How to form a cult

An excellent article was noted on the last [now unwieldy] thread, so we'll start fresh. How To Start a Cult outlines the critical elements that may very well have been embedded in the Legion from the start. It usually begins with "quality, ambitious, hardworking" members of like mind, with "above-average intelligence" and "high ideals."

There is also mention of peripheral difficulties that allow the member to throw himself into the group whole-heartedly. While this doesn't have to be universal, it speaks to the comments at the end of the last thread which suggested that dysfunctional people are more comfortable in a dysfunctional group (the corollary being that very healthy people are often repelled by the atmosphere). I think that's generally true (I've written in the past about how being an adult-child of an alcoholic shielded me from grasping the red flags, and RC life was simply a baptised version of my previous existence.) But that said, there were plenty of wonderful people whom I would never accuse of being unhealthy -- I'll reserve all judgements to the system, not the people (and thus a system that made them do highly questionable things).

See what you think, and perhaps this article will jar a few more truths loose, so that we can assess our L/R experiences even better.

Comments

[nat]

Msgr. Boehm: "Always preface your decisions by saying: 'God called me to do this, or say that,or stay here,or go there.' You're not doing anything on your own. God is calling you to do whatever is at hand. It's all God's will, not yours. And all the time you have your own hidden agenda fixed in place"

We should rely on God's assistance and then take personal responsibility for our decisions. Equating our will with God's is a red flag that we are not being straight with others, our self, and God. It's the perfect thought stopper.

To parallel Screwtape: we never recognise as pride our determination to get what we want, however troublesome it may be to others. At the very moment of indulging our pride we believe that we are practicing humility.

(Screwtape: "she never recognises as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others. At the very moment of indulging her appetite she believes that she is practicing temperance").

[Dilbert]

It is always helpful for the leader to let everyone know that all decisions are made while meditating in front of the Blessed Sacrament to prove that each major decision is authentic.

[Scipio Africanus]

In fact, all letters from Maciel and from Alvaro began with a frase like: "after considering it in the presence of the Eucharist...". At least the most recent ones begin "after consulting and obtaining the approval of the General Council". Maybe there is not much difference in content, but at least they are taking their responsability

[The Monk]

With regard to the notion that "dysfunctional people are more comfortable in a dysfunctional group (the corollary being that very healthy people are often repelled by the atmosphere)."

I think a link that I posted for Aaron and WiserThanEver on a prior thread might add something to this new discussion. (I'd certainly welcome feedback!) In my consulting work I come across many business situations and organizations that have a lot in common with the mistakes made by MM and his methodology. Dysfunctional leaders wreak havoc in whatever organization, business or clerical, where they find acceptance.

http://www.jackkeogh.com/Lessons%20in%20Leadership%20Feb%202011.pdf

[Lauretta]

Jack, when you used the term mistake for Maciel's actions, I just cringed. I don't think he made "mistakes". I think he had a well-defined plan in his head and did what he needed and wanted to do to bring that about. Mistakes imply a certain innocence to one's actions. I don't think what Maciel created was done by accident.

[The Monk]

Lauretta,

Let's not get lost in semantics! I'm don't know which use of the word "mistake" you are referring to.

Instead, I submit that between my book, blogs (English and Spanish), positive review of Francisco Parga's scathing denunciation of Maciel's abuse and contributions to this forum, it should be clear that I don't accuse Maciel of "mistakes."

Maciel was far too smart to achieve the success he did by accident. Whether he had a "grand plan" from his youth we don't know. I think it more plausible that he fell prey to the identifiable "derailers" in his personality and eventually exhibited perfidious behaviors and results which are not unlike those of many other dysfunctional leaders. Cf. some of the recent corporate (mostly banking/financial) scandals most often led by men without consciences combined with narcissistic/charismatic personalities, which enabled them to achieve and misuse great power on the shoulders of willing accomplices and hapless followers.

[New Here]

I can not thank this blog enough. These are great articles. The Monk in particular has always been right on, putting into words my experience.

