Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation

 

 It is not enough to hate or forget Maciel: we must understand the damage, what he did to all those he came in contact with,  and heal from it -heal ourselves. Otherwise, we will limp through life...

 

 

Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation

 

"the kind of narcissist who controls and exploits others, inflating himself by deflating those he surrounds himself with. ...he needs others desperately, but he disavows dependency, which he views as weak and shameful. He needs to lure others into becoming dependent on him, which then allows him to persist in his delusion that only others are needy, not himself. ...Dependency and shame are repugnant weaknesses in his eyes, problems for his inferior followers, not for superior him..."

Thus begins the latest book by psychiatrist Daniel Shaw who has been practicing in the NY/NJ area for decades and has treated many former members of harmful groups and relationships.

For years Dan has been fascinated by the series of gurus that have paraded before his eyes from the lips and hearts of his patients. He wondered was there a common element.

The blogger used "Psychopath" to describe Maciel. Juan Jose Vaca, a victim, considers Maciel a "Malignant Narcissist".

Reading Shaw's books has been a gripping experience for one who knew Fr. Maciel beyond his large group performances...And for one who has witnessed his destruction first hand in his own life and in the lives of many companions. Maciel's victims will understand their abuse better by reading certain parts of this clinical psychology book, particularly chapters:

1. The Relationality of Narcissim (what it is)
3. Traumatic Narcissism in Cults and
6. "But what do I do": Finding the Path to Freedom.

I am grateful to Daniel Shaw for his clinical studies, insights and description of this "phenomenon" of people who are not only Narcissists but who somehow are also capable of doing a lot of harm to those who come in contact with them, be it fleetingly or on a long term basis.  It is not enough to hate or forget Maciel: we must understand the damage, what he did to all those he came in contact with,  and heal from it -heal ourselves. Otherwise, we will limp through life.

The unfortunate result of contact with this kind of person is Trauma. The blogger believes that anyone who has been a member of the Legion of Christ or Regnum Christi, Maciel's creations, should not dismiss the need for psychotherapy, self help and brotherly support & caring to heal from our wounds.

A question looms for us, former members and all concerned parents, Catholics Christians and people of good will as to whether the Traumatizing Narcissist has created a Traumatizing Narcissistic System which is alive in the LC/RC system.

Pedophile Nuncio is Laicized by Vatican

The first stage of the investigation of Mons Wesolowski has concluded with his laicization.

Official Vatican Radio statement:

Canonical trial of ex Nuncio Jozef Wesolowski

Vatican City, 27 June 2014 (VIS) – 

The first stage in the canonical trial against the former apostolic nuncio in the Dominican Republic, Josef Wesolowski, has been concluded with the laicisation of the prelate.

From this moment, the accused has two months in which to make an eventual appeal. The penal trial before the Vatican judicial authorities will continue as soon as the canonical sentence has been made definitive.

Finally, with reference to recent media reports, it is necessary to specify that until now Msgr. Wesolowski has been granted relative freedom of movement, as he awaits the verification by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith of the basis of these accusations made against him.

Considering the sentence passed by the aforementioned dicastery, all the necessary procedures will be adopted in relation to the former nuncio, in conformity with the gravity of the case.

In unusual step, Mexican priest accused of abuse faces criminal charges

David Agren Catholic News Service  |  Jun. 4, 2014

A priest in north central Mexico has been stripped of his position by the Vatican and faces criminal charges in connection with alleged sexual abuse of a teenage boy.

The case marks the first time the Catholic Church in Mexico has turned a priest in to authorities.
The move follows instructions from Pope Francis for the Catholic Church to better protect children and take a hard line with priests accused of sexual offenses.

Father Eduardo Cordova Bautista, a priest in the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosi, was ordered in late April by the Vatican to face charges for allegedly abusing a 16-year-old boy in 2012. The actions were implemented in late May. His whereabouts were unknown, however.
"This is simply acting on a petition of the pope and what he's asking: that we collaborate completely with the judicial system," said Armando Martinez Gomez, president of the College of Catholic Lawyers of Mexico.

