What You've Been Getting Wrong About Satanism According to Actual Satanists

“You don’t have to obey anyone, you’re only accountable to yourself.”

Camilla Sernagiotto
MILAN, IT
VICE
January 27, 2023

This article originally appeared on VICE Italy.

“Being a Satanist in Italy isn’t easy,” says Jennifer Crepuscolo, 33, founder of the Union of Italian Satanists (USI). “It means representing something that’s considered uncomfortable by society.” Crepuscolo founded USI in 2010. Her goal was to spread information about the cult of Satan that represented the movement in its own terms, without external moral judgments. 

“If you try to look for information about Satanism in books, newspapers or on TV, you won’t find anything provided by actual Satanists,” she writes on the organisation’s site. “USI wants to give a voice to those who, for millennia, couldn’t speak without risking persecution, censorship, condemnation, or being burnt at the stake.” 

According to Crepuscolo, Satanism is split into two main branches: the traditional cult, where followers believe in Satan as a real entity and deity; and the more philosophical interpretation, where followers see Satan as a symbol of rebellion against mainstream religion. Within these two branches there are also many other schools of thought, some religious and some atheist.

The USI supports traditional Satanism, also known as theistic Satanism or religious Satanism. In particular, they believe in Satanismo Originale (Original Satanism), an Italian school of thought elaborated by USI itself that has some followers in different countries, too.

According to Original Satanism, Satan is a real ancient God who was later –quite literally – demonised by the Abrahamic religions, like other demons. The Mother Goddess is a central figure in the cult, “She is the dark and shining feminine figure that is widely stigmatised by patriarchal religions,” Crepuscolo explains. 

The group believes that these ancient Gods once descended on Earth to offer knowledge to humans, joining some of them carnally and creating a new lineage of descendants called “Satanids”. Together, they form a community known as “the Clade”. Since they are biologically related to Satan, Satanids can access divine knowledge through their own blood, which is inscribed with “genetic memory” of this knowledge, as Crepuscolo explains. All USI members understand themselves as Satanids.

“We refuse all forms of hierarchical organisations based on the subordination of Master and follower,” she continues. Satanids are on their own path to knowledge, but they’re also connected by the Clade. As a result, they can access this knowledge independently “and share it with others, teaching and learning without predefined roles,” Crepuscolo said.

Today, the union has around 6,000 subscribers on their website, 12,000 on Facebook, 2,000 followers on Instagram and 10,000 on YouTube. Crepuscolo’s own TikTok account also has over 100,000 followers.

Maybe surprisingly, most members are women – it’s about a 65/35 percent split – between the ages of 18 and 34, “but some are minors and people over 50,” adds Crepuscolo. “They come from all walks of life, from high school students to housewives, from blue-collar workers to teachers, from lawyers to doctors and even politicians (who we obviously can’t name for privacy reasons).”

Crepuscolo says that many Satanists affiliated with the union – even very devout ones – are in the closet, out of fear of being socially shamed or even attacked. Crepuscolo herself has received numerous hate messages and even rape and death threats because of her social media presence. 

We spoke to some USI members who are not in hiding about why they decided to join. They asked us not to include their surnames because they don’t want to appear in Google searches.

“Pope Francis said violence against women is a Satanic act, but actually, it’s patriarchal religions that cause misogyny.”

CLAUDIA, 19.

“I’ve had my doubts about Christianity since I was little. I noticed inconsistencies, and didn’t experience a sense of comfort when I thought about Jesus.

Then, a friend of mine told me about Satanism, and I finally felt like I was at home. In order to overcome prejudices about the cult, I felt I had to be the first not to be ashamed or afraid. So I told people about it – my parents, my friends, one of my teachers and my girlfriend. My friends and teacher were interested, but my parents became angry with me and my girlfriend left me. It was difficult, but now, I have a girlfriend who I love immensely and who is also in the cult. 

I know a lot of gay Satanists, because sexual orientation makes no difference for us. And women are very respected, too. Pope Francis said violence against women is a Satanic act, but actually, it’s patriarchal religions that cause misogyny.

Satanism isn’t a doctrine, we don’t have to follow dogmas, just our Satanic nature. For us, the notion of converting someone doesn’t exist, because if you’re a Satanist you feel it in your bones, so if you aren’t one, you can’t become one. We don’t have hierarchies, this is one of the things I love most about it. You don’t have to obey anyone, you’re only accountable to yourself.” - Claudia, 19, student and Satanist for five years.

