Mrs Malaprop responds to Fr. Mammon, Legionary of Chrisis Fundrazor

Catholic Orders and Movements Accused of Being Cult-like: Intraecclesial Sects?

 

Book Review - Catholic Orders and Movements Accused of Being Cult-Like: Intra-Ecclesial Sects?

By J. Paul Lennon

Reviewed by Wm. Kent Burtner

Many who are not familiar with the Catholic Church tend to view the institution as monolithic and, at least in its pre-Vatican Council II (1962–1965) manifestation, autocratic. One might be tempted to think that, with a tightly constructed hierarchy and a strong Roman bureaucracy (the Roman Curia), “everything is under control” at all times and places; and in some things this has been true. But as an institution with more than a billion members whose day-to-day activity is mostly seen and governed at the local level, there are lots of interstices for movements involving many people to arise and thrive. These openings are considered by some as where the “wind of the Spirit” blows, where innovation, adaptation, and change develop and move from minority-held ideas and practices into the majority.

One such example of this is the Liturgical Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries. A renewed interest in the forms of official Church worship led to study and reflection on its history and development, and in particular the use of the language of the people in worship. And the central form of worship in the Church, the Mass, is now almost universally celebrated in the vernacular.

Not all new movements in the Church are so easily understood. Some of them bring a new juridical style, involve lifestyle changes, such as living in intentional communities, where members are to be obedient to persons who exercise new roles in the Church and require frequent interaction with like-minded members. Although not all such groups are problematic, some have manifested regrettable qualities in varying degrees, even to the point of making the extreme coercive control over individuals we have seen in modern cults look like child’s play.

The challenge that these groups present to the Church is that many of them seek or have obtained the formal sanction of the Church’s officialdom. One such example is Opus Dei, which obtained under Pope John Paul II the status of “personal prelature,” which in one effect means that a person may be recruited into this group without ever having studied with or enrolled in a typical Catholic parish. Some groups acquire official status under the authority of a local bishop or archbishop. And the behaviors of some problematic groups have become so egregious that their status has been revoked. The difficulty is that there exist opportunities for a narcissistic sociopath to establish a group that, to the outside world, looks virtuous and energetic, and stands for good theological teaching. And, as J. Paul Lennon presents to us in his book, Catholic Orders & Movements Accused of Being Cult-Like: Intra-Ecclesial Sects?, such groups are alive and well; and some of their behaviors have too long avoided the notice of Church authorities.

Lennon makes clear that, when questions of abuse come to light, Church authorities generally make the mistake of choosing experts to make an investigation who are specialists in theology, not those educated about coercive control and manipulation. Thus, asking the wrong questions, they often miss the essential problem within the group being investigated. (A significant exception to this was the “pastoral visitation” conducted in 1991 by Bishop Albert Ottenweller of the Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio into the structure and operation of the charismatic covenant community there. Bishop Ottenweller’s team included, among others, Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer, an internationally known expert on cults; Fr. James Lebar, principal author of Cults, Sects and the New Age, and this reviewer.1) Lennon aptly notes that the majority of these new groups adopt a more traditional theological position, much to the chagrin of more traditionally minded Catholics, and thus they are much more likely to deflect the inquiring eyes of theologically oriented investigators.

Lennon gives us a series of case studies, concisely written, with notes and references to ICSA’s list of cultic qualities,2 which leave us to wonder about some groups, and to breathe a sigh of relief that others are gone. Lennon’s notes and references are well selected and valuable. He also gives references and quotes from appropriate Church documents and a section on help for concerned family members and friends of people getting involved in questionable groups. But the strong value of Lennon’s book is that it sounds an alarm that Catholic authorities need to heed to protect their flock from the harmful effects of intraecclesial sects.

