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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Some info on CRHP	Jeanne	Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Question: Dear Brother Ignatius, I can offer some additional info on a CRHP retreat I was invited to participate in, a few years ago. First, this began in 1969 in Ohio by a Fr. Jack Jacoby, who wanted a "renewal program". Whatever spirit was moving him, after beginning CRHP, he was then immersed in some scandals, and is now living in Florida and is married. The work was picked up by Bob Edwards, a lay person now deceased, and he wrote the handbooks. Each parish is charged a one time registration fee of about $500, and the handbooks that each team member uses costs about $40, which can be passed down to the next team members in subsequent retreats. My retreat took place at the parish classrooms and cafeteria. It consisted of continuously listening to team members stories, all very sad ones. I was exhausted the next day and really wanted to leave, because I didn't want to hear any more stories. I was fooled and I thought I would be experiencing some great orthodox catechesis. I felt like I was at an Oprah show with a box of kleenex, with some meals included. Everyone eventually receives a goodie bag the last day, with warm and fuzzy letters stating that 'God loves you'. Any Hallmark card experience is joyful, but I thought this was a Catholic retreat/pilgrimage of some sort, and I didn't have the expected spiritual experience. One of the classrooms was set up to expose the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance, and I still wonder about how proper this was - whether there was any sacrilege/abuse or canon laws broken, as the Blessed Sacrament must be protected and in a sacred place. What I found disturbing was, the stories hurt the reputations of many people. In a mens retreat my husband attended, some men announced their adulterous affairs they had and their betrayal to their wives. All people are entitled to their privacy, hence the horrors of reality shows. All people have sufferings in this life, and the participants already knew God is always there as our hope and refuge. Let's recall Vatican documents saying, there is a danger of clericalizing the laity. If people have the desire to call and gather people to spend a weekend, then it should be to safely evangelize and catechize - to use that time wisely! Catholics are poorly catechized as it is, and there are too many abuses in the church and liturgy already. I feel it is dangerous to participate in anything put together by lay people who are not fully formed or strong in their Catholic faith - it's just as dangerous as attending a mission or retreat led by a modernist religious. So I wasn't crazy about the weekend of Oprah kleenex tissues with christian pop songs (but 1 sacred song was heard). The one thing I can speak well of, was spending some time in adoration and attending confession (some priests arrived in an adjacent classroom for a short time). Anyone renewed after CRHP, should thank Jesus and the people that prayed for the participants.
Question Answered by Dear Jeanne: You said, "I feel it is dangerous to participate in anything put together by lay people who are not fully formed or strong in their Catholic faith." Well that needs to be expanded. It is also dangerous if the presenter is a priest who is not strong in their faith. We must remember that, I believe, every heresy and schism in the History of the Church was facilitated by properly approved individual, mostly priest. No matter who is the author of the program we need to check for orthodoxy, loyalty, and obedience to the Church. We should also check to be sure the material and/or person is imbued with the Catholic worldview. While the issue of some thins kept secret, as we previously discussed, is not a problem, but what you are describing here is a problem in my opinion. Based upon your description it appears that CRHP is borrowing from Humanistic Psychology. More specifically it appears they're using a technique called the Encounter Group. The particular type of Encounter Group I would call a Confessional Encounter Group. When I was in high school the leader of our youth group at the Baptist Church had us kids doing this — revealing sins and weaknesses to the group. At the time I was very uncomfortable with this approach. I don't mean that I was uncomfortable with it because I did not want to reveal sins, but rather that this technique is inappropriate on its face. Such a Confessional Encounter Group should not be attempted without a qualified mental health professional present, presuming that we even use such a technique. This technique can hold many dangers including that of producing scandal. The proper place to reveal one sins is, of course, in the Sacrament of Confession. In other professional settings, such as with mental health professionals, counselors, and spiritual directors, it is sometimes helpful to the counseling process to reveal past sins to better understand the client's problem and to construct a counseling plan accordingly. Revealing personal sins, in any context outside of the Sacrament of Confession, must have a legitimate therapeutic need designed to properly help that client. Information should not be gathered "just for the record" or some other arbitrary reason. A proper guided retreat should be a time of prayer and reflection, confession if a priest is available, spiritual direction, and catechesis on the theme for the retreat. A retreat can have a "sharing" time for participant to get to know one another, but we must be very careful that such a group does to devolve into Humanistic Psychology or get in areas that is implicitly or explicitly psychological treatment. If CHRP is primarily what you have described, then I could not recommend it. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below: Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum. Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Some info on CRHP

Jeanne

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Question:

Dear Brother Ignatius,
I can offer some additional info on a CRHP retreat I was invited to participate in, a few years ago.

