Although fortunately rare, false spiritual fatherhood exists. In order to understand this, we must first understand what true spiritual fatherhood is.

True spiritual fatherhood is the guiding of the person towards salvation, away from the sins to which it in particular is prone. It is not the suppression of the person and its replacement by a self-serving personality cult of the false spiritual father. In such cases of personality cult, it will be seen that the victim (‘spiritual child’) will start physically resembling the so-called spiritual father. In other words, clones will be produced. This cloning involves not only external resemblance by wearing the same clothes, having the same hairstyle, cultivating the same walk, gestures or mannerisms, repeating the same words, wearing the same glasses, but also psychic resemblance. In such a case, it will be found that the clone will by mimetism (imitation) start to physically resemble the guru, the physical features changing to those of the cult leader.

Such a cult can very swiftly be identified by the exclusivist attitudes of the cult members or adepts to outsiders. These outsiders will not be recognized by them, for they cannot exist. They cannot exist, because no-one has a right to exist outside the cocoon of the exclusive cult. They have no right to exist because they owe no obedience to the idolatrous cult. In this way the cult takes on a sectarian, esoteric mentality, cutting itself off from the wider Church. Its spiritual pride becomes narcissistic, reflecting the narcissism of its idolized founder, who may have suffered from NPD (narcissistic personality disorder – google for details). Eventually, however, the cult begins to wither and die because of its spiritual pride, becoming irrelevant to the wider world. This is summed up by the Gospel words, ‘By their fruit ye shall know them’.

We write the above in order to warn the naïve, often young and intellectual. As we have said above, false spiritual fatherhood is rare – but it does exist.