It took years for the Legion to admit that the CDF was morally certain about Maciel. In the meantime they pretended the Pope had subjected Maciel to a dry martyrdom that would rain new graces on the Legion and the Church.
How did they get so many people to suspend critical thinking for those years? The way Maciel taught them to. Keep them busy in pursuit of a grand cause and wrapped up in their own subjective experiences.
John Zmirak:
What is more, from all I have witnessed, [Maciel] used in his lay movements a modern technique mostly employed in political groups. I learned of it from a book by Douglas Hyde, Dedication and Leadership, in which the author (a former Communist converted to the Church) sorts out the methods of Leninists, searching for those that are morally neutral and highly effective, which could serve the Church. (I read this book at a right-wing activist camp, so I know that others are using it, too.) The key to making people commit themselves to a movement, the Communists learned and Hyde revealed, was to keep them busy. To make them work harder and longer than they'd ever thought possible -- even at tasks that don't really need to be done. A person's devotion to a cause, Hyde coolly explained, is proportionate not to what he gets from it but what he puts into it. So don't make things too easy. Make people feel useful, and keep them digging up holes so others can fill them up. (It's telling, perhaps, that Hyde rejoined the Commies and died outside the Church.)
Nat, this makes complete sense. It explains why RCs get so defensive of all their good works, all the good they do for the Church. The sheer busy-ness they live on behalf of "the Kingdom" makes them FEEL like they are part of something big and important.
ReplyDeleteIf you asked individual RCs to itemize the good works of Regnum Christi, they could list off "Conquest, Challenge, Pure Fashion, Familia..." Now say to the RC: "Oh, you organize Pure Fashion?" and they respond, "uh, no". "Oh, you're in charge of Challenge?", and they reply, "uh, no". Then ask, "So what do you do?" and they list the one thing they do for one little RC apostolate. Doesn't sound like much, does it? The Church can probably survive if Suzy in San Jose stops leading her weekly Encounter with Christ, or the Challenge girls don't get to go ice-skating this week.
People in RC feel proud to be part of this BIG THING, they are happy to lay claim to the "good works" of Mission Network, even though they really have little or nothing to do with whether it thrives or fails. Why is that? You hit the nail on the head - they are BUSY. Busy with their daily commitments, weekly Encounters with Christ and Study Circles, team dialog, spiritual direction, monthly retreat/evening of reflection, maybe an annual convention, triduum of renewal, integration activities, recruitment events, and so on. All these things add up to a whole lot of busy, but it's all on behalf of THEMSELVES. With or without their personal busy-ness, the Church is unaffected.
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ReplyDeleteI think we're talking about 2 kinds of busy. For the average, RC, busy-ness is a means to make them feel they are part of something very big and important, and invested in the mission. This is what I read in Hyde's description of Communist methods.
ReplyDeleteThe second type of busy you describe, I believe, is a side-effect of the LC/RC warping of the concept of charity. For LC/RCs, NOTHING is bad, and any sense, (or "feeling") that something is bad is to be stifled at once. This is what Garza is describing; he "felt" a heavy weight, he "feared more", and his solution was to stay busy, busy enough to distract himself and to avoid those feelings at all cost. If he indulged the feelings, it could lead to an admission that something in the movement was bad. That would be "uncharitable", by the uniquely warped definition of charity held by LCs.
imo
That's why it is so tremendously important to practice what St. Luke reported in 10:36-42
ReplyDelete"Martha, Martha you are anxious about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."
Martha had "apostolate" in her mind - after all it was good to wait on the Master, no? She was busy, and was cheesed off that her sister chose to listen to Jesus apparently DOING nothing......
"Busyness" in LC/RC has become another "-holic"; another drug to keep one from facing one's own personal, human misery, and then flee to the cross. It drowns out the silence and solitude that a heart needs to be able to listen to the Master's voice - Martha wasn't able nor willing to. Mary has truly chosen the better part.
Mum26
Anonymous, Thanks for the distinction.
ReplyDeleteThe constitutions, norms, and general chapters do seem to push busyness all the way up the food chain, but yes it's Hyde's type at the bottom of the pyramid. One wonders how much of the workload at the top was 'busywork' from Maciel's point of view.
Mum 26, Indeed. The LC/RC pitched itself as the answer to the modern world. If sterile activism is the answer, I think they forgot the question.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone in RC has done the "Getting Started" study group you will find an article by Douglas Hyde - this is a Circle Press publication for RC members that actually says we can learn how to "conquer the world for Christ" by looking at what the communists did! The fact that Hyde died outside the Church is conveniently left out.
ReplyDeleteIt was this article that started me really wondering. But again, being the "charitable" person that I was, I would only take the "good" out of it and forget the bad.
This LC/RC mess becomes more sinister every day. I said to myself about a year ago, "This is either the greatest calumny the Church has ever known or the greatest scandal." It certainly appears to be the latter - there is nothing in between. Unfortunately there are still good people and friends of mine caught up in it, completely oblivious. They need our prayers - not just that they get out, but that their faith can be strong when they realize the truth.