First, this began in 1969 in Ohio by a Fr. Jack Jacoby, who wanted a "renewal program". Whatever spirit was moving him, after beginning CRHP, he was then immersed in some scandals, and is now living in Florida and is married. The work was picked up by Bob Edwards, a lay person now deceased, and he wrote the handbooks. Each parish is charged a one time registration fee of about $500, and the handbooks that each team member uses costs about $40, which can be passed down to the next team members in subsequent retreats.

My retreat took place at the parish classrooms and cafeteria.
It consisted of continuously listening to team members stories, all very sad ones. I was exhausted the next day and really wanted to leave, because I didn't want to hear any more stories. I was fooled and I thought I would be experiencing some great orthodox catechesis. I felt like I was at an Oprah show with a box of kleenex, with some meals included. Everyone eventually receives a goodie bag the last day, with warm and fuzzy letters stating that 'God loves you'. Any Hallmark card experience is joyful, but I thought this was a Catholic retreat/pilgrimage of some sort, and I didn't have the expected spiritual experience.
One of the classrooms was set up to expose the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance, and I still wonder about how proper this was - whether there was any sacrilege/abuse or canon laws broken, as the Blessed Sacrament must be protected and in a sacred place.

What I found disturbing was, the stories hurt the reputations of many people. In a mens retreat my husband attended, some men announced their adulterous affairs they had and their betrayal to their wives. All people are entitled to their privacy, hence the horrors of reality shows. All people have sufferings in this life, and the participants already knew God is always there as our hope and refuge. Let's recall Vatican documents saying, there is a danger of clericalizing the laity. If people have the desire to call and gather people to spend a weekend, then it should be to safely evangelize and catechize - to use that time wisely! Catholics are poorly catechized as it is, and there are too many abuses in the church and liturgy already.

I feel it is dangerous to participate in anything put together by lay people who are not fully formed or strong in their Catholic faith - it's just as dangerous as attending a mission or retreat led by a modernist religious.

So I wasn't crazy about the weekend of Oprah kleenex tissues with christian pop songs (but 1 sacred song was heard).
The one thing I can speak well of, was spending some time in adoration and attending confession (some priests arrived in an adjacent classroom for a short time).

Anyone renewed after CRHP, should thank Jesus and the people that prayed for the participants.

Question Answered by

Dear Jeanne:

You said, "I feel it is dangerous to participate in anything put together by lay people who are not fully formed or strong in their Catholic faith." Well that needs to be expanded. It is also dangerous if the presenter is a priest who is not strong in their faith. We must remember that, I believe, every heresy and schism in the History of the Church was facilitated by properly approved individual, mostly priest.

No matter who is the author of the program we need to check for orthodoxy, loyalty, and obedience to the Church. We should also check to be sure the material and/or person is imbued with the Catholic worldview.

While the issue of some thins kept secret, as we previously discussed, is not a problem, but what you are describing here is a problem in my opinion.

Based upon your description it appears that CRHP is borrowing from Humanistic Psychology. More specifically it appears they're using a technique called the Encounter Group. The particular type of Encounter Group I would call a Confessional Encounter Group.

When I was in high school the leader of our youth group at the Baptist Church had us kids doing this — revealing sins and weaknesses to the group. At the time I was very uncomfortable with this approach. I don't mean that I was uncomfortable with it because I did not want to reveal sins, but rather that this technique is inappropriate on its face.

Such a Confessional Encounter Group should not be attempted without a qualified mental health professional present, presuming that we even use such a technique. This technique can hold many dangers including that of producing scandal.

The proper place to reveal one sins is, of course, in the Sacrament of Confession. In other professional settings, such as with mental health professionals, counselors, and spiritual directors, it is sometimes helpful to the counseling process to reveal past sins to better understand the client's problem and to construct a counseling plan accordingly. Revealing personal sins, in any context outside of the Sacrament of Confession, must have a legitimate therapeutic need designed to properly help that client. Information should not be gathered "just for the record" or some other arbitrary reason.

A proper guided retreat should be a time of prayer and reflection, confession if a priest is available, spiritual direction, and catechesis on the theme for the retreat. A retreat can have a "sharing" time for participant to get to know one another, but we must be very careful that such a group does to devolve into Humanistic Psychology or get in areas that is implicitly or explicitly psychological treatment.

If CHRP is primarily what you have described, then I could not recommend it.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below:
Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum.
Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum
Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum
Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum