Cruise control

Tom Cruise’s fiancée Katie Holmes has announced her intention to convert to Scientology.
David V Barrett asks what’s the appeal for Catholics?
The recent showbiz gossip about Tom Cruise’s whirlwind romance with actress Katie Holmes was quickly followed by reports that his new fiancée was about to follow him into the Church of Scientology. Cruise’s ex-wife, Nicole Kidman, was also a member of the controversial religion, as is John Travolta. Oddly, all four of these were previously Catholics.
On the surface the two religions seem to have nothing in common, but could there be something in Scientology that is attractive to people who were brought up Catholic?
The Church of Scientology was founded in 1955, five years after the publication of the book Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard. The famous story, vehemently denied by the Church but attested to by several witnesses, is that Hubbard once said: “The easiest way to make a lot of money is to found a new religion.” And he did both.
As with many new religions a higher than average proportion of Scientology’s members are well-educated middleclass people. Cynics have suggested that they need to be, because Scientology is an expensive religion to belong to. At every step up the ladder of the clearly defined spiritual career path the Scientologist has to pay, for books, for courses and for auditing. Auditing, the heart of Dianetics, is a way of dealing with your problems and hangups through question-andanswer sessions with your auditor, while holding two tin cans connected to an E-Meter, a device which measures elec trical skin conductivity and resistance in the same way as a polygraph or lie-detector.
If the Church of Scientology had sacraments, auditing would be its equivalent of confession and absolution; Scientologists report that they come out of an auditing session feeling cleansed. For people brought up as Catholics this is something they can relate to.
A more controversial similarity that might be drawn is the matter of authority. Catholicism and Scientology are both top-down religions. The Pope, when speaking ex cathedra, is infallible; the Vatican speaks, on doctrine or moral issues, and countless millions of Catholics around the world obey.
In the Church of Scientology L Ron Hubbard’s words are treated with just the same reverence. What Scientologists call “the Tech” or technology, the auditing and other programmes and courses in the religion, must be followed exactly as Hubbard wrote them; an auditor can no more change the procedure than a priest can alter the words of the Mass.
The Religious Technology Centre, on behalf of the Church of Scientology International, exists to maintain the purity of Hubbard’s teachings and to guard against any deviation from them, in much the same way as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith preserves the purity of Catholic teaching.
In fact, L Ron Hubbard is regarded with even more reverence than the Pope; in the religion’s British headquarters at Saint Hill Manor near East Grinstead his study is still preserved as it was during his life, with paper on his desk and sharpened pencils ready for his use.
Scientology even has its own dedicated Order, analogous to monastic Orders or to the Jesuits or Opus Dei: the Sea Organisation. These are members, around 5,000 in total (400 in Britain), who sign a billion-year contract “to symbolise their commitment to the religion as immortal spiritual beings”. Sea Org people hold all the senior ecclesiastical positions and technical and PR posts in the Church of Scientology, and give the most advanced auditing and training. Like some other religious Orders, they usually live communally.
Scientology claims in its literature that it is compatible with other religions, and that you can continue to be an observant Christian, Muslim, Jew or Hindu while also being a Scientologist.
Indeed, Tom Cruise’s mother, a Catholic, told Rolling Stone magazine last year: “I think Jesus wants me to be here right now. My Church may not agree, but I per sonally know that.” But as one gets deeper into the religion, the theologies become more and more incompatible.
Does Catholicism have anything to fear from Scientology? Not in numbers. The Roman Catholic Church has around a billion adherents worldwide. The Church of Scientology claims eight million, but this figure includes every person who has had even a single auditing session in the last half century; a more realistic estimate of current membership is 750,000.
David V Barrett is the author of The New Believers: A Survey of Sects, “Cults” and Alternative Religions (Cassell 2001)