“For me Satan is the primordial entity, whereas for many people he is a set of stereotypes.”

EUGENIO, 25.

“I’ve always been attracted to the occult, ever since I was a child. Actually, I was fascinated by anything sacred and initially became interested in Christianity, so much so that I became an altar boy.

Then, one evening nine years ago, I was called towards Satan. It was an unforgettable experience. On a cold February night, I felt my body being permeated with the God's energy. It was a warm and intense feeling, difficult to explain. It was my first time experiencing something like this, yet my soul recognised it immediately. 

I knew that it was Satan, but I wasn’t scared, I felt good and safe. In the next few days, I found USI and met other people like me. I ‘came out’ straight away. Today, everyone knows I’m a Satanist, even people at work. I have tattoos of the seals of the Gods and wear them with pride.

We don’t believe in the biblical devil. For me Satan is the primordial entity, God of knowledge, God of the human soul, whereas for many people he is a set of stereotypes. 

People think Satanists are criminals because of people who commit crimes in the name of the devil and label themselves Satanists. These people are more anti-Christians, criminals who don’t have a real calling, they just want to rebel against the system. They are actually a byproduct of Christianity, since they do not really worship Satan, but exploit the concept of the devil to vent their frustrations. Their devil does not correspond to the true figure of Satan, it’s a Judeo-Christian invention created to frighten the masses and keep them at bay.” - Eugenio, 25, baker and Satanist for nine years.

“I was bullied for being Satanist. I was punished for sharing where I worked because my name could have damaged the company’s reputation.”

ALESSANDRA, 31.

“I don’t exactly mention I’m a Satanist the first time I meet someone, but I do tell them calmly if the topic of spirituality comes up.

This didn’t go down well at work, so much so that I now avoid working for any kind of boss. I was bullied for being Satanist, I couldn’t take credit for any of my work, I was even punished for sharing where I worked because my name could have damaged the company’s reputation.

I find it shameful that in the 21st century, things like this still happen. Religious discrimination should never be tolerated, particularly when it comes to the right to work. Beyond these explicit things, there’s a lot more hidden discrimination going on, but that’s hard to quantify. For example, you don’t know how many times your CV has been refused after a Google search, but that does happen, I think.

The most deeply-rooted cliché about Satanism is the association with crime. Nowadays, there are also a lot of conspiracy theorists associating Satanism with powerful elites and ritualistic forms of child abuse. These beliefs can escalate into dangerous forms of mass hysteria, and it all comes from misinformation.” - Alessandra, 31, legal consultant and Satanist for 13 years.

“We respect anything that comes from nature, that is why we are trying to dispel the myth that we sacrifice animals.”

DAVIDE, 39

“Satanists don’t have a physical meeting point to go to out of safety reasons, but it would be nice to have one, even for official meetings. We also consider nature to be our temple, so that’s basically everywhere.

We come from nature and we celebrate its cycles. We respect anything that comes from nature, that is why we are trying to dispel the myth that we sacrifice animals. What value would the blood of a defenceless animal hold for a true God? The only sacrifice Satanists make is that of ignorance on the altar of wisdom.” - Davide, 39, retail worker and Satanist for four years

 

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pxj5/why-satanists-believe-in-satan-interview

 

Disgraced religious order tried to get abuse victim to lie

NICOLE WINFIELD and MARÍA VERZA
February 17, 2020

MILAN (AP) — The cardinal’s response was not what Yolanda Martínez had expected — or could abide.

Her son had been sexually abused by a priest of the Legion of Christ, a disgraced religious order. And now she was calling Cardinal Valasio De Paolis -- the Vatican official appointed by the pope to lead the Legion and to clean it up -- to report the settlement the group was offering, and to express her outrage.

The terms: Martínez’s family would receive 15,000 euros ($16,300) from the order. But in return, her son would have to recant the testimony he gave to Milan prosecutors that the priest had repeatedly assaulted him when he was a 12-year-old student at the order’s youth seminary in northern Italy. He would have to lie.

The cardinal did not seem shocked. He did not share her indignation.