[Little Light]

My first experience of the Legion was very positive - anything but dysfunctional. RC did not exist in the US yet except in small pockets and through Mexican transplants. At the same time I met Miles Jesu brothers who imitated the Legion even with wearing the same suit. These guys were more towards haphazard but nothing close to dysfunctional. Most people don´t get the idea that the Legion is dysfunctional since they seem so organized, structured and seem like happy chaps. it is only when you get into the meat and potatoes that you see there are troubling issues and the deeper you go, the worse it gets. Much like the Hotel California song I once quoted...I guess with Miles Jesu the situation was even more pronounced - the deeper you went, the worse things were...

The Legion eliminates most dysfunctional people in their selection process. it would be hard to enter the Legion as a dsyfunctional person. Everything the Legion does has a goal, but you may not know what it is even if you ask. But that does not make the Legion dysfunctional.

[giselle]

@Little Light: I'm speaking to the RC experience, of course, since it's my only means of integrating. We only ever saw the outside of LC priests, but once you got into a confessional, the nuttiness began. Dinner guests? Picnics? Chatting after Mass? All perfect, but then that sort of gloss was well managed; it was a priority that had to be effective for the sake of recruiting.

[Little Light]

Ok, thanks.

[The Monk]

Giselle,
I think your comment reinforces something I suggested before - the consecrated women's experience of LC priests had to be different and difficult.

The type of confessor and SD assigned to 3Gf duties was special, super integrated and vetted to make sure there would be no issues (chastity) with the girls (they were all young - and quite attractive! - in my time.) That selection process made sure that your average, "normal" LC, wasn't in touch at all with them.

I have no idea whatever you (and others) experienced in the confessional. I can only imagine an extremely narrow and controlling perspective, based on myriad rules and regulations with no knowledge whatsoever of the female psyche.

Personally, I "recruited" one of my very best female friends to the 3Gf. From the moment she "joined" she could no longer have any contact with me, nor I with her, even though I was a priest and a "superior."

Thankfully, the night before her "consecration" she called me, told me of her experiences and decided not to go ahead. I was delighted knowing what I did after her telling her story. She remained very close to the RC consecrated community for some years and then broke off all contact with RC. We remain friends and I've learned so much from her experiences - and others I have been in touch with since they exited. I must say that the ones I've been fortunate to know don't have horrific memories and seem to be doing extremely well in the lay world. However I have no doubt at all that the 3gf experience was extremely unhealthy for many.

One of my peers, a priest, left shortly after me. A principal motive for his departure - which we both discussed at length - was how the RC consecrated women were being subjected to norms we thought to be idiotic and psychologically unhealthy. I believe these came almost directly from MM and his closest collaborators in the foundation of RC. Indeed it was when I first started to be convinced that his approach was unhealthy. Believe it or not, most of this only came to light, after the foundation of the RC in Cotija. That's when the first serious alarms went off in my head.

However, I still believe the average Joe LC has no idea what we are talking about because of the absolute separation between the LC and the consecrated female section.

I would add that many of the first men assigned to deal with the women's groups had absolutely no idea of female psychology and had been formed in a somewhat misogynistic environment in the seminary.

[WiserThanEver]

Little Light, You stated that they eliminated the dysfunctional ones. On the contrary, I found that they kept the cold, emotionless and subservient ones who never questioned their authority. They seemed to let go of the ones who had character and intelligence. Out of insecurity and anger (as Jack Keogh so aptly described the dark side of a leader), they terminated the intellectuals who insulted them.

[Dilbert]

I expect that most of the emotionless ones were not emotionless before they got there. Once they take over your mind heart and spirit there isn't much left.

[Jeannette]

Dilbert,
:(

[WiserThanEver]

Shame on them! They have damaged so many wonderfully happy people. How can the Vatican allow them to continue recruiting and hurting more innocent children and seminarians! It makes my blood absolutely boil. I read Aarons links as well as Jack Keoghs. How can this be allowed in the United States?! What can be done??!!

[Savannah]

Monk, I'm still unsure whether you have come to terms with the sex crimes that Maciel committed? To continue to apply organizational behavior theory to a sex predator baffles me.

