'Hierarchies have a famously damaging effect on empathy, where people at the top tend to lose their empathic abilities (even if their trait empathy was high when they came into the hierarchy) while people at the bottom often need to develop hyper-empathy as a kind of counterbalance (and to keep themselves safe).' *
I recently discovered this statement on the website of Psychology Today. Having written extensively on the rigid monolithic hierarchy within Catholic movements and in particular, the Focolare Movement, it certainly confirmed my findings. Emotions are considered highly suspect within the Focolare culture - they are seen as deceptive, as 'attachments' and therefore in the 'bad zone' of Focolare's dualistic Manichean world view. They are 'human' rather than 'supernatural', bearing in mind that for Focolare foundress, Chiara Lubich, 'human' was - bizzarely - a negative term, signifying 'worldly'.
Even when I was a full-time member of Focolare (1967-76), I was often shocked by the harsh manner in which people were cancelled or dumped by the movement in a peremptory manner - especially by those in authority. People were judged starkly in terms of how useful they were to the movement - even people who had contributed generously in time, effort and materially - goods, services,money. From its origins, Focolare 'cultivated' (this word is used internally to denote recruitment) wealthy people. Even those in the UK who had provided the movement with the free use for many years of valuable properties in Central London, for example, were criticised for not giving more.
Those who left the movement were written off even more harshly. When Trudi, the former leader (capozona) of the female section of the Focolare movement in Germany, left the movement to marry in the early 1970s, her replacement, Bruna Tommasi, (one of Chiara Lubich's so-called 'first companions' - tiny but of fearsome appearance), told a German member, 'We cannot mention her name because she has betrayed God.' I experienced this personally when, after I had left the movement, but responding to their invitation, I attended the presentation of the Templeton Award for Progress in Religion to Lubich by the Duke of Edinburgh, at the Guildhall in London in 1977. When, after the ceremony, I approached another of Lubich's 'first companions', who I had known for many years, Doriana Zamboni, (sugary-sweet in appearance but tough as old boots in character), I understood for the first time what the phrase 'she looked straight through me' actually means. When I greeted her out of politeness, it was as though I was invisible, as her eyes worked the room for someone 'useful'. I left the event in a state of shock. In my career, I have worked with many important people, some world-famous in the arts and entertainment fields, but I have never encountered such bad manners as on that occasion.
The stated aim of the Focolare movement is love of others. Yet how can there by love without empathy? As a Catholic, I would propose that empathy is a God-given gift which encourages us to love others because that is what we are created to do, it is essential to being human. But showing spontaneous emotion does not compute with the kind of love Chiara Lubich and Focolare preach. Before Lubich's funeral, her longtime secretary/promoter, Giulia (Eli) Folonari, ordered that there should be no tears at the funeral (broadcast live on Italian television station RAIUNO) to prove that the members of the movement believed she was in Heaven so there was nothing to cry about. Yet Jesus wept over the death of his friend Lazarus. (See: https://popesarmada25.blogspot.com/p/out-of-past-i-archives-of-25-years.html) In the nine years I spent in the Focolare movement, I never heard the word 'compassion' (= to feel with) used by a member or leader of the movement. Yet Saint Paul says, 'Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.' And Pope Francis frequently uses the term 'tenderness' to express the nature of Christian love, emphasising its humanity, and its connection to the emotions.
When I was at Warwick University in the 1960s, I remember a maths lecturer, an Anglican, referring to Mormonism as a 'homespun' religion. I think this is an accurate description of Focolare, many of whose interpretations of the New Testament which are fundamental to the way members are expected to live out their everyday lives are grossly over-simplified and mistaken. One example is their interpretation of Jesus' statement, when he speaks of kindness to others, that, 'in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it to me.' (Matt. 25:40) Chiara Lubich's interpretation is that 'we should see Jesus in others' (her phrase, not the gospel's), i.e. we should project an image of Christ on to others and that should motivate us to be kind and generous. There are two problems here. The first is that this - like many other aspects of Lubich's interpretations of the gospel - is a mechanistic, Pelagian approach - going though the motions without any inspiration from God's grace (a subject Pope Francis has frequently addressed, particularly in the document Gaudete et Exsultate, 2018). This approach, Pelagianism, named after its British proponent Pelagius, was condemned by the Church as a heresy in the Sixth century because it implies that simply by doing the 'right things', going through the motions, we can save ourselves without any help from God. Secondly, 'seeing Jesus in others' eliminates completely the concept of empathy and even reduces the value and individuality of every human being in herself or himself: they are only worth loving if you 'see Jesus in them'. This is an insult to God's creation. According to Lubich, what is important is doing things for the 'right' reason, humanity and empathy play no part in this interpretation of the gospel teachings.
The hyper-empathy referred to in the final sentence of the quotation at the beginning of the article, refers to the total subservience of those at the bottom of the hierarchy, necessary 'as a counterbalance and to keep themselves safe', another feature which was very evident in the blind obedience required of the underlings, which in Focolare is called 'making unity'.
*Psychology Today,
Karla McLaren M.Ed.
July 24 2024
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