The Pope's Remarks To Charismatics A Few Days Ago

First a word of "personal disclosure".  For most of my young adulthood I was involved in the Catholic "charismatic renewal"; more specifically I was affiliated with Mother of God Community headquartered in Gaithersburg.  I am now an "ex-charismatic", to coin a term, and some reasons will be made clear.

At an address to a charismatic convocation in St. Peter's Square a few days ago, the pope uttered this statement: "It is preferable that every service, even in the Church, come to an end. There should be no lifelong leader. This happens in some countries ruled by a dictatorship."  IF he merely meant to refer to leadership as found in charismatic groups, I'll be the first to cry "AMEN!"  Let me provide a little "history-refresher".  During the mid 1990s, many of the charismatic groups, under leaders who firmly ensconced themselves into their positions, claiming divine unction in so doing, became cults (see right side-bar, to the bottom).  They utilized thought-reform techniques on their members; most members, not being schooled in psychology, fell victim to these techniques.  This was doubly true of younger members; I was among that number.  But eventually some members snapped out of it and took matters up with their bishops and the press.  This happened nationwide.  For Mother of God Community, that saga was chronicled in a series of articles found at Washington Post.  Normally I don't ascribe much credence to things proceeding from the Post, but I can attest to what was written therein based on my own 20+ years of first-hand experience.  I urge its review, for those who refuse to learn from history will repeat it.

If you read the series, you'll see that the problems stemmed largely from a stubbornly-entrenched leadership.  While our situation was playing out, so were several other situations across the country.  I'd not be surprised if this happened world-wide.  In this context, the pope's remarks are understandable.  I do wonder about the "every service" part, for that language does encompass the papacy itself, regardless of intentions.  Given past miscues, I'm not inclined to just write it off to sloppy verbal presentation.  Was he utilizing a very real problem in recent history to undermine the life-long office of the Vicar of Christ?

We now move to another part of this address.  Speaking of the murders of Christians in the mid-east, he says, "If the enemy unites us in death who are we not to be united in life?"  First, our enemies don't "unite" us in anything.  Their murderous acts do not arbitrate who is Christian and who isn't.  What I just said is not intended as a judgment on those murdered, but merely to disavow us of the notion that muslim terrorist attacks determine our unity.  Second, how does real unity come about?  Through common belief in objective truth, namely, belief in the fullness of truth contained in the Roman Catholic Church.  There is no "short-cut" when it comes to unity. We don't just decide to "be united" and lickety-split, there unity is.  We Catholics must proclaim the truths of our faith and then others must accept them.  Without that, there is no basis to even pretend at unity, muslim terrorists notwithstanding.  By the way: in interests of "unity" and "ecumenism" we American Catholics backpedaled from preaching the fullness of our Faith to non-Catholic Americans.  That is why abortion, contraception and homosexuality are running rampant through our culture at this very moment.

Pray and offer sacrifices for Holy Mother Church.  Until she's set aright, I cannot see how there will be a channel for God's grace in a world that desperately needs Him.

How Groupthink And Political Correctness Are Damaging Faithful Catholics

Last Thursday at Our Lady of Lourdes in Bethesda, I attended a fascinating talk given by Stella Morabito-Green.  It was entitled "Living Faithfully In A Culture Of Fear", and it dealt with the threat of political correctness.  Her focus was on political correctness as it exists in secular culture and the very real threat it poses to faithful Catholics who seek to integrate their faith in all facets of their lives.  As I listened to her talk and related it to discussions I had been having on Facebook and elsewhere, I could see how even some faithful Catholics were embracing and even using some tenets of political correctness interlaced with groupthink.

Progressives have been quite adept at using political correctness, by seizing control of language and vocabulary to shape public thought.  Largely they've been successful because 1) most folks (including most faithful Catholics) don't understand the dynamics of group-think even though 2) they latch onto group-think as a means of social survival.  As she spoke, however, I could understand well what she was saying.  A little over twenty years ago, I had been involved with a "charismatic" group that had more and more assumed the characteristics of a thought-reform cult.  After many of us started questioning things AND the local church forced leaders to step aside, I left the group and started reading voraciously about thought-reform techniques, mostly from the Cultic Studies Journal.  Most cults exhibited similar behaviors.  The late Dr. Robert Lifton listed eight such characteristics.  As you read them, recall how the politically-correct left has hijacked certain words and phrases: "freedom of choice", "bigot", "homophobe", etc.  This is what Dr. Lifton would have called "loading the language".  Here is another summary on characteristics of cults.  As I go through the discussions in which I participated, I'l try to remember to point out these cult characteristics as I saw them at play.  You might want to keep these pages open and refer to them as I relate the examples in following paragraphs.

The "Answer" According to Real Catholic TV

As promised yesterday, here it is.  But read below for my opposing viewpoint.



As we know, in matters such as these, there are many areas in which good faithful Catholics can disagree -this is one of them!  With all due respect to those good and sincere people associated with Opus Dei, I now issue my "caveat emptor".  As you examine the site that Voris recommended, I suggest that you review the materials of the Opus Dei Awareness Network at http://www.odan.org/.  What you'll read are the accounts of ex-members of Opus Dei who relay their stories of how they were subjected to subtle thought reform and increasing mental control.  Note that there are few complaints about the doctrine espoused therein; the focus lies in how they were treated.

Opus Dei is by no means the only group to practice such tactics.  There have been similar complaints about Regnum Christi; the sad, sordid story of Father Maciel is a typical tale of what can happen when one or few people exercise near-total mental/emotional control of their followers.  Other of the "new liturgical movements" have come under similar fire: Focalare, etc. 

Some of you might recall that some of the "Catholic charismatic" groups also were caught up in such practices and some shut down by their local bishops; with this last scenario I am all too familiar as such was my experience.  I therefore know first-hand the harm that can be done - in the name of God - by individuals who seek to arrogate total authority over other people.

Therefore I disagree most vehemently with Mr. Voris on this topic.  Opus Dei is no answer and in fact may well bring its own slew of serious problems.