[Grem] *****SPAM(9.5)***** The Infiltration of the Catholic Church - Real or Imagined? / W. Kilpatrick

[Emoke Greschik]

 Infiltration: Real or Imagined? William Kilpatrick
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/author/william-kilpatrick>
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined
[image: Voiced by Amazon Polly] <https://aws.amazon.com/polly/>

*Has the Catholic Church* *been infiltrated by anti-Catholic forces intent
on its destruction?*  *This is the thesis of Taylor Marshall’s new book
<https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/infiltration>,*
*Infiltration*:  *The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within*.

*The book has already generated a lot of controversy, *with one critic
<https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=773> accusing
the author of “McCarthyism” and “wild assertions.” *Marshall’s main
assertion is that the Church has been infiltrated by Masons, Modernists,
and communists* who aim to change the Church’s mission “from something
supernatural to something secular.”

Marshall uses the word “infiltration” in two senses: an infiltration of
personnel and an infiltration of ideas, and it’s not always clear what
sense he’s using. However, in the main, *he’s writing about **the
infiltration of ideas.*

Indeed, *the primary document *he refers to—*The Permanent Instruction of
the Alta Vendita*—*is *less *about* the placement of agents than about *the
gradual introduction of a new climate of thought*. The author of *The
Permanent Instruction admitted that it might take more than a century
before the process produced “a pope according to our own heart.”*
Was there an actual penetration of the Church by agents of communism and/or
Freemasonry? Marshall does name some names, and he does offer evidence, but
although his evidence is not always conclusive, it is suggestive. *Earlier
popes were certainly worried about* t*he influence of Masons and Modernists*.
*Pope Leo XIII published four encyclicals against* *Freemasonry*, and *Pope
Pius X was convinced* *that Modernists had infiltrated* *the clergy and the
seminaries.*


*Communist Infiltration *Marshall also cites *the testimony **of **Bella
Dodd*,* a former communist agent, who told* a House Committee *that “in the
1930s we put eleven hundred men into the priesthood in order to destroy the
Church from within.*” Similar testimony was offered to the committee by
Manning Johnson, another former agent; however, no other corroborating
evidence of their testimony has been produced.

Still, the possibility of *physical infiltration *should not be dismissed
out of hand. It’s* the kind of thing that Soviet communists were capable of
doing and have actually done.* There is abundant evidence, for
example, that *communists
did successfully infiltrate the Russian Orthodox Church
<https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/disinformation-ronald-rychlak/1131271505?ean=9781936488605>.
*And, according to ex- communists such as Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth
Bentley, as well as later researchers such as Stanton Evans and Diana West
<https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/american-betrayal-diana-west/1112409211?ean=9781250055811#/>
,* the Roosevelt administration **had been thoroughly penetrated by
communist agents.*

We also know that *Soviet communists waged a highly successful campaign to
smear **Pope Pius XII **as “Hitler’s Pope
<https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/disinformation-ronald-rychlak/1131271505?ean=9781936488605>.”*
In addition, smear campaigns were launched to discredit several other
high-ranking anti-communist prelates such as Archbishop Wojtyla. Moreover,
as historian Paul Kengor asserts,* the attempted assassination of Pope John
Paul II was ordered by the GRU
<https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-pope-and-a-president-paul-kengor/1125157103?ean=9781610171526#/>(Soviet
military intelligence).*

*During the Cold War, Soviet communists viewed **the Catholic Church* *as
one of their greatest enemies*, implying that the motive to undermine the
Church existed; and, as exemplified by the infiltration of the Russian
Orthodox Church, so did the capability.

*Not every conspiracy is a theory*. Real conspiracies—some with devastating
results—are a part of history. Sometimes, comrade X really does instruct
agent Y to infiltrate organization Z. On the other hand, it’s important to
understand that not every disaster is the result of a conspiracy.

*Some ideas are very seductive and they can spread widely *without the help
of organized conspirators. The conspiratorial movements that Marshall
identifies—*Freemasonry, Modernism, liberalism, and communism—all share *many
ideas in common. In essence, they *are all forms of humanism—the idea that
mankind can effect some kind of secular salvation* by the proper
manipulation of the social environment.