There's more to NCR than what you read online. Subscribe today!

Martinez told Desde la Fe, the Mexico City archdiocesan newspaper, that the church officials in San Luis Potosi opened an investigation in 2012, turned information over to the Vatican in January 2014, and received a response this past April.

The case of Cordova created a scandal in Mexico after journalist Sanjuana Martinez reported earlier in May that dozens of youth were allegedly abused by the priest over the past 25 years as he worked in Catholic institutions serving young people.

Alberto Athie, a former priest and an early accuser of the disgraced Father Maciel Marcial Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, said there may be as many as 100 victims, Diario de San Luis reported.
The actions taken against Cordova mark a change in Mexico, where cases of clerical abuse have often languished while dioceses have been slow to act.

"What I know is this is the first time in which there was a canonic procedure and a public complaint. This is not something to be proud of," Armando Martinez Gomez told Desde la Fe.
"These news stories are always sad, but they have to be an example that the church does not tolerate nor will it tolerate this type of conduct, much less when it is has now been proven, in this case, by an Ecclesiastical Tribunal," he said.

French Exorcist Priest Raped and Tortured Teachers at Excommunicated Catholic Order

·         International Business Times

·         By Umberto Bacchi

 
April 11, 2014    

French police have arrested a fundamentalist priest who allegedly raped and tortured three women during exorcism rituals.

The 40-year-old allegedly abused the women in 2010, when he was head of the private religious school Notre-Dame-de-la Sablonniere in Goussonville, a village of 600 people 50km west of Paris.

His victims were teachers at the institute run by the Society of St. Pius X, a Catholic order blackballed by the Vatican.

The priest, who has not been named, used the spiritual influence he had on the women to abuse them, Le Parisien newspaper reported.

One of the victims, a mother, had reportedly came to him for advice on a previous sexual abuse she had suffered.

The priest performed a so-called exorcism on her repeating the abuse to "purge evil with evil", the newspaper said.

The woman was said to have been so traumatised that she could not describe the events to police.

The priest used the same perverse technique to manipulate two other women into believing they had been the victims of sexual abuses and thus needed to be exorcised.

Questioned by police, the man downplayed the accusations claiming that the women agreed to the exorcism and that sexual acts were only simulated.

The alleged crimes came to light as two of the victims found the strength to lodge a complaint with police in 2013.

Prosecutors in Versailles charged the clergyman with acts of cruelty, torture and rape.

Le Parisien reported that the man had already been tried by his religious order in a canon trial and sentenced to two years in a monastery.

Founded by French archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970, the Society of St. Pius X has no canonical status, meaning ministries exorcised by its ministers are not considered legitimate by the Vatican.

The order, which opposes reforms of the church made at the Second Vatican Council, fell out with the Holy See when it ordained four bishops without the Pope's consent in 1988.

The four were excommunicated immediately but eventually pardoned in 2009. Among them was Richard Williamson, who denies the Holocaust and the existence of Nazi death camps and gas chambers.

The Society sparked controversy last 2013 when it agreed to celebrate funerals for Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke who died unrepentant aged 100 in Rome.

 

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/french-exorcist-priest-raped-tortured-teachers-excommunicated-catholic-order-1444401

Paul Lennon and Jack Keogh interviewed by Irish Radio Host Joe Duffy, March 10, 2014

    

Paul is the Author of Our Father Maciel who art in bed 

Jack Keogh and Paul Lennon, joined the Legion of Christ in 1963 and 1961 respectively, remain in the group for 20 and 23 years before "walking away"; they left the priesthood and are married and living in the USA; Jack is an entrepreneur and public speaker, Paul a mental health therapist

In the aftermath of Irish TV's investigative report on the Role of the Irish in the foundation and growth of the Legion of Christ, Joe Duffy interviewed Paul Lennon and Jack Keogh re their impressions of Fr. Macil and the Legion
Here is the link
It starts off slowly and then gathers momentum.

