Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press has written another article about the way of life for the “consecrated” (3gf) Regnum Christi women <href=http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_legion_of_christ>Click Herethat provides new information as a follow-up to the visitation that was concluded previously this year under Vatican Commissioner Cardinal Velasio DePaolis.
Except for the few general regulations contained in the constitution that was reviewed in 2004, most of the rules that the 3gf women live by (there are many of these that govern everything right down to trivialities such as how to eat a piece of bread) have been declared by Cardinal De Paolis as having no legal status since they were never officially approved.
Although some of the women who are required to live by these rules are willing to defend them as being “endearing” or “unifying”, critics claim that the <q>excessiveness of rules masks a lack of spirituality and constitutes a red flag about the cult-like nature of the movement</q>.
The Vatican commissioner has ordered that the rules be drastically whittled down. Nicole Winfield in her article states that some former members have complained that they were told that disobeying any one of the rules was tantamount to disobeying God’s will – a heavy onus that created an unhealthy striving for perfection over the most meaningless of norms.
ReGAIN Comment
ReGAIN for years has published many articles and testimonies about the regimented way of life that the women are gradually subjected to after entering the Third Level or 3gf “consecrated life”. Former members have identified that there were different versions of rules and that most of them were kept secret from the outside world.
Finally, someone from the Vatican has reviewed all of the rules and norms that are used to form the women and will now likely outlaw those that reduce individuality and tend to mold people to become images of each other. In some of the ReGAIN articles included on the topic of “Cult Like Features”, the militaristic rules are considered to be part of “behaviour control” which cult expert Steve Hassan includes as one of the four key elements of mind control.
At ReGAIN, we are pleased to see any changes that will reduce the degree of power and control that is exerted over these dedicated women, many of whom had been taught that everything they said and did had been fully approved by the Vatican. It is now becoming apparent that the Vatican was hardly aware of the existence of the 3gf women, who sincerely believed that they were brides of Christ.