*These ideas are often couched in terms that are very appealing to *
*Christians*—“*peace,” “love,” “brotherhood,” “compassion*,” *“the dignity
of man,*” and the like. In many respects*, these movements are counterfeits
of* *Christianity*; they have an emotional appeal for many precisely *because
they echo parts of **the Christian message.*


*The Human Potential Movement In the 1960s and ’70s, the “gospel” of
**humanistic
psychology swept through* *the Church *
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/sensitivity-movement-desensitized-catholics-evil>with
amazing speed. Almost overnight, the tenets of pop psychology were
substituted for Catholic doctrine. Religious studies texts for high school
students frequently cited *popular psychologists such as Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow,* and* the cultivation of self-esteem* in students *became a
top priority* for Catholic teachers. *Instead of **moral precepts,*
students were introduced to faddish strategies such as “values
clarification” and “moral reasoning.” Meanwhile, *goals such as
self-acceptance and self-esteem* *came to be seen as more important than* *
the achievement of sanctity.  *And,* since Human Potential Psychology had
no room for* *the concept of sin*, *countless Catholics suddenly discovered
that they were “OK” as they were, **with the result that* *the practice of
Confession* *nearly disappeared.*

Many of these striking transformations in the Church are still with us
today, but there is little evidence that they were the result of any
deliberate conspiracy. *Carl Rogers was certainly the most important figure
in* *the Human Potential Movement*. It was he who made the case that
“growth psychology” could be applied to every area of life. Yet, there is
no evidence that I’m aware of which would link Rogers to Masons or
communists or any other conspiratorial group. Because Rogers did his
graduate work at Columbia University he was almost certainly exposed to the
ideas of John Dewey, the author of the “Humanist Manifesto,” but, then, so
was my mother and so were about half of the teachers in America. The fact
is, Rogers was rather apolitical, and was quite uncomfortable with the idea
that he was looked upon as the founder of a movement. It’s difficult to
imagine him as part of any conspiracy, yet *the infiltration of the**
Church* *by the theories of **Human Potential Psychology* arguably *did
more harm to** Catholicism* *than Freemasons or communists ever did.*

*Many who are currently in charge in the Church were formed in the milieu
which Rogers helped to create.* *This includes Pope Francis, who once
taught psychology and who seems exceedingly fond of the therapeutic
psychobabble that was born in that era. *Moreover, much of *the Church*’*s
current sensitivity to* *sexual minorities* *seems to be an outgrowth of
the sensitivity movement spawned by Rogers and other humanistic
psychologists.* The concern with “acceptance,” “accompaniment,” and respect
for “lived experience” seems to come straight out of the Rogerian playbook
of *non-directive therapy.*

I have some firsthand experience of the attraction of humanistic
psychology. I became interested in Rogers’ work while in graduate school,
and I can attest that it had something akin to a religious appeal. Although*
the tenets of Humanistic Psychology** contradicted **key elements of
Christian doctrine*, it didn’t seem so to me at the time. Instead, *self-esteem
psychology seemed to me to be simply a more enlightened, more compassionate
form of Christianity.* At the same time, I was reading the work of the
*nouvelle* theologians mentioned by Marshall—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner, Hans Kung, and the like—and what they said
seemed to dovetail with what Rogers, Maslow, Fromm, and other psychologists
were saying about human development and human potential.

Alas*, even Rogers finally admitted **that his experiments in human
potential had probably done more harm than good*. The prime example was *
the **collapse of **the Immaculate Heart of Mary Order of Sisters*
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2014/sensitivity-movement-desensitized-catholics-evil>after
being exposed to a two-year program of intensive encounter groups led by
Rogers and his team. *Within a few years of Rogers’s intervention, all**
600 of the Immaculate Heart nuns* *had left **the order.*

Nevertheless, despite the damage that resulted, there appears to have been
no conspiracy on the part of Rogers or any of his colleagues to infiltrate
the Church. *Rogers’s theories certainly have a close resemblance to
Modernism and other humanistic schools of thought,* but he claims that his
ideas simply grew out of his own experience as a therapist. As Donald Trump
might say, “No Collusion, no conspiracy.” Still, it bears repeating that
one would be mistaken to jump to the opposite pole and conclude that all
conspiracy theories are wild fantasies.


*The Saint Gallen “Mafia” *Ideas are generated by people and they are
transmitted by people through articles and pamphlets, over the media, in
classrooms and meetings, and in informal conversations.  Marshall devotes a
chapter of his book to* the Saint Gallen “Mafia”—a small group of
high-ranking bishops and cardinals who assembled regularly in Saint Gallen,
Switzerland, to discuss reforming the Church, *and also, says Marshall, *to
find a candidate for pope who could defeat* *Cardinal Ratzinger,* and,
after that failed,* to find someone to replace** him. ** That someone
turned out to be Jorge Bergoglio.*

Given that his suspicions are confirmed by other sources such as Austen
Ivereigh, Marshall seems on solid ground here. But some of his musings
regarding Saint Gallen rest on more shaky ground. Marshall points out that
Saint Gallen was once a hotbed of communism and that it was located close
to the Swiss headquarters of the Order of Templars of the Orient, a
mystical religion associated with the infamous occultist, Aleister Crowley,
and that Father Theodore McCarrick travelled there annually for a period of
at least ten years. Marshall suggests that there might have been a link
between these coincidences and the activities of the Saint Gallen “Mafia.”
But contiguity does not prove conspiracy, and in the end he is only able to
make rather strained symbolic connections.

However, *what he says **about* t*he Saint Gallen group itself* is less
speculative. *He names thirteen members of the “mafia,” including Cardinal
Carlo Martini, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Cardinal Walter Kasper, and
Cardinal Cormac Murpy-O’Connor. And his thesis is backed up by Danneel’s
official biographer who explained that “the election of Bergoglio was
prepared in St. Gallen” because the “election of Bergoglio corresponded
with the aims of St. Gallen, on that there is no doubt.” It’s also telling
that Danneels himself referred to the group as a “mafia,” and that he stood
next to Bergoglio on the balcony of Saint Peter’s immediately after his
election as pope.*

Did the activities of the Saint Gallen group amount to a conspiracy? A
plot? Or were their meetings, in the words of one critical reviewer
<https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/articles.cfm?id=773> of
Marshall’s book, “the normal manner in which all human groups pursue their
own interest”?

Well, that would depend on what sort of interests they were pursuing. One
might suppose that when professional bank robbers get together to plan a
heist, their meetings are similar in form to those of other “human
groups”—first, some informal chit chat, then a call to order, then a
proposal, then some feedback from group members, etc. The difference
between a meeting of bank robbers and a meeting of the bank’s board of
directors has to do not with form but with intent.

*Marshall maintains **that some bishops have crooked intentions*—that they
have been acting more like bank robbers than bishops. Indeed,* Infiltration
contains two chapters on* *scandals in the Vatican Bank*—complete with
charges of *money laundering,* *disappearing assets*, *Mafia involvement
(the real Mafia,* not the Saint Gallen one), *and mysterious murders.*

Marshall concentrates on b*ank scandals that occurred **during the papacies
of Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI (who called in Archbishop Viganò
to straighten out the mess.)* But *Pope** Francis *h*as his own peculiar
problem with banks*. *He seems to view them not as places where money can
be safely deposited*, *but as safe places to deposit wayward priests and
bishops. In 2013, he appointed Msgr. Battista Ricca as Prelate of the
Vatican Bank despite Ricca’s involvement in a series of homosexual
scandals. *Ricca doesn’t seem to have had any particular qualification for
the position, and, in view of the scandals, he seemed an unlikely candidate
for such a sensitive job.

