Legion eye candy

[One more update below which fleshes things out a bit.]

OK, Pete has shamed me into this -- and men may want to avert their eyes. I hereby posit that women operate differently when it comes to physical attractions. For all the women who want to say that we are no different than men and get thrills from the Chippendale dancers, it's not true. This goes for most women and not just women trying to keep custody of the eyes -- think of all those discussions in the last decade about "soccer moms' and what they want. They want security, they want to be understood, they need to be appreciated. Physical concerns are important, but only in context of the greater emotional needs.

What do RC women want? Pictures like these (which literally is labeled "side shot" by the web master). Now men will have no idea what a picture like this does for a woman, but it wasn't chosen at random. It has all the elements that intrigue women on a primal level. The tinge of grey in the hair denotes wisdom, the serious clean-shaved look is all about saving our souls, the seeming disinterest about the camera is the only "humble" way to operate and the long dimple in the cheek is something that every mother can relate to -- remembering such details in her own long-since grown little boys. This, my friends, is Legion eye candy.

What other religious order puts its authors on the cover the way the Legion does? What other religious order discerns priestly vocations in part by physical attributes? How can women not notice how they're being played? Well, because they're played so well. I wrote on Pete's thread concerning this, answering a question about why the husbands don't step in and break these bizarre ties:

Spiritual headship is not a trump card with these women because the Legion priests have undermined it all these years, teaching the women to wheedle their husbands for more time and money for the Legion. (There is a reason the women's sections always outnumber the men's sections.) For those who don't go to the brink of divorce (or split outright), there is a squaring off within marriages whereby the wife makes her RC commitments sacrosanct and the husband acquiesces for the sake of his sanity.

I've been present while the Legion pitches this. One Morning of Reflection, we were all led along the path: "You are princesses (because you are daughters of a King!)" Well, technically yes (though I like "You're a worm and no man" better). But many of the women were in tears. What the priest touched on cleverly was their brokeness, their insecurities, and their random experiences of abuse. He built them up, using his own brand of "self esteem potion" so that they were putty in his hands. They literally fought to cook for him and to be the most active and industrious volunteers in the coming years.

Was there something missing? Was there a God-sized hole in their hearts? Yes, but it was filled with the Legion's Mission and thereafter carefully stroked by the local LC.

Women are often a walking bundle of wounds -- especially after the sexual revolution, and with the normal busy husband attending to the needs of his growing Catholic family the wife wants affirmation. The Legionary priests specialise in affirmation. It may even be a course in their formation, for all I know. I do know that they do it well.

RC women are uber-grateful to the mothers who sacrificed their own sons for the Kingdom, and they want to make sure they eat well, are getting their rest, and have the motherly attention that every "boy" needs. The fact that Legion grooming is so meticulous thrills many women, whose own menfolk might be a little remiss in that area. (Did MM know this? Is that why he noted every detail in the norms?) While almost all Legionaries are handsome, there are the rock stars who have translated their earnest, chiselled looks into leading the largest sections, writing spiritual tomes of questionable depth and schmoozing the most eligible benefactors.

Men may say that Giselle has officially jumped the shark, but I didn't write this for them. Women know what I'm talking about, and women know when they've been played. Women have their own wicked ways of teasing which are all over the mass media, but just because orthodox Catholics recognise such vices for what they are doesn't mean that they cannot fall into traps of a different sort. The Legion sets those traps with care and springs them skillfully. I only put into words what has been done below the radar for decades.

UPDATE: Well, Pete doesn't get it. And I mean that in the best sense -- he's a guy! He doesn't get the pitch, because it's not pitched to him. To him, it's straightforward and blindingly obvious:

Beware of flattery. It's never from God and there is always some seduction behind it.

Now, as many have wondered, why can't a woman be more like ...?