Irish Investigative TV Report on the Irish in the Legion of Christ

On Sunday last RT did a very fine job
of presenting facts about the Irish men and influence in the birth, growth and expansion in the Legion of Christ
Here is the link

Fr. Maciel's Monstruous Legacy to the Legion of Christ

I went to Mass last Sunday here at our local church; the celebrant, a diminutive Philippine priest with broken English gave one of the best homilies I have heard for years. The Liturgy of the Word mentions "be perfect" a couple of time and instead of launching into a long -pious and abstract discourse on "holiness" our little preacher explained what being "perfect" and "holy" meant. That is being merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful.

So I hope Our Heavenly Father will indulge me when I got stuck on the second reading, I Cor chapter 3 which brings to mind the enormity of Fr. Maciel's crimes. We have now talked about some of his crimes. Many Catholics did not grasp the seriousness of his sexual abuse of his seminarians, and did not react until his heterosexual activities were mentioned -as if having sex with women was worse than having sex with little boys and abusing them, destroying their virginity, their sexuality in a very depraved way! So here are St. Paul's words which state that Maciel destroyed God's temples...
and how his cleverness and astuteness to manipulate and abuse others was rubbish and crap

 1 Corinthians 3:16-23

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”^[a]; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”^{[b] 21}

Courageous Woman Overcomes Miserable Childhood, Mental Illness and Finds Jesus

 (This photo taken in Bandelier National Part, Santa Fe, NM, calls to mind the God of Abraham, "El Shaddai", the God of the Hights)

I just found America Saint John on the Amazon memoir authors' page and saw her book promoted. PLease see my sister blog for a fuller description

Her recent message says:

Merica Saint John says:

 

I am just finishing my third book in a trilogy of memoir. My first book "Dying to Live" is about recovering from severe clinical depression and other mental illness issues. My second book, "Let the Seed Fall" is about moving on from there when few professionals thought I'd ever be able to live outside an institution. It tells how I went on to become a missionary in Alaska and in Africa. My third book, "Salted by Fire" is almost ready for the publisher (hopefully this week, if God is willing). They are done as a trilogy because I didn't yet know some things about my background when I wrote the first two. All are from a Christian perspective but are not pie-in-the-sky by any means. They tell of multiple traumas and adversity but also show how God was there through it all.

Let The Seed Fall: Growing from a Seed to a Tree by God's PowerDying to Live: Emerging from the Darkness of Mental Illness into the Light of a Sound Mind. Merica Saint John 

 

My next post will share my reaction with you, the reader.

Pope Benedict Defrocked almost 400 Catholic Priests in 2011-2012

The blogger has never been a harsh critic of Pope Benedict and his ministry; case in question, he is the pope who began to crack down on Child Abusing Priests.
The present interrogation of the Vatican before the UN commission for Children's Rights is shedding light on this

The Vatican Defrocked Over 380 Priests in Two Years for Abusing Children

By Abby Ohlheiser 6 hours ago

 

Thanks to the UN, the Vatican is facing its first public questioning on the years-long child abuse scandal that's plagued the church for decades. For hours on Thursday, child protection experts from the UN criticized the Holy See for its lack of transparency over an epidemic of clergy abuse in the church. 

On Friday, the Associated Press reported a startling statistic revealed at the UN hearing that seemed to show the depth of the problem: in 2011 and 2012 alone, they wrote, Pope Benedict XVI defrocked 400 priests for sexually abusing children. The statistic came from a report, prepped by the Vatican, to defend its handling of the child abuse scandal. Some Vatican experts initially questioned the accuracy of that number, until the AP explained the breakdown of how they got the figure in a later version of their report. 

In 2012, there were 418 cases of sexual abuse of a minor, while in 2011 the figure was 404 (that's the highlighted number). The columns the second to the right apparently detail defrockings. 260 were defrocked in 2011, and 124 in 2012. That adds up to 384.

[...]