This book is a must-read for several groups of people: Catholics who are concerned about the influence of groups such as Opus Dei and the Neo-Catechumenate, or those who know someone coming under the influence of one of a variety of new movements within the Catholic Church; and Catholic bishops and pastors who are approached by members of new movements within the church who want to operate within their jurisdictions, or who are approached by concerned family members or friends about the involvement of people in such groups. Members of other church communities who see new movements within their ranks will also find this book compelling because there are similar organizations in other church communions. Those who find the evolution of high-control groups an interesting study will find much that is familiar here, too.

A reading of Catholic Orders & Movements Accused of Being Cult-Like: Intra-Ecclesial Sects? will leave the reader hopeful that Lennon’s research will lead to an increasing awareness of the diversity of malignant narcissists and the depth of their range within the Church. Indeed, this book is an important step toward that end.

Notes

[1] The Bishop Ottenweller Report: Report on the Pastoral Visitation of the Covenant Community, The Servants of Christ the King, requested by The Most Reverend Albert H. Ottenweller, D.D., Bishop of Steubenville. https://www.dropbox.com/s/djhhcaj7x1sma8x/

Ottenweller%20Report.pdf?dl=0

[2] Langone, M. (2015). Characteristics associated with cultic groups. ICSA Today, Vol. 6, No 3, 10.

About the Reviewer

Kent Burtner, M. Div., M.A., served as a Roman Catholic priest of the Dominican Order for 20 years, resigning from the priesthood in 1994. He subsequently served as program manager for an interfaith social-services agency, director of the agency’s Cult Resource Center, public-information officer for a local county public-health department, and parish business manager. A published author, Kent has also lectured extensively in the United States, Canada, and Spain. In 1983, he received the Leo J. Ryan Award from the Cult Awareness Network for his work educating the public about cults and thought-reform programs. Kent makes his home in Portland, Oregon and as a pastoral counselor has consulted with more than a thousand individuals or families about the cult affiliations of their loved ones and about adjusting to life after leaving a cult or other high-control group. wkburtner@aol.com

2- Bene Factress & Legion of Crisis Connection

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ENGLISH-MEXICAN readers, BENE IS BACK AGAIN AFTER A LONG HI ATE US! ENGLIS-MEXICAN BLOG, Your favorite Spanglish author translator cantaor and escribidora aprobada por la Real Academy Espanyola

"Sí, soy you", as they say in Mexico lindo y querido. I learned all my Spanglish from my rebelde son, Romeo, who is currently porotesting in the Agustín Barrios of Kenosha, Whisk-on-Sin

 Así son las cosas as my husband, Mr. Solano, used to say in his best Paraguayan Spanish when he was the dictator of Paraguay, back in the day.

In his latter days, as you can see from the image, he had to ganarse la vida in Asunción playing in the city square facing the Church of Santa María de Jesús.

Sic transit gloria mundi as they used to say at the Vatican (threw in a bit of Latin to show I was educated by the Legionaries of Christ, the Mexican dis-order that vies with the Jesuits for the most vocations and riches and with the Opus Dei for the best recruiting methods).

Haste la vista, babies!

Bene Factress Reinserts herself after long High-Ate-Us

Bene Factress reinserts herself and explains long high-ate-us

See original bestseller




                                     

 

Dear Fans,

You will have been raking your brains over the past several moons because of my ausencia as they say in the language of Cervantes but now I am in a position to explain everything to your satisfaction the hiatus is all due to a herniatus in my left groin which suddenly appeared out of the blue one morning as I was practicing my Pontius Pilatus and up popped the weasel which scared the daylights out of this honorable widow who has not known man as the Bible says since the death of my dearly beloved Jose so it was certainly not a little snapper that was saying good morning to me.

I put myself in the hands of a female sturgeon because of my female condition not wanting to be touched by impure hands and involved in me too and I am glad I chose a medcine please note French word with impeccable credentials from the Sorbonne and from NIH near Washington DC home of the Grabber of Delicate Parts and she was able to pronounce a dial-knosis of free-mural hernia if you don’t mind which is important for women to know as it is inherent in our gender not to use the word hembra but as I was saying this was a femoral Herr-knee-ah and the position is different from the masculine gender to avoid the Spanish word varoom. But anyway it was a success and I am back in the saddle again without any discomfort and ready to hit the trail again with the posse.
Please excuse the explicit sexual constant in the above post.
 

