We arrive now at the concluding section of our nine-part series on Graham Moorhouse's short work, Cult Fiction: The Protestant Cuckoo in the Catholic Nest. In this section, Moorhouse offers four short points to close out his treatise.
In the first, he asks an extremely relevant question: How has Kiko managed to con the Holy Father so comprehensively?
He answers by positing that the Way was extremely adept at pressing John Paul II's "hot button" issues of the Gospel of Life, evangelization, and the youth:
They continually stress in [Pope John Paul's] presence their movement's opposition to abortion, artificial contraception and sterlization, etc - that's the gospel of life hot button pressed. Secondly, they reel off statistics about their rapid world-wide expansion - that's the evangelization hot button pressed. Finally they ensure that at any youth gathering, their youth are up early and at the front of the crowd waving Neocatechumenate banners - that's the youth hot button pressed. (Cult Fiction, p. 19)
We can see that these three issues are still very much front and center of today's Neocatechumenate, as well, despite now being two papacies on. Their talk in the public square is very different from their talk behind closed doors. It would be interesting, I think, to examine their approach to other popes' "hot buttons," as well, but Moorhouse does not touch on those. In the earliest days, Paul VI may have thought them too small and insignificant a movement to be worthy of too much of his attention, for example.
Moorhouse also makes this excellent point, which could easily be applied to any number of prelates, as well:
The Pope isn't a mind-reader. Like the rest of us, he sees what he sees, not what is deliberately concealed from him. Good people are by nature trusting and are therefore also by nature perhaps the last people to spot the sort of deep duplicity practiced by Kiko and his movement. (Cult Fiction, p. 19)
Good popes, bishops, priests, etc. want to see grassroots lay movements succeed. They want solid, orthodox Catholics spreading the Good News and propagating all over the world. If that's all you ever see of the Neocatechumenal Way, why wouldn't you wish it every success? Unfortunately, they work very hard to make sure that is all you see, despite so much deception and rot.
The second concluding point is what logically must follow from accepting the Way's premises:
If you embrace the Way, you must logically accept that the Church for the last sixteen centuries has got most of her doctrines hopelessly wrong... But if you accept that the Church was hopelessly wrong for so long on all these matters, you cannot possibly hold that the Church is infallible in matters of faith and morals. But if you do not believe the Church is infallible in matters of faith and morals, there is no logical compelling reason to remain a Catholic; for any other sect or indeed religion could be just as right as or even more right than the Church. (Cult Fiction, p. 19-20)
Following the Way is essentially following the way of indifferentism, which indeed is one of the modern world's most rampant heresies. Moorhouse's train of logic is quite simple and easy to follow; unfortunately, far too few people are able to make the same connections.
Moorhouse then recalls a scene (pictured above) from the 1987 film Escape from Sobibor, starring Alan Arkin and Rutger Hauer. The scene, near the very beginning of the film, involves an old Jewish man who has just arrived at the Sobibor camp. "Observe," he says to a Nazi soldier, picking up a handful of dirt. "Do you see? How I am scattering this grain by grain? That will be what will happen with your filthy lies. It will vanish like flying dust and passing smoke."
"I have no doubt," Moorhouse goes on:
that Kiko's empire, built on the dust of lies, one day will implode similarly... There is absolutely nothing more certain in heaven or on earth than that one day their facade will crumble and their lies will trickle through their fingers like so much dust. (Cult Fiction, p. 20)
Don't rejoice in saying "I told you so" when that day comes, he advises. Rather, weep and pray for the souls lost, hurt, and confused by the wicked negligence of so many of the Church's shepherds. Keep your feet firmly planted on the rock.
Moorhouse concludes with a postscript regarding the then-upcoming approval process for the Way's constitution, which he claims a source told him would be cross-referenced with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He asks two questions about this, which we will answer.
- Will this new constitution leave Kiko and Carmen the wiggle room they need to continue to advance their heresies, or will it be watertight? Time has shown they had, and continue to have, more than enough wiggle room.
- And, if it is watertight, does this mean that Kiko and Carmen have recanted their many manifest serious heresies and returned to the faith of the Church, or have they simply concealed them in order to obtain the official approval they so desire for the advancement of their movement? A thousand times the latter.
At the outset of this series, we aimed to discover how this 20-year-old analysis of the Neocatechumenal Way stood the test of time--is it still relevant for today's inquisitor, or is it a woefully outdated and bitter relic of its time?
What we have hopefully seen is a document that, while imperfect, is a more than adequate introduction to an often troublingly silent topic. Although Moorhouse will occasionally misquote, neglect to cite, and provide cold or outdated takes on certain things, the overall content--especially in matters of specific teachings and practical applications--is entirely on the nose. The intervening decades and even Carmen's death have done little to soften the movement. It remains very much what it has always been.
We hope you will take the time to read Cult Fiction in its entirety, just as I did at the beginning of my journey, and share it with anyone who might benefit from the information it presents. Of course, feel free to share this "Cliffs Notes" series, too.
To read the other entries in this series, see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, and Part 8.
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