UPDATE II: I think I owe readers an apology. I intended to call out the Legion's methodology in how they package their vocations. I sincerely didn't mean to dig at the Legionary priests themselves. There is a subtle distinction (in my mind, anyway) between attacking the "charism" that heavily weights these external attributes and the internal appropriation of the prized characteristics. Still, I don't want to detract just for the sake of it, and have intended to separate the intentions of the rank-and-file from the superiors. Sadly, the effect (as shown by many of the comments) often leads the rank-and-file into a superficial boondoggle.

UPDATE III: I wouldn't want anyone to miss this portion of a comment from an ex3GF:

We were told also that while starting an apostolate for high school kids, we had to make sure to get the popular, good-looking boys, even if we didn't have time to recruit anyone else. All the girls would come if the "alpha male" in their social group came -- this was practicing "vertex to base" or working through leaders. Though perhaps I should say "working through libido"? At any rate, it does not surprise me that the LC's have the same strategy.

WWJD? Is that what the choice of apostles was all about? I thought they were ruffians and marginal souls -- illiterate fisherman and the like (we won't even try to factor in prostitutes and tax collectors).  If only Jesus practiced efficacy -- imagine the difference from the outset!

Comments

[m]

I agree 100%. Looking at that picture at the top does arouse tons of emotion.

I think they play into the vanity, pride & sensuality of each member while pretending to teach them how to avoid each sin. It's a fine line that they walk.

[PaulM]

I think initially, of course, MM targeted handsome boys for his own ends. The Hartford Courant's 1997 piece quotes one of MM's first victims chosen to recruit for the Legion, `my instructions were to get the prettiest and smartest kids.'

Eventually, I'm sure Nuestro Padre realized the effect such "pretty boys" would have on the female element of RC. I recall overhearing a conversation my RC wife was having with another woman who came in contact with the Legion. Among other praises heaped on the fine, young lads, the other woman ended the conversation with: "and they're so good looking!"

See, you don't have to be an angel from heaven preaching a false gospel, you just have to have a chiseled chin and a Hollywood smile.

[ambivalentPC]

I agree with you completely. When I was in the precandidacy, none of us could blink an eye while our chaplain was talking. He was Spanish and had these huge dark eyes, but that wasn't really it. What got us were his words, like, "Christ is passionately, madly in love with you." That certainly fluttered the pulses of a lot of teenage girls! So we were "in love with Christ," but our image of Christ, unconsciously, looked an awful lot like our chaplain sometimes.

[anonymous]

The strong jaw line and the furrowed brow ... he's serious, he determined, he's capable...very attractive.

I remember Fr. Emilio being called "Fr. GQ" and Fr. Thomas Williams being called "Fr. What a Waste" by the coworkers in Rhode Island.

[HH]

I was in charge, among other things, of a photo archive of all the LC brothers and priests some years ago in Rome which Maciel used to identify LCs by name and face.

Fr. Gabriel Gonzalez was a good looking Mexican LC: a Maciel favorite, ordained four full years before the rest of his group with special permission from the founder. One day, when I was going through the photos (which consisted in one shot of each brother or priest taken against a wall or a tree) I found at least two dozen portraits of Fr. Gabriel, with all kinds of expressions taken by a professional. I found it really really creepy.

[HH]

By the way, at that time, he was a brother, about 24 years old.

[Pete Vere]

Hey Giselle, I'll see your priestly pin-up and raise you:

http://catholiclight.stblogs.org/archives/2009/09/let-us-prey.html

[Mouse from Am Pap]

Giselle et al.-- just wondering-- How does the LC attract young men to the priesthood if their priests are more geared towards snaring women?

In parish life, it seems like the ex-military manly priest types often foster a lot of vocations... you know, boys meet USMC and are more likely to consider a vocation because, look --priests are awesome!

So how does that work with the LC priests? Just curious......

[Anonymous]

Giselle,

This brought up a memory from the distant past. The very first time I heard of the Legionaries of Christ, I was approximately 16. My mother was laughing and teasingly chastising a girlfriend (an older married woman herself) for keeping a "pin-up" calendar of the Legionaries on her kitchen wall. My mother's friend exclaimed, "But they are so very HANDSOME!", and both women went into fits of laughter.

I just remember thinking what a waste it was (I WAS 16 after all LOL).

