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...

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