It is Switzerland rather than Austria that is problematic from a Legion of Mary point of view. This seems to be related to how flexible Swiss law is in regard to religious movements - interestingly both the SSPX and the FIUV incorporated in Switzerland in the late 1960s/early 70s. The current FIUV leadership don't see the advantage in the relationship with the Swiss Confederation now and they are very foolishly changing it.
Re: the greater tendency of US (ex?)Catholics to be involved in UFO movements, is there a co-relation between this and the British statistic that although men from all religious backgrounds convert to Islam in more or less proportionate numbers, the highest proportion of female converts by far are Catholic women?
I think you are right about Quebec being a centre for off-the-scale movements in several directions.
To address the substantive point of this thread, and indeed this forum, though some of these 'weird new movements' are problematic in themselves, all are sympthomatic of greater problems in the Church. The bulk of forum contributors here are drawn from the broad traditionalist movement. We are probably as such blinder to the minutiae in other movements which could well be numerically bigger than the traditionalists. Let's just enumerate what we have:
1. Traditionalism. Many traditionalist groups operate outside the Church, the bulk of which revolve around the SSPX. There is a smaller, less organised sedevacantist movement outside this. Within the Church structures, there is no centrally organised traditional movement: the FSSP, ICRSS etc are independent of each other; most individual traditionalists attend Masses said by diocesan priests (my criticism is that too many of these are very committed lay people who are left to their own devices and gravitate to readily to the virtual traddieland on the Internet. More moderating influence is needed, and I'm a little afraid that the clerical influence doesn't operate in this way).
2. Marian movements. Of course this includes traditionalists and other Catholics. Much of this is around private revelation and different groups gravitate towards different 'messages' - traditionalists to Fatima and charismatics to Medjugorje. True, Fatima is authenticated, but not every interpretation of Fatima is sound as the career Rev Nicholas Gruner made for himself will testify. Many ordinary Catholics would see the two as complimentary. Incidentally, trads are not innocent in regard to private revelation as attachment to Garabandal and Don Stefano Gobbi will show. Anyway, the vast and diverse Marian movement leads first to a vast and diverse global network of prayergroups operating essentially outside Church control. Again, like traditionalists, the devotees are highly motivated and largely good people, but they need direction, in particular moderating influence and they are not getting it. I should also say that private revelation will have an impact on well established Marian movements like the Legion of Mary and also that many of these devotees can be prey for the likes of Christina Gallagher or the Bayside fraud in NYC.
3. New Religious Movements. I'm tempted to say their name is Legion. We all have heard 'expose' after 'expose' of Opus Dei, but I also remember a book named 'The Pope's Armada' which covered the Focolare Movement, Communion and Liberation and the Neo-Catechumenate. However, there are many, many others. I mentioned the
Spiritual Family of the Work of Christ above. This blurs the distinction between a religious order and secular institute and seems to be characterised by a very strict view of obedience and a control freak view of a superior's duty. These show up in other movements too. Some are neo-Ignatian - the Lumen Dei Union in the Hispanophone world is an example. Others have military symbolism - Miles Jesu and the Militiae Mariae are an example. I'd hate to think what Maria Duce might have become if it hit the streets about a quarter of a century later than it did.
4. Catholic scouting. I've said before and no doubt I will repeat again that scouting on continental Europe is a response towards the deficit in Catholic education which is equivalent of homeschooling in the US. I'm basically pro; in fact I think it's a better response than homeschooling, ceteris paribus. But it has its own timebombs. Basically, the umberella group is the Union de Scouts et Guides d'Europe and they are organised across the continent (even in Quebec, which looks more to France than the US). But scouting groups have their own problems too. If I say that some groups have little control, these and the groups above have too much - but the problem is that these intensify rather than moderate. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Servi Jesu et Mariae direct the Katholische Pfadfinderschaft Europas which can lead to the experience being very intense. But I think the rule is if parents/families are involved with the child's participation, it will work out ok.
5. Prayer group proliferation. These may or may not be anchored in some Marian revelation or some charismatic prayer group. Again the motivation here is very good but it operates completely in its own way - and it requires moderation which isn't always there.
6. Charismatic groups. They are still a feature of the landscape, maybe burnt out a little in the Anglosphere (where they were always a bit too close to evangelical Protestantism anyway), but still a feature on the continent. In France, their centre is Paray le Monial (yes, it is anchored on Sacred Heart devotion). It gave birth to a few different religious communities, the Community of the Beatitude above, the Emmanuel Community (which has been responsible for a lot priestly vocations in France) and other groups like the Community of the Lion of Judah. This is very big.
7. Other groups - I would think of Hans Urs von Balthasar's Johannine Community in Switzerland with its very instense spirituality; the
Community of St John in France (the Petite Gris) which seem to occupy a frontier between the traditionalists and charismatics that no one noticed was there; a great many groups which exist around the phenomenon of World Youth Day (which I can tell you dwarfs the trad Paris-Chartres pilgrimage, whether we like to admit it or not).
So, in conclusion:
A. Traditionalism is a much smaller concern than trads even realise;
B. For something in decline, there is a lot of new foundations going on in the Catholic Church. This survey out of my own head is heavily bent towards Europe where the Church is, in anything, most stagnant;
C. The diversification seems to desire to fill massive gaps;
D. The movements are centrafugal;
E. The common factor is that all these groups need a form of regulation or direction which is moderating. They tend rather to be either anarchic or they tend to be intensifying. This seriously needs to be addressed.
My obs - for what they're worth.