Instead, he chuckled. He said she shouldn’t sign the deal, but should try to work out another agreement without attorneys: “Lawyers complicate things. Even Scripture says that among Christians we should find agreement.”

The conversation between the aggrieved mother and Pope Benedict XVI’s personal envoy was wiretapped. The tape — as well as the six-page settlement proposal — are key pieces of evidence in a criminal trial opening next month in Milan. Prosecutors allege that Legion lawyers and priests tried to obstruct justice, and extort Martínez’s family by offering them money to recant testimony to prosecutors in hopes of quashing a criminal investigation into the abusive priest, Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez.

Lawyers for the five suspects declined to comment. The Legion says they have professed innocence. A spokesman said that at the time, the Legion didn’t have in place the uniform child protection policies and guidelines that are now mandatory across the order.

De Paolis is beyond earthly justice — he died in 2017 and there is no evidence he knew of, or approved, the settlement offer before it was made. But the tape and documents seized when police raided the Legion’s headquarters in 2014 show that he had turned a blind eye to superiors who protected pedophiles.

In addition, the evidence shows that when De Paolis first learned about Reséndiz’s crimes in 2011, he approved an in-house canonical investigation but didn’t report the priest to police. And when he learned two years later that other Legion priests were apparently trying to impede the criminal investigation into his crimes, the pope’s delegate didn’t report that either.

And a few hours after he spoke with Martínez, De Paolis opened the Legion’s 2014 assembly where he formally ended the mandate given to him by Benedict to reform and purify the religious order. The Legion had been “cured and cleaned,” he said.

In fact, his mission hadn’t really been accomplished.

___

Benedict had entrusted De Paolis, one of the Vatican’s most respected canon lawyers, to turn the Legion around in 2010, after revelations that its founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had raped his seminarians, fathered three children and built a cult-like order to hide his crimes.

There had been calls for the Vatican to suppress the Legion. But Benedict decided against it, apparently determining in part that the order was too big and too rich to fail. Instead, he opted for a process of reform, giving De Paolis the broadest possible powers to rebuild the Legion from the ground up and saying it must undergo a profound process of “purification” and “renewal.”

But De Paolis refused from the start to remove any of Maciel’s old guard, who remain in power today. He refused to investigate the cover-up of Maciel’s crimes. He refused to reopen old allegations of abuse by other priests, even when serial rapists remained in the Legion’s ranks, unpunished.

More generally, he did not come to grips with the order’s deep-seated culture of sexual abuse, cover-up and secrecy — and its long record of avoiding law enforcement and dismissing, discrediting and silencing victims. As a result, even onetime Legion supporters now openly question his reform, which was dismissed as ineffective by the Legion’s longtime critics.

“They always try to control victims, minimize them, defame them, accuse them of exaggerating things,” said Alberto Athié, a former Mexican priest who has campaigned for more than 20 years on behalf of clergy sexual abuse victims, including victims of the Legion.

“Then, if they don’t achieve that level of control, they go to the next level, looking for their parents, trying to minimize them or buy them off, silence them. And if that doesn’t work, they go to trial and try to do what they can to win the case,” he said.

Now, victims of these other Legion priests are coming forward in droves with stories of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse, and how the Legion’s culture of secrecy and cover-up has remained intact.

“They say they’re close to the victims and help their families,” Martínez told The Associated Press at her home in Milan. “My testimony is this didn’t happen.”

___

Martínez, a 54-year-old mother of three, chokes up when she recalls the day she received the phone call from her son’s psychologist. It was March of 2013, and her eldest son had been receiving therapy on the advice of his high school girlfriend. Martínez thought she was about to learn that she would be a grandmother; she thought her boy had gotten the girl pregnant.

Instead, Dr. Gian Piero Guidetti told Martínez and her husband that during therapy, their son had revealed that he had been repeatedly sexually molested by Reséndiz starting in 2008, when he was a middle schooler at the Legion’s youth seminary in Gozzano, near Italy’s border with Switzerland. Guidetti, himself a priest, told them he was required by his medical profession to report the crime to prosecutors.

His complaint, and the testimony of Martínez’s son, sparked a criminal investigation that resulted in Reséndiz’s 2019 conviction, which was upheld on appeal in January. Resendiz, 43, who was convicted in absentia and is believed to be living in his native Mexico, has until the end of March to appeal the conviction and 6 1/2-year prison sentence to Italy’s highest court. His lawyer, Natalia Curro, said an appeal is being considered, and said her client denied having abused Martinez’s son, though he admitted to abusing another boy.

The investigation, however, netted evidence that went far beyond Reséndiz’s own wrongdoing. Documents seized by police and seen by AP in the court file showed a pattern of cover-up by the Legion and the pope’s envoy that stretched from Milan to Mexico, the Vatican to Venezuela and points in between.

Personnel files, for example, made clear Resendiz was known to the Legion as a risk even when he was a teenage seminarian in the 1990s, yet he was ordained a priest anyway in 2006 and immediately sent to oversee young boys at the Gozzano youth seminary.

“He’s a boy with strong sexual impulses and low capacity to control them,” Reséndiz’s novice director, the Rev. Antonio León Santacruz, wrote in an internal assessment on Jan. 9, 1994. “Given his psychological character, he’s inclined to not respect rules without great difficulty and the psychologist thinks it will be difficult for him to undertake consecrated life given he has little respect for rules. He follows them as long as he’s being watched, but as soon as he can, he breaks them and has no remorse.”

A year later, on Reséndiz’s 19th birthday, the seminarian wrote a letter to Maciel -- addressing it as all Legionaries addressed the man they regarded as a living saint: “Nuestro Padre,” “Our Father.”

“I’m having various problems in the field of purity and the truth is I’m having a hard time, because temptations are coming to me,” he wrote. “I’m praying to the Holy Virgin every day for grace and asking her for strength to not offend again; I say again because I have had the disgrace of falling, but with the help of God I will fight to form that pure, priestly heart.”

When Martínez saw such letters in the court file, her heart fell.

“My son wasn’t even born yet,” she said. “How can you put someone like that in charge of a seminary?”

A Legion spokesman, the Rev. Aaron Smith, said the Legion has overhauled its training process for seminarians since Reséndiz’s era, applying more scrutiny before ordination.

“Things are different today,” he said in emailed response to questions.

___

While Milan prosecutors first heard about Reséndiz’s pedophilia in March 2013 when the therapist reported it, the crimes were old news to both the Vatican and the Legion.

The Legion has admitted it received a first report of abuse by Resendiz on March 6, 2011, from another boy who had been a student at Gozzano. The Legion says that boy, an Austrian, had first told a Legion priest of Reséndiz’s abuse. That priest recommended he report it to a church ombudsman’s office in Austria that receives abuse complaints, which he did, Smith said.

Separately, the Legion got wind of another possible victim in Venezuela, where Reséndiz had been sent from Gozzano in 2008, after he abused Martínez’s son.

Italian police were never informed by the Legion or the Vatican. Neither the Vatican nor Italy requires clergy to report suspected child sex abuse.

When police finally did get wind of the case in March 2013, they uncovered elaborate efforts to keep Reséndiz’s crimes quiet. According to one email seized by Italian police — written March 16, 2011, or 10 days after the Austrian claim was first received by the order — a Legion lawyer recommended to one of the Legion’s senior behind-the-scenes bureaucrats, the Rev. Gabriel Sotres, that a Legion priest visit with the victim in Austria.

The aim of the visit, prosecutors wrote in summarizing the email exchanges, “was to speak to the (victim’s) older brother and convince him to not tell their parents and not go to police because this could cause serious problems not only for the Legion but also Father Vladimir, all the other priests involved and the victim and his family.”

Smith, the Legion spokesman, didn’t deny the prosecutors’ account but said that “encouraging a child to keep something from their parents or guardians is contrary to our code of conduct.”

Later in 2011, the Legion arranged for Reséndiz to be transferred from Venezuela to Colombia, and prepared a legal strategy to limit the possible damage if the Venezuelan case escalated. The emails were sent to several Legion leaders, including Sotres, who remain in top positions today. In fact, in the Legion’s current leadership assembly under way in Rome to choose new superiors and priorities, at least 13 of the 89 participating priests or their substitutes were involved in some way in dealing with the Reséndiz scandal, fallout and cover-up, including two priests who are defendants in the upcoming Milan trial.

According to the seized emails, the plan proposed by a Legion lawyer involved reporting only Reséndiz’s name to Venezuelan police to comply with local reporting laws, leaving out that he was a priest, that he was accused of a sex crime against a child, and the name of the Legion, prosecutors said in summarizing the emails. The report would also note that he no longer lived in Venezuela.

The Legion has said Reséndiz was removed from priestly ministry and from his work with young people in Venezuela within days of receiving the initial Austrian report.

But the emails seized indicate that the restrictions weren’t necessarily enforced: One from Dec. 20, 2012, suggests that Reséndiz was hearing confessions in schools and celebrating Mass in Colombia, news that prompted the leadership to ultimately recommend he be sent for psychological counseling in Mexico and later assigned to an administrative position “where they don’t know his situation.”

Eventually, as part of the church’s in-house investigation, Reséndiz confessed — but only to the Legion and Vatican authorities, and only about other boys he abused, not Martínez’s son.

“I sincerely recognize my terrible behavior as a priest,” he wrote the Vatican official in charge of the sex crimes office in 2012, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller. “Truly I lived in hell when these sad facts occurred. I recognize the gravity of the acts that I committed and I humbly ask the church for forgiveness for these sad and painful facts. I can’t understand how it could have happened, and I recognize that I lacked the courage to admit to the problem and advise my superiors of the danger.”

The Vatican defrocked him on April 5, 2013 -- just a few weeks after Italian prosecutors first heard about Martínez’s son.

By October of that year, the Legion was nearing the end of De Paolis’ mandate and clearly wanted to avoid the possibility that the Reséndiz case could explode publicly and jeopardize the plan to resume their independence from the Vatican.

Martínez and her family, for their part, were coping with the trauma of her son’s abuse.

“He would have nightmares. He wouldn’t let me touch him ...,” Martínez said. “He couldn’t stand anyone being close to him.”

Once, he was even prevented from throwing himself in front of a subway train.

Martínez had been in regular touch with the Legion priest closest to the family, the Rev. Luca Gallizia, her husband’s spiritual director. He was serving as the family’s contact with the Legion, after all other priests and members of Martínez’s Regnum Christi social circle severed contact -- apparently on orders from the leadership.

Gallizia traveled to Milan to meet with Martínez on Oct. 18, 2013, bringing a proposed settlement to compensate the family. They met in a room off the parish playground of the Sant’Eustorgio basilica where Martínez worked.

When Martínez read it later that night with her husband, she was shocked.

“It was a second violation, because for all intents and purposes in that letter, they asked us to deny the facts. And for us it was a stab in the back because it was brought to us by our spiritual father. ... He knew everything about us, because my husband confided in him. And that made it even more painful.”

The Legion declined to comment on the proposed settlement, citing the upcoming trial.

The document the Legion wanted Martínez’s family to sign states that her son ruled out having been sexually abused by Reséndiz and regardless didn’t remember. It said he denied having any phone or text message contact with him, and that his ensuing problems were due to the fact that he left the seminary and was having trouble integrating socially into his new public high school.

The document set out payments for the son’s continuing education and therapy and required “absolute” secrecy. If the family were called to testify, they were to make the same declarations as contained in the settlement -- denying the abuse.

A few months later, the Legion realized it had erred in leaving the proposal with Martínez and proposed a revised settlement acknowledging the abuse occurred. Now, though, it required the family to pay back double the 15,000 euro ($16,300) settlement offer if they violated the confidentiality agreement.

It was then that Martínez called De Paolis.

“Both my lawyer and I, our jaws dropped,” she told the Vatican cardinal.

The pope’s envoy said he was surprised as well.

“Yes, but this, this is how it’s done in Italy,” he said.

The mother would have none of it. “It’s not a very nice agreement, signing a lie,” Martínez told the cardinal. “Aside from the fact that I don’t want any money, I’m not signing the letter.”

