PART 4

A Journey Out of Roman Catholic Mind Control into Freedom in Jesus Christ

As I sat in that artful and elegant Catholic church listening to the carefully scripted and paced words of the priest guiding the flock through the “liturgy,” as I watched the carefully choreographed Sunday Mass and marveled at the unquestioning complicity of the faithful (exactly as complicit as I was years back), whether by habit or dedication, I also marveled at my own deliverance from the religious system.

Hard!

Lengthy.

Here a little, there a little….over time….so many layers of enmeshment…so many powerful releases…

But complete.

I thought about how many years and how much research and how many prayers and how much pedal-to-the-metal commitment to recovery from so much arguably apostate teachings that had morphed Roman Catholicism into what it is today had come between me, now, and the “completely mind-controlled me” back then!

God is faithful.

And some, I hear, are “released” instantly!

I suppose it’s the difference between healings and miracles.

And God is far, far more powerful than all the wealth and glamour and tradition and trinkets and idols and mind-control techniques littering the history of that denomination even until today.

Littering, sadly, many other religious traditions as well, that have supplanted the same Word, “yesterday, today, and forever” with new and better plans, purposes, and programs.

Or so they believe.

And I also thought about one of my “callings,” if you will, in today’s world, that is, I think, to share my experiences with Catholics who might need encouragement, or information. To share the “comforts” wherewith I have been comforted, as the verse puts it.

Because it can be hard coming out.

Perhaps even to share my story with those who might, just now, be considering new teachings that have been morphing within the Catholic Church in this century, taking the faithful even further from the narrow path of the Gospel–of even traditional Catholic teachings!

For example, the current Pope is doing such a clever job of teaching new things about “ecumenism” to include more and more cults and apostasies, one might think he’d even be a good candidate for the prophetic “false prophet,” if one follows prophecy, that is.

But my concern and urgency to share my story and research is more than just all that.

Vicar of Christ?

I know that many Roman Catholics are not fooled by the politics of this Pope, Francis, though he may well be, as we/they were carefully taught, God’s one and only true representative on earth.

Many Catholics are not in agreement with his espousing, now, certain forms of government that have killed millions and oppressed millions more. They are also aware of his disdain, it seems, for classic Christian teachings.

But many of them might also still contend that he is to be excused because, well, the Catholic Church is bigger than just the Pope. It’s the one and only authentic church, we were told, and, well, it has outlived numerous depraved Popes through the ages, as history attests!

AND “sacred tradition,” esteemed as highly as the Roman Catholic version of the Bible in that religious system, remains the same, correct?

Besides, the Pope is only deemed “speaking as if God” on certain matters when he is speaking “Ex Cathedra”. He can still make mistakes in other areas of proclamation…

Please pause here, those of you who do not have experience within Catholicism, or who have not thoughtfully studied it. Think about what I just wrote for a moment. Think how such teachings can seriously alter the mind, suspend logic, let alone how they can affect the psyche, emotions, and spirit…particularly when taught the child from a tender, formative age of innocence, trust, and loyalty…let alone an open and trusting adult searching for truth…

And thus begins a precursor to mind control called “cognitive dissonance” which keeps the faithful, to cut to the bone, in a mental spin–and desperate for a resolution.

For to doubt the Pope who is, after all, “Christ’s Vicar (personage) on earth,” is to sin in disobedience to the mandate to obey him–as if one were actually disobeying God.

And who’s to say if one individual thinks The Holy Father’s seeming turn toward anti-Christian beliefs is accurate, anyway? Aren’t the Pope and the priests, bishops, arch-bishops, and cardinals the only ones with the spiritual status to be able to interpret his encyclicals on all matters?

Furthermore, as noted above, good Catholics are not to disobey him/them, right? Isn’t that a sin? Purgatory- or even Hell-worthy?…

And the mind of the struggling Catholic gets caught up in a continual loop of doubt and guilt, doubt and guilt, doubt and guilt…

The stressed Catholic searches for an answer to calm his/her mind, assuage the mental angst, for an awful lot is at stake, here: perhaps even one’s eternal destiny!

Maybe Hell, even!

And, voila! Just in time: good news! Not THE Good News, but just enough to ease the pain for the time being so the brain can get back to normal…with perhaps even a firmer commitment to the Church and its “safety”…

As advertised in the church vestibule, the Sunday Missal, and in reams of informational publications (even in the Catholic version of the Bible) there are all manner of rites, rituals, and “spiritual practices” engineered to calm the cognitive dissonance and steer the doubting devotee back into the arms of The Holy Mother Church (including a number of devotions to the Holy Mother, aka, The Blessed Virgin Mary, herself).

