Roman Catholics: Monks in Psychoanalysis

Father Grégoire Lemercier, prior of St. Mary of the Resurrection monastery near Cuernavaca, Mexico, believes that psychoanalysis is good for the soul—especially the soul of the monk. Convinced that too many men enter the cloister out of fear of the world or from a sense of sexual inadequacy, Benedictine Lemercier five years ago encouraged the monks and postulants at St. Mary’s to undertake group-therapy sessions. As a result, 40 of them decided that they did not have a true vocation and left, but Lemercier is sure that St. Mary’s is the better for having a decimated but more dedicated company.

In a candid volume of confessions called Dialogues with Christ, recently j published in Paris, Lemercier tells of the I Cuernavaca experiment. A Belgian, I Lemercier went to Mexico in 1944, intending to found a monastery with two other men. Both his companions quit, disillusioned with monastic life; in 1949, one of them came back at the head of a gang of pistoleros to destroy the monastery—although neither Lemercier nor the few monks who had joined him there were harmed.

Fear & Joy. Lemercier got permission from Rome to try again, and slowly built St. Mary’s near the ruins of the old monastery. The intense work, combined with worries about his health—he eventually lost his left eye because of cancer—put him under great stress. One night in October 1960, according to his Dialogues, he had a vision of lightning flashes. Feelings of fear and joy swept over him; tearfully he cried out, “My God, why don’t you speak to me?” Suspecting that he was going insane, he turned for help to Mexican Psychoanalyst Gustao Quevedo.

The core of Lemercier’s dialogues consists of sermons to his fellow monks, in which he describes, among other things, what psychoanalysis told him about himself. He was one of six children of an artillery officer; he says that, he feared his father, and at the same time wanted to emulate him. As he sees it now, when he became a priest he transferred this complex to God. His autoanalytical sermons abound with expressions of his double feeling toward the Creator: “I envy and fear my Father. He is my rival. I want to be like him, but I fear that he does not want me to be like him.” Lemercier confesses the jealousy of a younger brother toward Christ: “Father, behold your two sons, the first born Jesus, and the other Grégoire. Why is there this difference between them?” Psychoanalysis even found its way into the prayers Lemercier composed, one of which contains the petition: “Father, forgive me my sins, as I forgive you your sins.”

Eunuchs for God. Convinced that his own experience had led him to a useful self-understanding of his own spiritual doubts and fears, Lemercier asked the members of his community if they would volunteer for a series of twice-weekly group-therapy sessions. To work with Dr. Quevedo, Lemercier deliberately selected a woman psychiatrist, Argentinian Frida Zmud, so that the monks would have to confront the problems of sexuality. For some, sex was indeed a problem, and many of those who left St. Mary’s have since married. But Lemercier believes that the ones who stayed came out of the therapy sessions with purified faith, a new creativity of spirit, and improved physical health. He also believes that they have chosen to sublimate their sexual feelings to become “eunuchs for God” out of genuine spiritual conviction rather than fear.

The experiment in group therapy was approved by Cuernavaca’s Bishop Sergio Méndez Arceo. Alarmed by Lemercier’s innovation, the Vatican sent several investigators to Cuernavaca, and last year Lemercier went to Rome to explain the results to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He is still there, and in response to his pleas, Pope Paul has appointed a commission of three cardinals to review his case—and, in effect, the broad question of whether psychotherapy is a proper means of helping a man decide whether he is truly called to the monastic life.