I had forgotten all about that, and I think it's pretty funny that that was my introduction to the Legionaries of Christ---- Order of the Pin-up Priests!

[gregorbo]

Don't forget the subtle lure of being chosen to be the object of affection among women. It may not be spoken out loud, but it cannot be lost on any young man with brains that he's been chosen to rub-elbows with all of these good looking men, while the poor, out-of-shape, suffering from acne schlubs just didn't measure up and ended up being asked to leave or leaving on their own account from lack of encouragement.

Puts me in mind of the ruined spirituality of Madame Bovary, sadly.

[Mouse from Am Pap]

greg-- That's a tad creepy. Though I guess the Jesuits appeal to a sense of the glamourous too... "We're academics! And we get Martyred a lot! And we're funny....."

But honestly...joining the priesthood so women admire you? um....ugh.....

[Still RC - For Now, Anyway]

I'm not sure that young men join the LC because they get to be admired by women. And I'm betting they don't see any Fr. Ken-Dolls while being invited to "test their call".

My guess is that the LC, who are masters of using whatever gifts God has given you to fulfill their agenda, trot out the more "manly" men to attract vocations - I recall hearing about one who was supposed to turn pro in football, for instance - those are the types of guys they use to attract vocations (probably lots of other seminarians and brothers who haven't gotten those "rough Alpha male" edges smoothed out of them yet).

Let's face it - the young guys join because they think these guys are winners for Christ and the Church - "real men" for a real cause. No way are Frs. Suave, Smooth and Don Juan responsible for getting those vocations - they are too busy working on the mothers of those young men.

[giselle]

Two more thoughts, now that I think of it:

Might not some of the Legion vocations be almost a conspiracy between the mothers and the LC's? And I find it odd that LC's cannot attend any sporting events and seem to have to suppress most of their intense support for their favourite teams. I know many men bond best with their priests through shared love of football and baseball.

[gregorbo]

"winners for Christ and the Church - "real men" for a real cause"

Precisely--and there is an image associated with these winners.

The appeal is still to vanity. Boys, no less than girls, like to be admired--whether for their brains, their looks, or their talents.

Over time, being valued for a superficial and, let's face it, an accidental attribute, loses its lustre for people who develop a mature spirituality--

I had one RC dad tell me that he didn't push his older sons toward a religious vocation because, frankly, until he met the Legion, the image of the Catholic priest, in his mind, was "uncool."

So--this immaturity of attraction based upon superficial virtues is not limited to RC women . . .

[anonymous]

I remember even hearing consecrated women talking about LC priests in a way that I thought was inappropriate and immature, commenting not on their holiness, but on their looks, charm, etc... One even referred to one priest as her teddy bear!!!!!!!

[anonymous]

I was always creeped out by those handsome priests and the good looking women that followed them everywhere.

It was just weird.

[giselle]

Let's be clear. There were the good-looking women. And then there was me :-)

[Katie]

I have to say I find the pictures highly embarrassing--in the same way Fr. Jonathon Morris' appearance on Fox and Friends (I think it was) was embarrassing.
They seem so AWARE of their looks, so aware of the impression their looks are making on viewers, which, next to sheer dissolution or lasciviousness, is about the most unattractive trait imaginable in men. To my taste at least. In priests it's much much worse. Alarm bells ring.

Giselle may be right that these poses appeal to wounded and love-starved women. But they seem to me to reveal a correlative woundedness and emotional immaturity in the priests aiming so to attract such women.

Mercy.

[Guestly One]

I never found the priests to be particularly attractive. Their looks were kind of boy-next-door pleasant, but not pin-ups. I found their personalities to be quite off-putting. They always seemed aloof and unable to actually hold a conversation. They were charming in front of a crowd, but very stiff and vacant one-on-one. And we supposedly were dealing with the cream of the crop.

The adoration of the RC women, though, was disgusting. Watching the priests set them up against each other was a real eye-opener into the true nature of the Legion. I could never understand how these smart, sophisticated women could be so blind to the way they were being played.