___

María Verza contributed to this story from Mexico City.

https://apnews.com/8d0cb3ef1cfa0be61378b949811d8c17

RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN A POSTMODERNAL CONTEXT

[Google Translate]

To attempt the adventure of an encyclopedic review of religions - and of the spiritual ways that, although not religious, fall into a phenomenology of contemporary combinations of the sacred - present in Italy, in the current postmodern context, constitutes a fascinating challenge together a risk. The context, in fact, is a continuous mutation of the religious framework, which makes it impossible - in spite of all the care - an exhaustive treatment. Some data change frequently, literally, daily.While we are now grateful to those wishing to report omissions and additions, we are willing to report changes via the CESNUR website, the Center for Studies on New Religions, which has designed and promoted this initiative ( www.cesnur.org ). This work is not a mere update of our previous editions of the Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy - published in 2001, 2006 and 2013, respectively, on which much is based: it is rather a new tool, which includes a lot of new material, both in a partially different way. We invite you to address to CESNUR any report or request ( cesnur_to@virgilio.it ).

Religious minorities among Italian citizens (estimate CESNUR 2018)

Hebrews 36,500 1.8%

"Fringe" Catholics and dissidents 25,000 1.2%

Orthodox 306700 15.0%

Protestants 476400 23.3%

Jehovah's Witnesses (and similar) 411600 20.1%

Mormons (and similar) 27,500 1.3%

Other groups of Christian origin 7,400 0.3%

Muslim 405300 19.8%

Bahá'í and other groups of Islamic matrix 4,400 0.2%

Hindus and neo-Hindus 45,200 2.2%

Buddhists 186,600 9.1%

Osho groups and derivatives 4,000 0.2%

Sikhs, radhasoami and derivations 20,000 1.0%

Other groups of oriental origin 5,600 0.3%

New Japanese religions 3,500 0.2%

Esoteric area and "ancient wisdom" 16,500 0.8%

Movements of human potential 30,000 1.5%

New Age and Next Age organized movements 20,000 1.0%

Others 13,700 0.7%

Total 2045900 100.0%

https://cesnur.com/il-pluralismo-religioso-italiano-nel-contesto-postmoderno-2/

CultNEWS101 Articles: 10/26/2018

Mario Pianesi, Macrobiotics, Italy, Legal, Rajneesh, Documentary, Scientology, Universal Medicine, Australia

The Guardian: Police investigating Italian 'macrobiotic guru' over wife's death

"Italian police have opened a new investigation into Mario Pianesi, an influential businessman celebrated as a guru of macrobiotic food, over allegations he may have killed his first wife by putting her on an extreme form of his “Ma-Pi” diet."

"Gabriella Monti died in 2001, two months after being diagnosed with acute hepatitis caused by aflatoxins, a fungal poison sometimes found in grain or nuts. Monti had had a stroke in 1997, after which she was cared for at home by her husband."

"Pianesi had built up a following of thousands of customers who believed his cereals-based diet could cure serious illnesses. Police claim the diet may have exacerbated Monti’s already fragile state, leading to her death."

Psychology Today: The Power of a Cult

"There is an unceasing crescendo of suspense as we view this Netflix documentary about the cult that moved from India to central Oregon in 1981, led by the white-bearded Shree Rajneesh Bhagwan, with his piercing, unblinking eyes, a guru in rapture who is fervently out to change the consciousness of the world. He had fled India, where his cult had multiplied, when he faced millions of dollars in back taxes and no clear path to the vast, transformative change he meant to achieve. His ashram’s growth had stalled, and, besides, the really rich people were in the West."

The Detroit News: Church of Scientology opens doors of downtown Detroit center

"The Church of Scientology began operations [October 15th] at its new downtown Detroit location."

"Church staff arrived [October 15th] morning to its newest center in Metro Detroit, located on Jefferson at Griswold in the former Standard Savings Building."

"Their arrival comes a day after the church held a private grand opening and dedication ceremony at the 55,000-square-foot building. Church officials said more than 2,000 parishioners attended Sunday's event."

"On [October 15th], church members and staff dressed in business attire entered the building through a brightly-lit lobby with marble floors and brass fixtures."

SMH: Self-styled healer Serge Benhayon leads 'socially harmful cult': jury

"Former Sydney tennis coach turned self-styled spiritual healer Serge Benhayon has suffered a spectacular loss in his Supreme Court defamation case against a former client, after a four-person jury found it was true to say he led a "socially harmful cult", "intentionally indecently touched" clients and made "bogus healing claims"."

"Serge Benhayon, 54, sued acupuncturist and former client Esther Rockett for defamation over a series of blog posts and tweets starting in November 2014, which he says portrayed him as "dishonest", a "charlatan who makes fraudulent medical claims", and the leader of a "socially harmful cult"."

