In this penultimate entry in our
Cult Fiction series, we look at Graham Moorhouse's analysis for why the Neocatechumenal Way is so successful in gaining membership and support.
He begins with a summation of the state of the English Church--his specific experience is of the Church in England, but he notes that his remarks are applicable to the Church in the wider English-speaking world at large. One could argue that the wider Euro-American Church and its peripheral sphere of influence could be included, as well, regardless of native language.
Moorhouse comments that:
After Vatican II, prelates, their paid spin-doctors and liberal Catholics were running around like slightly intoxicated headless chickens proclaiming the dawn of some bright new golden age for Catholicism... In the new Gnostic post-Conciliar Church there was nothing worse than not being "open to the Spirit...." Thirty years later, the devastation of the Lord's vineyard is now so advanced that even those responsible for it are hard put to deny it. (Cult Fiction, p. 17)
We are now twenty years down the road from Moorhouse's writing, and quickly approaching sixty years since the close of Vatican II. Have things improved, or is the devastation continuing apace? Certainly the sin of "not being open to the Spirit" is still among the cardinal sins of the Francis pontificate. What other issues does Moorhouse mention?
[The bishops] have devastated our Mass attendance, which is now considerably less than half of what it was before Vatican II. They have emptied our seminaries, those that is that they haven't yet closed... They have reduced Catholic baptism by fifty percent and Catholic marriages by a whopping two-thirds... One high-profile "convert" recently stated that the Church's teaching on sodomy was wrong, its teaching on contraception plain silly, and then added (as if it actually still mattered) that she did not believe that any Pope was infallible, particularly the present one! ... Sodomites have been ordained and promoted to high office in the Church, while the inevitable sexual scandals involving adolescent boys have become almost a daily occurrence. (Cult Fiction, p. 17)
Has Mass attendance gone up? No, thanks to pandemic lockdowns, it's actually tanked even further, since some people never bothered to return when churches re-opened. Are baptisms and marriages on the rise? Are people embracing the Church's teaching on homosexuality and contraception? Are we free of sexual scandals and sodomite clergy?
No, not today. About the only thing that might be different is the conversation about papal infallibility. In one camp, you have those who treat Francis' every utterance like it's divinely inspired Gospel (wrong). In another camp, you have those who loudly decry that Francis isn't even the pope (also wrong). The polarizing figure of Pope Francis appears to have more and more "normal" people migrating to extremes that used to be populated only by the most crackpot ultramontanists and sedevacantists.
We in England are currently in terminal meltdown, losing over 3000 souls a month. Humanly speaking, we will not have a Church in this country worth speaking about in twenty-five years' time. (Cult Fiction, p. 18)
As this is an American blog, we are not opportunely positioned to comment on the state of the English Church. However, after twenty of Moorhouse's stated twenty-five years, the Archdiocese of Westminster (England's largest diocese) reports about 440,000 Catholics (roughly 9% of the diocesan territory). A 2019 University of Leicester survey also reports that roughly 30% of British Catholics attend Mass every week. These are not glowing numbers by any means, but I'm not sure they're indicative of the "terminal meltdown" feared by Moorhouse.
After his astute assessment of the present (but maybe not entirely accurate prediction of the future), Moorhouse goes on to say:
Orthodox Catholics who love the Church find themselves on what appears in human terms to be a sinking ship, led by officers who have spent the last thirty years punching holes below the water line... Is it any wonder that when a seemingly seaworthy and well-ordered lifeboat comes along, such as the Neocatechumenate, people are prepared to abandon the ship to board the lifeboat in droves? (Cult Fiction, p. 18)
This is certainly a valid interpretation; however, I think Moorhouse might be projecting a bit too much of his own traditionalist mindset onto the general populous. In my experience, the "average" Catholic has very little knowledge of or concern with shenanigans in the liturgy, the backroom politicking of bishops, and the various processes that led to and resulted from the Second Vatical Council. Most Catholics I know are content to go to Mass at their local parish church on Sunday, and they take their experiences there at face value. That something might be terribly wrong is simply not a thought that occurs to most people. Are there Catholics, then, who see the Neocatechumenal Way as a welcome relief from what they see as a sinking ship? Certainly, and we see many lapsed Catholics increasingly fill seats in Evangelical Protestant churches for the same reason.
Though it may be different in other places, I observe the chief attraction of the Way, however, to be this:
It offers community. People need to feel connected. They need to feel like they belong. They need to feel like their contributions, however small, matter in life. A small, close-knit group of people journeying together in faith is therefore going to be very appealing to those who feel lonely, isolated, worthless, and "cut off." The Way's leadership knows this, which is why they prey so heavily on people's brokenness--the promise of mending it is often irresistible. It's also why the Way targets immigrant communities--if I'm a recent Salvadoran transplant, for example, and I hear all the other Salvadorans in town have joined this movement, of course I'm going to consider joining myself, because it's a way to keep me connected to my home and fellow countrymen. Add to that the catechists hammering home how xenophobic "everyone else" is, and you've managed to snag a whole group of insecure, impressionable people already primed for the "us vs. them" game to come.
Moorhouse closes this section by offering another poignant assessment, followed by some sage advice:
The Neocatechumenate are merely the latest blind alley. They are much better financed and more skillfully led than the rest, but that merely makes them the most dangerous so far. (Cult Fiction, p. 19)
All very true. The Way is just another blind alley--not the first, nor undoubtedly the last, but nonetheless a so-called "renewal" that ultimately goes nowhere. However, they are exceptionally well-financed, and their leadership is far from stupid. Their patterns of movement and their ability to cultivate both powerful friendships and internally placed powerful people are shining testaments to these facts. This is indeed why they are so dangerous. They wield tremendous influence, and they do so from behind the scenes. How else do you think they manage to dupe so many bishops, cardinals, and popes? How else do you think they can practically take over entire dioceses without "the common Catholic" knowing the first thing about it?
When the Lord's vineyard has been so devastated, there can be no quick fix. One has to roll up one's sleeves and start replanting, tending and rebuilding and be prepared to bear the cross of seemingly endless frustration. What has taken thirty years to destroy may take a hundred to rebuild. One must therefore have the faith to sow seeds so that others may reap. One needs to be prepared to face patiently and charitably the active opposition of those who have neither the humility, nor grace or the wit to face honestly the devastation their shallow fidgety minds have wrought upon us... We need to rediscover our traditions, and return to obedience, orthodoxy, and holiness of life. (Cult Fiction, p. 19)
Indeed, solving the problem of the Neocatechumenal Way - and more broadly, the problems that allowed a movement like the Way to come about at all - is not going to happen overnight. Projects like Moorhouse's, and like this blog, exist to educate a largely ignorant and unsuspecting populous about the dangers hiding behind their own parish doors. As individuals, we start conversations, inviting people to learn more: ask questions, dig deeper, and above all, prayerfully discern. It's probably not going to make us (or you) the most popular people at dinner parties, but then, we have no real interest in that, anyway.
Our aim is fidelity to Christ and His Church. Anything less isn't worth it.
Next up, we close out this nine-part series with the aptly named "Conclusion."
For further reading, see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7.