[LOL:)]

Hilarious!! Giselle you are gifted! LOL:)

[anonymous]

Do any of the LC reading this blog remember the class on "eloquence"? Psychology manipulation 101.

In our section there was a woman that the LC wanted to go inactive because she was stirring things up with her questioning of the methodology. Fr. Paul Moreau set out "make her life hell" so that she would leave. As he was treating her and her family this way he was doing the opposite with her close friends. He did not want them to leave. He worked overtime on all of them but one in particularly skillful way. He began to just show up on her doorstep and invite himself over frequently. There was a triduum of renewal that had 45 women attending so all of them had only 15 minutes for Spirtual Direction. He gave her 1 hour and 15 minutes. She was so flattered by this and when she returned she stated "I don't know what I will do if he ever leaves." Her biggest weakness is vanity and at mornings of reflection in front of all the women present he would single her out and sing her praises. He did the same thing with her children. Lots of yearbook pictures at the LC school, awards, etc... Needless to say she is hooked. Not to Christ but to him and the movement. He exploited her weaknesses for the sake of the movement. It was totally calculated.

[MariGold]

The side-shot and the shadow are such that this could be my own son. I do not know if it is or is not, but this is just the way he holds his mouth (is it the Legionary stiff upper lip? My heart skipped a beat when I saw this photo. If it is my son, then the photo is ten years old. But there was a photo-op shot taken at the Cloisters in NYC -- 2 LC seminarians, one of them very dear to me, who were walking together with that museum-cloister in all its perfection rising behind them, as if its name was Legion. What's put into the landscape is also eyecandy. I agree with all that you said, Giselle. Thanks.

[Fr. John Mary, ISj]

I have no intimate experience with the LC or RC. But I have been following these posts/comments with great interest.
The only real contact I have had with the LC was at an airport in the Northeast, waiting for my ride. I was in clericals and a young man approached me, wearing clericals, and identified himself as an LC seminarian. We talked briefly and I was impressed by his youth and demeanor. This was before all hell broke loose, so to speak. I pray for him, and his brother, who were both in the LC seminary near where I was teaching. I was a little taken aback by the "programmed" way he related to me. I'm used to a pretty informal manner, coming from the Midwest and dealing with seminarians who are older. This all makes sense to me, now. How sad. Little did I know what all was behind this young man's life in LC.

[Still RC - For Now, Anyway]

I have heard stories repeated from formators in our section who were actually a bit scandalized themselves to hear the women from another section describe, very inappropriately, the physical appearance of our section director. Seems he was quite the "hunk" to these other ladies and they were very blunt about it.

It's not the LC's fault that Fr. "Hunk's" physical attractiveness prompted impure speech and thoughts from these women. They are responsible for their own conduct and the potential scandal that they (could or did) cause by this conduct. HOWEVER, there is no doubt that the LC is very much aware of these little deviations (or maybe not so little) and, at a minimum, it is responsible for making sure that they aren't directly or indirectly encouraging the women. Of course the LC will take on no such responsibility because it benefits the LC to keep it going.

It's an "anything for the kingdom" strategy and you just start to wonder exactly which kingdom.

[Claire]

Still RC,

I think you are seeing this situation through rose-colored glasses -- not to mix a metaphor.

The sexuality/sensuality signals are at some level blatant -- as described above -- and at some level subtle. It seems as if the LC priests are recruited and trained to be sexually attractive -- all the better to manipulate the RC women -- but also to appear not to be trying to do so -- remember, they're so "good and holy". As Han Solo said to Chewbacca, "Keep your distance... but don't LOOK LIKE you're keeping your distance."

With the LCs -- judging from what is said above -- they are trained to provoke a feeling of intimacy with women -- and to exploit the women's weakness -- without LOOKING as if they're trying to do so.

It is really sick IMHO -- to use the Church and the priesthood in this way. What must Saint Joseph think of this? And Saint John Vianney?

As for the women -- wives and mothers -- the intercession of Mary, Virgin Most Pure, is needed, as always.