Bizarre rules of Italian macrobiotic 'cult' revealed by victims

 Vanda Secondino 

Members of group under police investigation not allowed to laugh excessively or use internet
Angela Giuffrida Rome

The Guardian
March 23, 2018


People who broke free from what police say was a macrobiotic sect in Italy have described gradually losing control over their lives through a web of archaic rules and subtle manipulation.

Some said they spent more than 20 years within a system that police say was carefully cultivated by Mario Pianesi, an influential businessman celebrated around the world as a guru of macrobiotic food.

Pianesi, 73, is among four people accused by the authorities of reducing people to slavery by strictly controlling their diets, denying them contact with the outside world and leaving them impoverished by forcing them to work for free or a pitiful salary.

The group was exposed by police last week, following an investigation which began in 2013 when a young woman, whose weight had plummeted to 35kg (77lb), told police Pianesi had promised her that his "Ma-Pi" diet would cure her illness.

Pianesi has not commented on the allegations. Manuel Formica, a lawyer representing all four accused, said: "This thing is far-fetched and the suspects will do everything to defend their integrity."

Six people have made formal complaints while two more have come forward over the last week. Carlo Pinto, the investigator leading the case, suspects there could be "hundreds more" who are "still under the cult's influence".

Complainants described a sinister network which allegedly wielded power through a diet claimed to provide miracle cures for viruses and illnesses such as HIV, cancer and diabetes. Rules allegedly included banning women from wearing short skirts, make-up and from washing during their period. More bizarre customs were said to include having to get out of bed on the right side and cutting hair and nails on any day of the week other than Tuesday or Thursday.

People were also allegedly banned from laughing too much, using the internet and going to the gym, while men were told that wives who left them were akin to prostitutes.

"The rules came about over time," said Vanda Secondino, who became involved with the group in 1989 after attending one of its first holiday camps.

"Pianesi was charismatic. People who were sick would ask for his help with food. Then we started to seek advice for every aspect of our lives and, over time, we lost power and he gained more. We believed we were incapable of managing our own lives."

Originally from Albania, Pianesi is said to have discovered the macrobiotic diet, modelled on the teachings of Japanese philosopher George Ohsawa, after becoming ill during his military service. Seeing a positive impact on his own body, he set up his first "clinic" in Sforzacosta, a hamlet close to the Marche town of Macerata, in the 1980s.

Locals, who jokingly referred to Pianesi as a "witch doctor", would go to him for consultations. He allegedly told followers that traditional medicine did not work and that real doctors were killers.

Pianesi's UPM empire, which comprises a network of 85 macrobiotic product hubs and restaurants across Italy, began making bold claims in the early 1990s, a period when many people, particularly those diagnosed with HIV, would attend his seminars in the hope of finding a cure.

Pianesi earned prestige by wooing those around him, allegedly giving gifts to local officials and free meals to police officers.

"He would say that for a town to be safe the police needed to eat well and have a clear mind," said Gilbert Casaburi, who was a chef within the association before leaving it in 2011.

Police believe this was a tactic for Pianesi, who is also facing tax evasion charges, to avoid financial checks.

The Ma-Pi diet was endorsed by scientific journals. Pianesi is an honorary citizen of 12 towns in Italy and across the world. He met Pope Francis in 2016 along with his second wife, Loredana Volpi, who is also under investigation. The meeting infuriated the group's followers, who claimed Pianesi had always harshly criticised the church and the pontiff.

But such was his popularity, people in Macerata are struggling to believe the revelations. The local macrobiotic restaurant, offering cheap and healthy meals, is well-visited.

"I know many who work at the restaurants and are not exploited," said Marco Ribechi, a journalist who reflected on Pianesi as a potential Jekyll and Hydecharacter in an article for the local online newspaper, Cronache Maceratesi. "Some of it may be exaggerated, but this is just my opinion."

He said there may have been "layers" within the movement, whereby some people were exploited and others were not.

A macrobiotic diet aims to avoid foods containing toxins and is based on whole grains, vegetables and beans.

"At the beginning the diet was the same one taught by George Ohsawa, then it became completely different," said Secondino.

Originally from Campania, Secondino moved to Macerata to get closer to the movement. Within months she had abandoned her studies and reduced contact with her family.

