Transcript
Introduction
Welcome! Today I’m going to reveal the secrets of the Neocatechumenal Way’s second baptismal scrutiny, specifically the five major elements that are associated with the second scrutiny’s commands and the events that follow it. Let me proceed there now.
The second scrutiny is the fourth stage of the Neocatechumenal Way and occurs approximately 4 to 5 years after the initial catechesis. It begins with a convivence, a weekend retreat. In a very real sense, the previous stages were all preparing for this stage. And the amazing thing is that after four or five years in the Way, members are still considered to be infested with demons.
There are five main elements to the Neocatechumenal Way’s second scrutiny:
- The Questionnaire
- The Individual Scrutiny
- The Rite of Renunciation of Idols
- The Rite of Salt
- The Tithe
Element 1: The Questionnaire
So let me start with number one: The Questionnaire. This is the first element of the second scrutiny. It’s a list of questions that the catechists will use to flush out those demons. When introducing the written questionnaire that will serve to prepare the brothers for the individual scrutiny, Kiko Argüello, the founder of the Neocatechumenal Way, says:
“In fact, we have many burrows within us where demons are squatting and hiding. During this convivence, they’re all afraid and they’re good and quiet in their holes. We silence them with the word, with the songs, and with the Gospel; we have rendered them inoperative. We want to get to those dens and throw them out; we want to flush out the demons.”
Here’s the questionnaire. It will be filled out by each member individually. The emphasis on demon infestation is made more problematic in the questionnaire by the catechists’ exclusion of the consideration of the member’s personal experience of God’s grace, especially if that grace was experienced either outside of the Way or before they joined the Neocatechumenal Way. They do this by forcing the scrutinized person to craft a narrative of their spiritual journey that has the Neocatechumenal Way as its only point of reference.
Each of the primary questions on the questionnaire concerns one of the temptations of our Lord in the desert, and members are told to answer each question considering three timeframes:
- Before they joined the Way
- While they were walking in the Way
- To date
The catechists don’t accommodate any discussion of God’s grace working outside of the Neocatechumenal Way. This principle pervades the Neocatechumenal Way, and many of us have experienced this when we are forced to listen to members’ testimonies at Holy Mass: members never seem to remember any move of the Holy Spirit in their lives before they joined the Way.
Now, three of the more pointed questions on this questionnaire are:
- In what concrete things do you put your safety today?
- Today, in practice, what do you still not accept in your life and/or what is difficult for you to understand?
- What idols are you enslaved to today?
Community members then share their answers in small groups and revise their answers using the feedback that they’ve received.
Element 2: The Individual Scrutiny
So let me move on to the second element of the second scrutiny, and it’s The Individual Scrutiny. The lead catechist randomly draws the name of a member from a bag to determine who will be scrutinized. The chosen member is asked to sit in a chair called the Chair of Mercy, which is referred to at other times as being “under the Cross” because it’s often placed in the middle of a circle of chairs near a cross.
The lead catechist will take notes, assuring the group that he will destroy the notes at the end of the scrutinies. There’s some doubt about this, though—that these notes are in fact destroyed. Many members subject themselves to the second scrutiny several times because they failed the first time, and the catechists seem to have an uncanny ability to remember vivid personal details from previous scrutinies.
The member being scrutinized will read out the answers to his or her questionnaire, and the catechists will then start asking questions to clarify the answers. Remember, their whole community is seated around them listening. Participants are often asked to provide intimate details about their lives, their relationships, their sins, and temptations, including sexual details. Here are some actual questions reported by ex-members:
- “You’re getting old and not married. Do you masturbate?”
- “Have you ever cheated on your spouse?”
- “Tell us about your previous girlfriends.”
- “Are you romantically involved with anyone?”
- “Are you having sex?”
- “Do you experience same-sex attractions? If so, when did you start experiencing them?”
- “You only have three children. Are you open to life?”
Sometimes the member will be told to go back and rewrite his answers with more detail, and then his name will be drawn at random once again to continue the scrutiny. I can imagine it could be pretty terrible for a person to hear some of the secret sins of their spouse for the first time with a dozen or more of their “brothers” listening to every word.