!Hasta la vista babies! 

I am alive and well, Thank you very much

Dear Fans,
i want to explain in this posting why the long highateus from my previous posts.

His Holiness was Here!

 I had the privilege of a private audience with the papacy

in his private chambers at the Apostolic Annunciation in Washington, DC,

And not because I had refused to hand out marriage licences to contra-naturam or

because I had been abused by Catholic priests (well, only a little bit, and that did not qualify because it was by a nun Sister Mary Achinhead the foundress of the Daughters of the Sacred Heart of the Holy Spirit Discalcified)

And not because I had just founded a new order splinter group from Fr. Maciel's Regnum Christi promoters of the Mysterious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, "Free at Last!"

And not because I am a staunch defender of Greek Un-Orthodox priestly celibassy

or because I organized the World Day of Families in Philadelphia to keep the masses going to mass

NO! it was because I was the mother of two sons, one an imprisoned Conscientious Objector against the war in Iraq Iran and Axles of Evil, the other a reservist who killed as many as he could in the line of duty currently hospitalized with PTSD at Veterans Administration....The Pope understands my Pain.

My Herniatus

I must beg the pardon of my ardent followers who seek me with baited breath and have not found me as the Holy Scripture says as they seek me like the  dear seeks water in the woods. But urgent business took me overseas to Irak to see the aftermath of my son's involvement in that just war brought on by Sad-dam Hussein and his Evil Empire that wanted to wipe out civilization until he met his Waterlew at the hands of our fearful leader who often jumped before he leaped in pursuit of truth and justice for all man or should I say human kind to include women and children.

Eliza Lynch, President of Paraguay's Paramour and Patriot is Bene factress' great grandmother

 

A little know fact is that Eliza Lynch from Co. Cork, Ireland became a Paraguay heroine by a very tortuous path

What is less known is that Bene Factress is her direct descendent and that Bene's letters were collected by her son ROMULO LYNCH-SOLANO:  see the author ship which you may have overlooked in your zeal to pick holes in the Hull of her head piece forgiving my mixed metamorphosis.

http://www.amazon.com/Legion-Crisis-Factress-Romulo-Lynch-Solano-ebook/dp/B006RQ7M4S

Eliza Lynch, the Irish woman became ‘national heroine’ of South American country in the late 1800s.

Eliza Lynch, the ‘Queen of Paraguay,’ is to be honored in a commemorative weekend in her native Charleville in Cork on September 19-20.

Lynch was born in Charleville in 1833 to John and Elizabeth (nee Lloyd) Lynch. Her father was in the medical profession and moved in the upper echelons of society.

Lynch was the lover of the 19th century Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano Lopez and the mother of his seven children. 

She also became a national heroine in her adopted country. She fought alongside Lopez during the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) in which Paraguay was fighting against Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.

Lopez and the couple’s eldest son were both killed in the war in 1870. Lynch buried them in the jungle with her bare hands.

In 2009, Michael Lillis and Ronan Fanning published ‘The Lives of Eliza Lynch— Scandal & Courage’ which revealed Eliza’s Irish origins and her marriage at the age of 16 to a duplicitous French Army officer. In the book they reconstructed the systematic invention of her image as a prostitute around her first meeting with Solano Lopez, which occurred in Paris in 1854, the Irish Independent reports.

The commemorative weekend will include a seminar on her life by Lillis and Fanning and a screening of a film about her starring Maria Doyle Kennedy.

In 2013, Lynch’s great grandson, His Excellency Miguel Angel Solano Lopez, the ambassador of Paraguay to Ireland, visited Charleville to visit her birthplace.