A few years later, after the Vatican received evidence of sexu*al abuse of
seminarians by Argentine bishop Gustavo Zanchetta,* *Francis carved out a
position for* *him in another Vatican financial institution*—The
Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. Like Ricca, Zanchetta
had no qualifications for the job.  On the contrary, he had been accused of
mishandling diocesan funds. In June of 2019,* he was formally charged with
sexual abuse and could face 3 to 10 years in prison*.

I bring this up because, except for a brief mention of Ricca, Marshall does
not. He has very little to say about the many scandals surrounding the
Francis papacy. Marshall assumes that most Catholics already realize that
something is dreadfully wrong within the Church, and his book is an attempt
to explain some of the historical and intellectual currents that have led
to our contemporary crisis. Many Catholics know next to nothing about this
historical context, and an acquaintance with the controversies over
Freemasonry and Modernism would provide a much needed perspective.

*“Ideas have consequences,” wrote political philosopher Richard Weaver. *And
*it seems beyond doubt that the Church has been infiltrated and influenced
over the years by ideas with damaging consequences. *To what extent this
infiltration of ideas was and is the result of deliberate plots is
difficult to say. However, it’s important to try and find out. Harmful
ideas can be more easily combatted if we know something about the motives
of the people who promote them.

As some of *Marshall’s* critics point out, his* book is not a comprehensive
or definitive history of the time period that he covers; * *some of the
plots he discusses are not proven.** Nevertheless*, *ideas* don’t simply
float in over the transom. They* are carried by people, and ** sometimes*,
we must assume*, by people with malevolent intent. *It’s not enough to say
that these ideas merely reflect the culture surrounding the Church; that’s
simply a way of saying that no one is responsible. Moreover, it’s not
enough to dismiss people who raise the possibility of plots as mere
conspiracy theorists. Until the release of the Venona Project papers
<https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/american-betrayal-diana-west/1112409211?ean=9781250055811#/>in
1995, communist infiltration of government agencies during the
administration of FDR was wrongly regarded by many as no more than a
rightwing fantasy.

It would be nice to wait until all the facts are in regarding, say, the
Saint Gallen group before speculating about their intentions, but time may
be running out. As Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, a leading member of the
group once said, “Four years of Bergoglio would be enough to change
this”—“this” meaning the Church founded by Christ.

*Editor’s note: Above is Pope Francis appearing at the window of St Peter’s
Basilica after being elected pope on March 13, 2013. Retired and
scandal-ridden Cardinal Danneels of the St. Gallen mafia is second from the
pope’s left. (Photo credit: FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images)*

Tagged as conspiracy theory
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/tags/conspiracy-theory>, humanistic
psychology <https://www.crisismagazine.com/tags/humanistic-psychology>,
Infiltration
(2019) <https://www.crisismagazine.com/tags/infiltration-2019>, secular
humanism <https://www.crisismagazine.com/tags/secular-humanism>, St. Gallen
Mafia <https://www.crisismagazine.com/tags/st-gallen-mafia>, Taylor Marshall
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/tags/taylor-marshall>
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined#>
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined#>
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined#>
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined#>
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined#>
352 <https://www.crisismagazine.com/2019/infiltration-real-or-imagined#>
[image: William Kilpatrick]By William Kilpatrick
<https://www.crisismagazine.com/author/william-kilpatrick>

William Kilpatrick taught for many years at Boston College. He is the
author of several books about cultural and religious issues, including *Why
Johnny Can’t Tell Right From Wrong;* and Christianity, Islam and Atheism:
The Struggle for the Soul of the West
<http://www.amazon.com/Christianity-Islam-Atheism-Struggle-Soul/dp/158617696X>
and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Jihad
<https://www.amazon.com/Politically-Incorrect-Guide-Jihad-Guides/dp/1621575772/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467592202&sr=1-1&keywords=the+politically+incorrect+guide+to+jihad>.
His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including *Catholic
World Report, National Catholic Register, Aleteia, Saint Austin Review,
Investor’s Business Daily,* and *First Things*. His work is supported in
part by the Shillman Foundation. For mor

e on his work and writings, visit his website, turningpointproject.com
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