[Lauretta]

Monk, I personally don't think Maciel was derailed. I believe he lived his life as he died--rejecting and hating God and the Church.

[Little Light]

When they came to the Legion they were very normal people from healthy families. During Candidacy they deprived them from sleep, pounded home the concept of Fr. Maciel as a great saint and inspired by God and deprived them of a healthy way to evaluate what they were being told. By the time they hit the novitiate they were pretty much on the other side of the fence. It was a very fast evolution...I would say yes once they mentally committed to the Legion their personalities were changed and not for the better, but it doesn´t take away that the person who came to the Legion was typically happy, boisterous, enthusiastic about life. Yes I agree about the comment about damaging wonderful people. That pretty much summarizes their formation program.

[WiserThanEver]

Did it also appear as though some women were bearing children just so they could be born into the movement? These children don't stand a fighting chance as they are instantly being brainwashed. Do these parents think that they are receiving extra graces? This is a pretty huge scam. Why would a parent endanger her children? Could it stem from their insecurities, wanting acceptance, getting those brownie points (arrested development!) and
climbing the ladder...to nowhere? I am happy for those good eggs who left and refused to promote the chicanery.

[Aaron]

I am sure that life in the legion is a major dysfunction, I am not so sure that the legion chooses or rejects people it regards as disfunctional - there are certain externals it looks for and that is all. It takes care of the rest once you are on the inside.

Yet, for the legion anyway, there was a huge need to recruit young people - children and teenagers - because they are still wet clay that can be formed correctly by the legion, wheras the older (late teens plus) were setting or set already and harder to mould/form.

That is quite creepy considering Maciel's ulterior motives.

I come from a very functional family and have great memories from childhood etc.

I am aware of a vulnerability in my teens which was taken advantage of and I am strongly against the recruitment of any minors.

[Aaron]

Jack - I really couldn't stomach any more after I read this:
"After I left the
Legion and discovered how many executives in the corporate world think and act as if
they are infallible I realized how blessed I was to have had only two infallible bosses! [the pope and maciel]"

I know it is a joke on your part but it is grossly distasteful to say you were blessed to have maciel as a boss. And don't you think it a bit off-taste to put the Pope and Maciel as equals? I don't detect sarcasm or irony in your humour.

Maybe Im a bit sensitive, but honestly you speak and write like an LC.

[from Brazil]

"Did it also appear as though some women were bearing children just so they could be born into the movement?"

I am sure some do. I met a lady, VERY VERY VERY integratted, who named her baby girl "MAURA", in memory of the pederast's mother.
How sad.

[Mary Ann]

The dysfunction in the Legion is not your ordinary neurotic dysfunction, Monk. The legion takes that sort of people and makes them appear normal and takes normal people and makes them hyper-"normal". The problem is the integration. The integration achieved by the Legion is not an interior integration of the person, but the integration of the person around something external and false. It is like a giant magnet which makes every chromosome in a person point toward it. That magnet makes the needy and sick people appear normal and have a purpose, and that sort of orientation can perdure after someone leaves, can be a permanent mark. Just as the influence of Judeo-Christianity continues to mold society's norms long after society has abandoned faith, so also people who abandon the Legion and RC can retain many of the apparently good functioning aspects of it, which are not good at all. The lucky ones are those who, like Aaron, have a period of decompensation and re-orientation and proper integration, a process that can take years.

[Mary Ann]

Savannah, I agree. I remember way back in the early 90's, when they had the first clergy sex abuse conference, in Chicago, and Andrew Greeley gave the keynote talk. Instead of talking about the real issues, he gave a sociologist talk about clerical culture. Prior to that, he had been a real journalistic thorn in the side of Chicago Archdiocese's crimes and coverups. After that, he was a company man again.

It's as if a kid runs to tell you his room is on fire and your response is to give a talk on flammable materials.

[Lauretta]

I found this article on Regain by Xavier Leger to be very informative as to some of the Legion deformation and its effects:

http://www.regainnetwork.org/article.php?a=47246138