Sexual Abuse, Legal, NXIVM, Definitions, Falun Gong Disinformation
A Catholic priest who admitted to transferring nearly $517,000 of parish funds into his personal bank account had been sentenced to seven years in state prison, church officials said Tuesday.
The Rev. Douglas J. Haefner, the longtime pastor of St. Matthias Parish in Somerset, admitted to taking the money due to "compulsive behavior" during an audit of the church in 2018, Diocese of Metuchen officials said.
At the time, the priest said he took the money intending to pay the $516,985 back eventually. He had overseen the parish for 27 years.
Haefner, 68, was sentenced to seven years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Peter Tober in Somerset County under a plea agreement, church officials said. He pleaded guilty in May.
The priest is scheduled to start his prison sentence Aug. 19. However, he has applied for the state's Intensive Supervised Parole program, which allows prisoners to serve all or part of their sentences at home. The prosecutor did not object to Haefner's application for the program, diocese officials said.
"This is not an easy day for anyone," said Anthony P. Kearns 3rd, chancellor of the Diocese of Metuchen. "While we are grateful this matter has come to its conclusion and justice has been served, there are no winners in the outcome of this unfortunate case."
Kearns asked for prayers for the priest and the St. Matthias Parish community.
It is unclear how Haefner was able to take large sums of money from St. Matthias without anyone noticing. Diocese officials first noted the parish's financial problems in 2016, but Haefner repeatedly asked to reschedule an audit due to health problems and the need for more time to prepare, diocese officials said.
"When a federal judge in Brooklyn imposed a non-prison sentence Wednesday for NXIVM defector Lauren Salzman, it was no surprise.
The 45-year-old daughter of NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman testified over four grueling days, helping federal prosecutors bury NXIVM leader Keith Raniere at his 2019 trial. A jury convicted the disgraced personal growth guru known as "Vanguard" of all charges, including sex trafficking, forced labor conspiracy and racketeering crimes. He is serving 120 years in prison in Tucson, Arizona.
What was surprising, however, was that in the weeks leading up to Lauren Salzman's sentencing, her attorneys took a page right out of the NXIVM playbook in a sentencing recommendation to Senior U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis. On the 34th page of a 38-page memo, Salzman's lawyers attacked news outlets - a prime target of Raniere for two decades.
The Phoenix-based lawyers, Hector Diaz and Andrea Tazioli, went so far as to claim that the press "caused harm" to their client and other longtime NXIVM members who were charged in 2018 alongside Raniere. All of those defendants have since pleaded guilty to federal crimes."
The Conversation: What is a Cult?
"The word "cult" is used a lot nowadays.Former President Donald Trump has been likened to a cult leader. Democratic California congresswoman Jackie Speier recently compared Trump to Jim Jones, the infamous leader of Peoples Temple, an American religious group of which nearly 1,000 members died by mass murder-suicide in Guyana in 1978. A congressional staffer at the time, Speier was seriously wounded by temple members during an ambush that killed Congressman Leo Ryan of San Francisco.Then there's NXIVM, a "sex cult" based in Albany, New York. Media reports and evidence at trial revealed that NXIVM's female members recruited "slaves," who were branded with the initials of the group's leader, Keith Raniere. Raniere, also called the "Vanguard," was sentenced to 120 years in prison for sex trafficking.One of the defenses put forward by NXIVM's lawyers has been that media "hit-pieces" on the group led to an unfair trial.It's certainly true that the word cult grabs our attention. But what exactly does it mean when we use words like cult or "cult leader"?Scholars sometimes use the term "cult" to describe groups that have distinctive beliefs and high levels of commitment. The problem is the popular use of the word is often used to describe authoritarian groups that practice mind control or brainwashing.As an academic who teaches and writes about religion, I believe that the label "cult" gets in the way of understanding new religions and political movements.
"The cultish Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong isn't just speaking out against the Chinese government; it's increasingly weaving that narrative into American politics, using it against Democrats and the Biden administration, through a growing media empire that's pushing conspiracy theories and disinformation.
On this episode of VICE News Reports, we tell the story of how the little-known movement became one of the most influential digital publishers of anti-China, pro-Trump propaganda. Hear from Falun Gong supporters protesting in Queens, an ex-member of Falun Gong explaining his decision to leave, an expert in digital forensics and reporter Titi Yu about her experience watching The Epoch Times go from a small scrappy community newspaper to something way bigger.
Conspiracy theorists and far-right news outlets spent the month after the election using YouTube's algorithm to massively grow their audiences."
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