After the member has been scrutinized, the community members present are asked to provide evidence as to whether the member being scrutinized is a Christian or not. This exercise is called “Be My Mirror” and is often the opportunity for community members to express the pain of being hurt by the scrutinized member. The scrutinized member is forbidden to respond to the comments made by their brothers. If the community members are silent or if they offer negative comments, then the scrutinized member is sometimes subjected to more admonishments from the catechists.
Element 3: The Rite of Renunciation of Idols
After the excruciating individual scrutiny comes the third element: The Renunciation of Idols. So our story picks up several weeks later, and the scrutinized members are now gathered for the Rite of Renunciation of Idols. And this is where members put a significant amount of their wealth or their family’s wealth at the feet of their catechists. This is savings accounts, retirement accounts, jewelry, heirlooms, titles and keys to cars, deeds to land.
After each individual scrutiny, the catechist told each member:
“Think of a sign in money that expresses your willingness to do this—that is, renounce idols. During these days, please fast and ask the Lord for help.”
During the rite, the lead catechist invites the members to come forward one by one, and they put the sign that they brought into the basket or bag at the front. And what are these signs? As I mentioned: substantial amounts of cash, checks, titles to automobiles, titles to property, expensive jewelry, heirlooms. And members are coerced by the catechists with words like: “Show that you are bigger than your idols” or “Throw it into the fire.”
Of course, nothing is thrown into the fire. Everything is liquidated by the community responsibles—that is, the elected managers of the community.
After offering their sign, each member goes to the microphone and, standing in front of the community, points their finger at the door and, addressing Satan, says something like this:
“I, Susanna, renounce you, Satan, because you’ve deceived me in such-and-such a way, and I put my faith in Jesus Christ today.”
After saying this, each member approaches the presider, kneels, and quietly says: “I want to be accepted into the catechumenate.” And then the presider lays his hands on the member and quietly prays the prayer of exorcism.
Now, community members are not immediately told what will happen to the money. They’ll learn this sometime later during the catechesis of the Way. Then they’ll learn that the newly elected community responsibles—again, those are the community managers—will open a bank account using the checks and the cash, and all the other items will be liquidated, that is, sold over time, and the proceeds deposited into the account. And we get to ask: does any of this money appear on their parish ledgers or on any tax forms?
Kiko Argüello says in his catechesis associated with this event:
“Now we will read the records of the spoil that we’ve ripped from the idols in the victory over the demons. When Israel ends a battle, she picks up the loot, right? So are we. The booty is for the poor and is the money that selfishness had taken from the poor.”
So, as you can imagine, a single scrutiny with a community of several dozen members could easily bring in over $100,000 USD in loot, as Kiko says, depending upon the wealth of the members. A part of the funds are taken by the responsibles to poor families in the parishes, but a third of the loot will go to the bishop of the diocese.
Element 4: The Rite of Salt
The fourth element is The Rite of Salt. So the second scrutiny in the Neocatechumenal Way initiates a substantial revenue stream for the Neocatechumenal Way, and anything that might dissuade others from joining the sect, such as coerced donations and psychological abuse, must be kept strictly secret.
To do this, the founders took a traditional element of the catechumenal process called the Rite of Salt and gave it a little twist. In the early Church, the Rite of Salt during the catechumenate was a ceremonial administration of exorcised and blessed salt for those preparing for baptism, and it was understood to have both a purifying and preserving meaning.
Now, with respect to secrets, the primitive Church did keep certain doctrines secret from the catechumens for a period of time during the height of the persecutions against the Church. This practice was called the disciplina arcani, and the doctrines that were withheld temporarily were primarily doctrines about the Eucharist, like the Real Presence, the Holy Trinity, and the Lord’s Prayer. The Church did this to make sure the catechumens were ready for those teachings, and then they were revealed to the catechumens at the appropriate time. It largely abandoned the practice by the fifth century.
So Kiko twists some of the verses of Sacred Scripture not traditionally associated with the Rite of Salt to serve the purpose of the keeping of secrets. The Rite of Salt begins with an admonition for two scriptural readings. The second of these readings includes the well-known words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount regarding salt: “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5)—and that’s in keeping with the traditional Rite of Salt.
But it’s with the first reading from Sacred Scripture that Kiko does his damage, and that reading is from the second chapter of the Book of Revelation, verse 17:
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I’ll give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it.”
