Part One: Respect of Egos was about St. Thomas Aquinas’ warnings against “respect of persons” which I consider to be an avoidance of “Respect of Egos.” This leads into today’s article on having fortitude of character.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Milgram experiment in 1961 where normal Americans involved in a psychological experiment were pressured into delivering lethal doses of electricity to other Americans involved in that experiment. At least, they believed these were lethal doses of electricity… but they were not. The experiment (linked above) was rather a test on the would-be electrocuters to determine how many people would deliver a lethal dose of 250 volts to another person allegedly in the experiment.
In this Milgram experiment, the scientists believed less than 0.8% of Americans off the street would deliver a lethal dose. To their shock (pun intended) 100% of the people in the experiment were coaxed into killing another person because “the experiment must go on.” Of course, no one was killed, but this experiment later took a psychological toll on the would-be killers when the results were publicized.
Earlier this year on the Patrick Bet-David Show (min 19) Chase Hughes describes the Milgram experiment. As I listened, it reminded me how most American Catholics facing the current Church crisis will believe any lie from the hierarchy, provided they can get over 51% of the laity to believe it. This includes any lie from Vatican II to the papacy. How could so many people be deceived as to the truth of the Gospel and traditional Catholicism? But most American Catholics (and most people in all of history since the fall of Adam and Eve) have a stronger desire for certainty than for power or truth.
Over the last one hundred years, the fact most sheep have desired certainty more than power became the perfect recipe for false-shepherds (who desired power more than certainty) to infiltrate the Catholic Church. On this site, I have written a lot about how to identify traditional Catholic dogma, liturgy, beliefs and discipline. We have discussed everything from Apostolic Catholicism to the errors of antiquarianism on the liturgy. But it’s also worthwhile to identify the psychology that allowed so many false-shepherds to essentially get the laity to disbelieve their lying eyes as to what the Catholic Church has always taught, and how Catholics have always worshipped.
Because we Catholics truly believe in obedience (and this is good, by the way) the devil used this to infiltrate wolves in sheep’s clothing who demanded a positivistic obedience, not unlike the tenets of Islam but in a much more effeminate manner. In the above linked video, military intelligence expert (and psyop expert) explains how military infiltrations and narcissists primarily use fear, obligation and guilt. (It’s worth memorizing his easy pneumonic, FOG.) In the Catholic Church, wolves in sheep clothing will use fear, obligation and guilt to demand obedience instead of charity and Divine Revelation that made a billion converts. And in this fog of war, such FOG from leaders will repel the masses.
Once such example is the “synod on synodality.” The very title shows that they are trolling us because the name is such a mockery of the Catholic Church, and even normal vocabulary. Notice who is invited to the synod. It is never traditional or even conservative Catholics. The people the Vatican wants invited to the synod at the local level is liberal non-Catholics who they claim are just those on “the fringe of society.” But essentially they are pre-selected people chosen to help destroy the local Catholic parish. Because it looks very humble, few Catholics will stand against the hijacking of the Catholic Church.
But this is infiltrating the traditional world, too. Some traditional parish priests are getting very heavy-handed with their parishioners. Even some superiors of traditional religious congregations are also getting equally heavy-handed with their subordinates. Although these men are not denying the Faith like the modernists, they are using fear, obligation and guilt to get others to adhere to their arbitrary decisions. (These are decisions that have nothing to do with the liturgy, which is obviously their prerogative as priests, provided it follow traditional rubrics.)
I know it might feel traditional to follow a trad priest blindly on other issues, but random and capricious obedience has never been central to Apostolic Catholicism, especially if the superior is repeatedly making dangerous decisions. I have heard of some of these recently in both parishes and religious life.
Why are traditionalist laity and novices susceptible to such narcissistic manipulation? In the video linked above in this article, Chase Hughes explains the sociology and psychology of all human societies: All humans are influenced by focus, authority, tribe and emotion. (His pneumonic for this one is FATE.) Applied to the traditional world, we see where the devil enters: Because there is so much confusion in the Catholic Church, pious Catholics may trust a traditional pastor who represents his “tribe” of sounding and acting traditional. All Catholics (including me) long for authority above us in our tribe, making us susceptible to those who would use fear, obligation and guilt more than true tradition and Apostolic clarity.
But we can’t fall for such tricks. Christ Our Lord said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.—John 10:25b-28. The voice of the shepherd has authority, and there is nothing wrong with a little tribalism in the current Church crisis. Also, guilt is an aspect of the faith that can occasionally be wielded deftly by good shepherds. But good sheep will eventually avoid the seemingly-traditional shepherds who primarily use fear, obligation and guilt.
Why? Because the real sheep will always recognize the voice of Jesus Christ speaking through his true priests. And that voice will always be one of Apostolic patience and supernatural charity. The pastor or founder’s authority will come first from how he lives, not only from what he says. Shepherds after the heart of Christ will also point to traditional evidence that bears witness to the truths of 2,000 years, never demanding blind obedience to their own whimsical designs. To see this, you need not only obedience but discernment.
Later this year I will begin a new podcast series on St. Ignatius of Loyola’s “Discernment of Spirits” to help with this.