Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt00060)

Leon wrote partly: <... opportunists 
eager to take Papist-like power and mind
control rule over the members of the TS. >>

Here'a Karen Armstrong's review (New 
Statesman and Society) of Gordon 
Urquhart's THE POPES ARMADA. Not that 
some of it might not sound like what one 
might experience in a Zen monastery?

<<The three most powerful of the 
ultra-traditionalist movements within 
the Catholic Church engage in secret 
initiation ceremonies, brainwashing 
techniques involving ego destruction, 
moral and spiritual intimidation and 
highly questionable, even dangerous, 
psychotherapeutic practices. These 
three movements --- Focolare, Communion 
and Liberation and the Neocatechumenate 
--- have a total world memebership of 
around thirty million. They are 
completely self-contained, and each is 
ruled by a charismatic founder, the 
centre of a fanatical personality cult. 
In many respects these movements 
behave like other sects susch as the 
Moonies. Yet they have the strong 
support of Pope John Paul himself, who 
has a adopted them as his personal 
'Armada': his task-force for a crusade 
of extreme right-wing values. The 
author, who for nine years was a 
Focolare leader, draws on interviews 
with ex-members and his own experiences 
to reveal the bizarre hidden world of 
these organizations. THE POPE'S ARMADA 
shockingly depicts a potent and 
sinister force for reaction, which could 
turn out to be John Paul II's most 
enduring legacy.>>