It is my core contention, here, that the sin-consciousness instilled early and often  in the young believer’s mind, is a driving force for not only cognitive dissonance, (and there are many additional RC teachings that are opposite biblical teachings, as the chart, referenced in footnote #4, details) but also the solution—a solution (any one of many added through the centuries) that steers the angst-filled Catholic…insert a drum-roll, here, to underscore the gravity and urgency of the situation (if not perceived consciously, likely sensed deep in the psyche where mind control works best)…right back into the fold via another set of behaviors needed for his/her (re-gained, perhaps) salvation.

In short, when any mind-control technique in a church or in the world is wielded by the powers-that-be against their subordinates for the purpose of control, best to get them young, literally or figuratively.

After the Sacrament of Infant Baptism, the Sacrament of Confession usually comes next. For children born into the system, this is usually about the age of 6, or 7.

(Hmmm…isn’t that just about the right age in the Jesuit tradition?)

In Roman Catholicism, the “sin-consciousness-and-need-for-the-Church’s-salvation-mechanisms” is instilled early, often, and firmly; blatantly or implied/”softened”, for the modern, older and more sophisticated student.

To sum, I believe that when you unpack RC “examination of conscience” instruction much of the mind control begins there.

If you keep a person noticing, counting, struggling against, thus, constantly on guard because of their sins, while also teaching that they can gain, lose, and gain, and lose, again, their salvation if they don’t deal correctly with their sins, they will hardly have a chance to learn the whole truth about the Gospel of grace that is also defined differently in the RC church than it is in classic Christianity.

You see, in Roman Catholicism, when you unpack the teaching of grace, it is in part earned by the behavior of the sinner every day (every minute of the day, if one keeps an “examination of conscious log” as used to be suggested, so as to make sure to confess ALL the sins to the priest) and by receiving the Roman Catholic Sacraments and observing other rites and spiritual disciplines.

Grace, in the Roman Catholic religious system is not merited only because of the behavior, so to speak, of Jesus Christ that day on the cross, when even HE declared, “It is finished.”

And THAT truth, from Jesus’ last words, tucked away in the Gospel of St. John, chapter 19, verse 30, is what the believer needs to unpack for meaning and comprehension and clarity and depth. For the full meaning of what JESUS did, that time, on the cross, is what no other faith tradition, religious system, movement, message or mantra has to offer. Why? Because in all other spiritual practices and programs, it is the follower who must earn his/her own salvation.

In Christianity, Jesus “earned” it for us by becoming the sacrifice, once and only sacrifice, needed to restore our relationship with God. From there, we begin the spiritual maturation process according to our individual callings and gifts, not to GET “saved” as it were, but to GET ON with spreading the news in each our own “ministries,” guided by the Holy Spirit whose wisdom is gleaned in the clarity of the context of the Scriptures and through prayer and in myriad other ways—but all in agreement.

We are not left in the never-quite-requited position of spiritual infancy, searching for basic food and comfort and wholly dependent upon men, figuratively and literally, in that religious system, for the particulars of how, exactly, we ought to do what we have to do, the rest of our lives only in the HOPE of at length earning eternity in heaven.

Phew!

And, sadly, the particulars change from time to time, from Pope to Pope, from year to decade to millennia, so one has to keep one’s eyes and mind on the magisterium at all times, as it were, to make sure…one had better pay attention to what the priest is saying at Sunday Mass…

Whereas as born-again believers, we are freed from trying to behave our way to heaven to, then, grow up spiritually and get about the Father’s business.

And it is not hard to see why behavior-based religion doesn’t work, once one’s mind and psyche are freed from control, that is.

If it did, why would people still hunger and thirst after truth even after working so hard to do the right thing?

When I kept the files for the ex-cultist counseling ministry, even back then, there were literally hundreds of major and minor cults trapping people desperate for some kind of existential relief, some kind of higher purpose.

And, the thing is, there are self-proclaimed holy men and women around every street corner to work the hungering crowds…and all kinds of information, nowadays, on how to seduce them in and then keep them in…

Antidotes

As a recovering Catholic, early on, I immersed myself in the Scriptures, particularly in the letters to the believers in Galatia, and to the Hebrew converts, groups who were caught up in similar kinds of mind and culture control, and confusion as I had been for all those formative and early adult years in Roman Catholicism. These two Scriptures, in particular, helped unlock my mind, and at length, unbind my spirit.

Hebrews 7:26-27— “Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ²⁷ Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”

And,

Galatians 3:3–” Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?”

But oh, those clever, clever mind-controllers…more on this in part 5.

PART 1, HERE     PART 2, HERE     PART 3, HERE