Suffering from anaemia and anxiety, she said the group initially gave her "lots of love and attention". "I was only 26, had a fractured relationship with my family and little faith in myself, " she said.

She met her husband Mauro Garbuglia, who has a benign brain tumour, within the group. Pinto said followers were so devoted to their "teacher" that they gave donations to the association and worked for free within its centres and restaurants, believing they were contributing to society.

Secondino and Garbuglia ran one of the restaurants, into which they ploughed about €160,000. Police said the operation worked like a franchise but in reality, followers invested while the accused took most of the profit. Followers were also obliged to buy produce only from UPM and pay to attend the association's workshops and holiday camps.

Secondino, her husband and two sons left in 2012 following a series of events that made them finally realise that "things weren't right".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/23/bizarre-rules-of-italian-macrobiotic-cult-revealed-by-victims

Police bust sect, acolytes enslaved (3)

Forced to donate money, in Marche, Emilia Romagna

14 March 2018

(ANSA) - Rome, March 14 - Italian police on Wednesday busted a 'macrobiotic' sect that allegedly enslaved acolytes and forced them to donate money.

The alleged sect operated in Emilia Romagna and Marche, police said.

The members were allegedly enslaved, police said, through stringent dietary restrictions and the prevention of all contact with the outside world.

One of the so-called acolytes of the macrobiotic sect lost so much weight that she ended up wighing only 35 kg, police said.

Five people were placed under investigation.

The sect's guru, Mario Pianesi, told his followers "drugs don't work, they only get rid of symptoms, medicine kills, doctors are killers", members of the sect told police.

The man managed to persuade sick sect members to abandon traditional medicine and follow his macrobiotic diet to allegedly solve their physical and psychological problems, police said.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2018/03/14/police-bust-sect-acolytes-enslaved-3_05a893a2-d7b1-44f0-81da-ea44c650428b.html

Exorcist priest and soldier arrested for sex abuse in Italy

The Local
October 21, 2016

A Sicilian priest and a soldier have been arrested for sexual abuse, which they carried out under the guise of spiritual 'healing', local media reported on Friday.
The pair, both based in Palermo, used the pretext of liberating victims from demonic possession in order to abuse women and children. The two were named by media as Salvatore Anello, 59, who belonged to the Capuchin order, and Salvatore Muratore, 52, who worked for the Italian army in Palermo.

The men reportedly convinced victims that they were possessed by evil spirits, before carrying out a 'healing prayer' in their homes which involved "repeatedly touching their genitals", Palermo Today reported.

Anello was arrested at dawn on Friday morning and is being held in police custody, following a six-month long investigation into Muratore, who was a member of a local prayer group, and claimed to be able to perform exorcism.

Muratore is thought to have abused at least four women and one girl, while the priest is charged with abusing two women and three minors.

According to La Stampa, prosecutor Giorgia Righi said Muratore "took advantage of victims in a state of psychological fragility", and justified his groping by saying he was freeing the 'demon of lust'.

The army said Muratore would be suspended immediately and that it would co-operate fully with investigations.

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Although priests are permitted by the Catholic church to carry out exorcisms, the rite should only occur with authorization from the diocesis, and Anello was not recognized as an exorcist.

The investigations are ongoing, with police working to identify any further victims.

https://www.thelocal.it/20161021/exorcist-priest-arrested-for-child-sex-abuse-in-italy

First International Conference - Cultic Groups in Society- Ciampino (Rome) 18 - September 2010

First International Conference - Cultic Groups in Society- Ciampino (Rome) 18 - September 2010

Overview - Speaker: Michael Langone - 

First Part - ABSTRACT IN ITALIANO - Introduzione - Questa relazione affronta il lavoro dell'International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). Si spiegherà innanzitutto il lavoro teoretico e razionale dell'attività discutendo alcuni aspetti relativi alle definizioni, la varietà tra i diversi Nuovi Movimenti Religiosi, l'interazione tra le variabili personali ed ambientali, la ricerca clinica relativa al danno, e i diversi trattamenti e approcci educativi all'argomento. In ultimo si descriveranno aspetti specifici del lavoro dell'ICSA, inclusa la consulenza, i laboratori, le conferenze, i gruppi di supporto e l'addestramento per i professionisti della salute mentale.