In his catechesis of the salt, Kiko explains:
“You will receive in the rite—that’s the Rite of Salt—a crystal, a white stone, a pebble, not small, white, a salt crystal. You will need to taste; you will not receive the salt, but a crystal, a white stone. Of this pebble Revelation speaks: ‘I will give the victor a white stone that has a name on it no one knows but the one who receives it.’ Because in the early Church, the mysteries of the catechumenate were kept secret and were called arcani. You could not talk about what was going to happen next; you could not tell anyone who comes after you the deepest secrets of the catechumenate. Besides, it would be useless, and people would think it’d be all ridiculous. If the rumor gets around town that in order to enter these communities one must sell what they own, then no one will come to the catechesis anymore. Therefore, it’s important that nobody boasts or makes this public, because people who are outside our environment will not understand.”
See that little twist there with the secrets? With these words, Kiko offers a false and deformed interpretation of the meaning of the white stone in this passage from the Book of Revelation. The Greek word used in those verses means pebble, not salt. No exegete interprets these verses as speaking of salt. In those days, pebbles were used for casting votes, and St. Paul in the 26th chapter of the Book of Acts—which is the only other time the word is used in the New Testament—uses the word in that sense. White pebbles were used for votes of acquittal. Pebbles were also given to victors of an athletic contest as tickets to the great banquet that followed the contest, and they were used by some as amulets which were thought to offer protection to the bearer. So that’s some of the actual symbolism of the white pebbles.
The word used for salt in the New Testament is not the one used in this passage. In addition, the new name referenced in this passage, according to Scripture scholars, is the name of our Lord Himself, or according to others, the name “Christian”; it does not refer to secret practices.
Element 5: The Tithe
Lastly, the fifth element of the Neocatechumenal Way’s second baptismal scrutiny is The Tithe. As you can imagine, it takes a large, continuous stream of revenue to pay the expensive travel bills of the Neocatechumenal Way. A day or two after the Rite of Salt, or some period of time after it, soon thereafter, and entrance into the catechumenate, and after the catechists and responsibles have secured the sizable donations from the second scrutiny, the catechists conduct a special catechesis on the Way where they obligate members to give a tenth of their income—that’s called a tithe—to the community every month.
Kiko continues:
“In religion it says that God has revealed that you will give the priests the first fruits of your oil, your corn, of thy sheep, your lambs, and you also give a part of your assets. This fact of tithing is then passed to the Church. It is a commandment of Holy Mother the Church, paying tithes and the first fruits to the Church of God. It’s a commandment of the Church that is studied in the Catechism, although no one ever paid any tithes or first fruits, none whatsoever. In the Didache, which is the first catechesis, it says: ‘It is written that the first fruits and the tenth part of your goods you will give to the prophets. If you have not prophets in your community, give,’ says the Didache, ‘to the poor, who are Christ.'”
So this is another half-truth. While some Catholics do tithe, the Church does not command the faithful to tithe, but only to assist with the needs of the Church so that the Church has what is necessary for divine worship, apostolic works, and works of charity, and for the decent sustenance of its ministers and clergy. We, the faithful, are also obliged to promote social justice and to assist the poor from our own resources.
But Kiko says that the tithe money goes to the prophets. Who are they? Kiko tells us a little bit later in the catechesis on the Way:
“In order to arrive at this community, you have to be taught, and you’ll get another education of what you earn monthly. The 10th part is for the Church and for the poor—a means for the community, not for the parish, to help travelers, to help your catechists. I want to tell you to think of the catechists, because if you do not prepare the community to aid the catechists a little, then of course there will come a time when it must be a normal thing that is born from yourself. We hope that this scrutiny has implemented something in you, that you create among you this community of goods.”
According to Kiko, the “prophets” are the catechists, and the funds collected are especially for their travels. Now, after members give a tenth of their income to the Neocatechumenal community, do you think that they’ll have much left over for their parish? For many, it’s not likely.
Conclusion
In summary, during the events of the Neocatechumenal Way’s second baptismal scrutiny, the movement exerts its persuasive influence over its members in a very harmful way. It compels them to reveal deeply personal sins and crosses in public; it acknowledges no significant encounter with the grace of God outside of itself; and it exerts quite a bit of psychological pressure to separate its members from their money and to keep all those things secret. It does this through a terrible twisting of the Sacred Scriptures and the deformation of some traditional rites of the Catholic Church.
