Sunday, June 16, 2019
Of Cults and Cult Leaders and the Sad Story of Fr. Jonathan Morris
It's painful to read the stories about former priest, Jonathan Morris, and his exit from the Legionairies of Christ and the priesthood. Steve Skojec wrote about his own experience with the Legionairies in Why I'm Not So Quick to Judge Jonathan Morris for Leaving the Priesthood. I laughed a little when I read the article (about not judging) because, as my colleague Chriss experienced personally, Skojec can be pretty quick to judge someone if he or she dares to disagree with him even in small matters. But that's a discussion for another day.
Michael Hichborn of the Lepanto Institute also wrote a sympathetic post on Morris in his Catholic Week in Review. If anything, Morris' story illustrates the danger of letting others take control of your decisions about life. It didn't just happen to young men in the Legionairies. A friend of mine was involved with the Mother of God charismatic community in Gaithersburg for about twenty years. She wrote about it on her blog, Restore D.C. Catholicism. The Archdiocese of Washington finally took oversight of the community whose leadership were so extreme they were making decisions about whom young members should marry! If you have the time or interest you can read a series of articles about the Mother of God community from the Washington Post. I confess I attended a few charismatic meetings back in the 70s. It was never my cup of tea and later I saw too many people walk out the door into other religions after their time in the charismatic "renewal."
The bottom line is that if something feels like a cult where leaders are using pressure and manipulation to control the lives of members, if they make it hard or impossible to leave, if they guilt you over feelings and beliefs that are morally neutral....flee! Something is very wrong. Remember Lord Acton's statement that "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!" Some people become tyrants when they hold a little power. And what a rush they get from trying to make others do their will. Sometimes, as the Legionairies and the Mother of God community illustrate, the tyrants assume to themselves power that belongs only to God.
We all need to be critical thinkers who study the truths of the Church and the writings of the saints as well as good histories that illustrate both the fallibility of man and the characteristics of the saintly. Chesterton has a way of popping the puffed up pride of the arrogant, for example. Not only that, but the lessons of the past can teach us a lot about the present. It's hard to mislead a person well grounded in truth.
I'll be praying for Jonathan Morris while I'm on retreat and for all priests living and dead, especially those personally involved in my life. My spiritual directors and confessors, my friends in Roman collars and those with whom I've tangled over moral issues. Priests are under particular attack by the demon. How many "commandoes" does he have attacking the pope and the cardinals and our own parish priests.
Our Lady, Queen of the Clergy, pray for us!
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In my JUDGEMENT based on what I know about the Legion from many insiders, the Order should have been disbanded .
ReplyDeleteHold onto your hats (rosary beads preferred) and look who married the fornicating couple ( priest and laywoman) in Rome.He left the priesthood too, after he made a baby while teaching seminarians to become priests.
"Oh, didn’t you know? Fr. Jonathan Morris married Liz Lev and Fr. Thomas Williams"
https://www.barnhardt.biz/2019/06/12/oh-didnt-you-know-fr-jonathan-morris-married-liz-lev-and-fr-thomas-williams/
"Bear in mind, Fr. Williams’ laicization and release from his vows of celibacy was signed only a matter of days before this scandalous wedding took place, and only because Lev’s mother, Mary Ann Glendon was frantically dispatched to Rome to get it signed by Antipope Bergoglio. Glendon was appointed to the Vatican Bank fake auditing committee a couple of months later. That tells you something about the level of corruption at which these grifters operate.
They planned this whole sick bridezilla monstrosity WHILE Fr. Williams was still 100% a priest. Including soliciting CASH WEDDING GIFTS online. Because when you marry your priest baby daddy at the age of fifty, and you live in a million dollar apartment in Rome, nothing says “class” like begging for cash. Because they were so, so, SO totally, desperately sorry for their decade-plus of open sacrilegious fornication and lying. The only thing that could help them overcome their sorrow was… cold hard cash.
You can take the pri€$t out of the £€gion, but you can’t take the £€gion out of the pri€$t."
Mary Anne, Interesting about the Mother of God group, I used to get phone calls from a lovely woman ( referred to me by a friend at seton) , who was the FIRST arranged marriage in a charismatic community in NW New Jersey. After having three children both she and her husband got up the courage to exit. He of course lost his job as he was also employed by a man in the community who owned the company he worked for. They decided their children came as their first responsibility as parents and the cult made too many demands on them aside from caring for their own children. From there they joined opus dei, but there too they discovered their Confessor was quizzing their children in the confessional about them and pushing one young son to consider joining an Opus Dei House.
ReplyDeleteWe looked into these covenant communities and discovered a common individual. Ralph Martin. He also wields much control over Tom M at Ave maria who credits him for his re version into the church. ( little "C" intended.) Ave Maria has had it's problems too.
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/ave-maria-university-a-catholic-project-gone-wrong-6384870
Marielena and her family are not the only Catholics who exited this "catholic" Utopia.
Recalling Solange Hertz one book title ,"Utopia, Nowhere".
Big sigh.......then there was a family we knew who left to live and work at the Coniker's 'Catholic Familyland' , They lasted three months complaining to other friends of mine that, ".... someone needs to report the place to the Bishop ",but the Bishop whose jurisdiction they were under resided in the Phillipines.
I also was contacted by families who contributed to the St John Society's Shahola PA development project. They lost their money for the construction of their home after the Order was disbanded for pederasty at St Gregory's Academy.
Pray and bloom where you are planted because Utopia IS Nowhere this side of Heaven.
John Paul II approved the constitutions of the Legionaries, IIRC, in the early 1990's. When they were put online (they were closely guarded for years and years) and I read through them, my reaction was: "Anyone--especially a pope--who read this, even without knowing anything about the Legionaries, should have run screaming from the room." The SICKNESS is there on every page, in black and white.
ReplyDelete