books have been written about her as well as the publication of many volumes of her own writings (enter Chiara Lubich in https://library.harvard.edu/) - odd, considering that she advised everyone else to ‘put their books in the attic’. Now the message of the Movement seems to be more than ever simply: Chiara. An extraordinary short film made by Focolare and available on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/275668720) shows a trip to Trento and the Dolomites by a group of Hindus from India, including distinguished academics, to learn on the spot the miniscule details of Chiara’s foundation of the Focolare Movement. A new kind of interfaith dialogue indeed!

…Pope Francis has recently spoken out against ‘self-referentiality’ - especially in reference to new Catholic movements. Here is a perfect example of what he is talking about: in the eyes of the Focolare Movement and its President, everything boils down Chiara Lubich. 25 years ago, in The Pope’s Armada, I included a long chapter called ‘The Mysteries of the Movements’ in which I defined the secret teachings of the movements as a new form of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism (see forthcoming post on Gnosticism in the new Catholic Movements), that is, ‘the fusion between Christianity and [ancient] mystery religions...a mystical [and heretical] form of the infant faith which promised its adepts access to secret knowledge which would explain its mysteries...Salvation through knowledge is far less of an effort than that which requires sweat and struggle - and faith.’ The Cult of Chiara is a key aspect of this Gnostic strand – i.e. the vital element is to ‘understand’ Chiara. Readers twenty-five years ago may have felt that I was pushing a point too far in stressing the concept of neo-Gnosticism in my analysis of the new Catholic Movements. Fascinatingly, however, Pope Francis himself has insisted in numerous recent documents on the dangers of ‘Catholic Gnosticism’ (Gaudete et Exultate, Apostolic Exhortation, 2018; Placuit Deo, 2018; Incontro del Santo Padre Francesco con la Diocesi di Roma, 2018 and many others). Although he does not give specific examples, he has certainly brought this concept firmly into contemporary Catholic mainstream thought and it can no longer be dismissed as exaggerated or a ‘conspiracy theory’ as some critics of The Pope’s Armada have maintained.

In recent years, many saints have been canonised too fast, with ensuing embarrassment for the Vatican - for example, Jose Maria Escriva, the controversial founder of Opus Dei prior to whose canonisation, the Vatican’s PR office had to enforce a two-week news blackout; Mother Teresa - whose canonisation miracles have been challenged - and Pope John Paul II whose cavalier dismissal of a number of high-profile sex abuse cases is now being questioned. In the latter case, it was the Focolare Movement who pushed his candidacy with the slogan ‘Santo Subito’! (Saint Right Now!) - with an eye on the future, perhaps? Yet it took the Catholic Church 500 years to canonise Saint Joan of Arc, now universally regarded as one of the outstanding figures in recorded history. At the end of his play Saint Joan, George Bernard Shaw, gives his sublime heroine the poignant prayer, ‘O God that madest this beautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive Thy saints? How long, O Lord, how long?’ Given the doubts expressed about Chiara Lubich following RAI’s new feature film, perhaps our plea to the Almighty should be, ‘Hold on, O lord, hold on!’

[Note] Nuovo Umanita is the Italian academic quarterly of the Focolare Movement.

https://popesarmada25.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-cult-of-chiara.html?m=1

—Gordon Urquhart, “The Cult of Chiara,” The Pope’s Armada 25, January 13, 2021

The foregoing report of longtime insider Gordon Urquhart indicates at least three attributes of a cult.

Secrecy of beliefs and practices

Personality cult of the founder

Thought control

The movement espouses Gnosticism or a religion of salvation through hidden or secret knowledge, with corresponding lack of transparency and accountability.

It promotes the personality cult of Chiara, an observance which is obvious, defining, and we submit, flagrant.

What is objectionable about a personality cult? It substitutes ethical principles for obedience to a person, with all their faults, failings, errors, and sins, which are rendered immune from salutary critique and set forth as exemplary and normative for the members of the cult. It makes God of a human being, in violation of the first and second commandments.

The first two features mentioned above inhibit, suppress, and censure critical analysis among the cult members, not to mention fresh recruits and outsiders, in effect amounting to a type of thought control accomplished through psychological and social coercion, or “intra-culturation,” which is characteristic of cults.

Although Focolare doctrines by their very character are esoteric, thereby calling for careful, responsible scrutiny under the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, given existing conditions of secrecy this type of audit is not possible.

It is this lack or absence of transparency and accountability that is one among the cardinal attributes of Opus Dei and its mirror movements.

Chiara Lubich