CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/29/2021 (Covert Emotional Abuse (CEA), Vatican, Opus Dei, Sarah Lawrence College, Larry Ray)

Covert Emotional Abuse (CEA), Vatican, Opus Dei, Sarah Lawrence College, Larry Ray

Still Quiet Place: See It. Stop It. Heal It: Ending Cycles of Abuse in Sports and Society

"No athlete, no child, no human being should have to endure abuse in pursuit of their dreams. Yet, as the courageous Senate testimony of world class gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols, and McKayla Maroney demonstrated, abuse is all too common. Ms. Biles gave voice to the visceral agony of the victims "The scars of this horrific abuse continue to live with all of us."

Thus, it is imperative that children and adults learn to recognize and prevent all forms of abuse in sports and society. Focusing on egregious sexual abuse and the flagrant failures of USA Gymnastics, the United Sates Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and the FBI, is way too little and way too late.

As with other epidemics, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse can be stopped. Together, we can create comprehensive systems of prevention, so that no one has to suffer the injuries and live with the scars of abuse, much less reopen those wounds in front of the U.S. Senate.

Covert emotional abuse (CEA) is almost always the initial form of abuse, and it all too often leads to physical and sexual abuse. CEA is a tightly woven, almost invisible spider's web meant to ensnare and control the victim. My intention is to make the web, patterns, and shimmering threads of CEA visible so we can see it, stop it, and heal it, individually and collectively.

My analysis and recommendations are informed by diagnostic criteria of both emotional abuse in sport and spiritual abuse is well-documented examples of CEA in sports, and my experience with a covert emotionally abusive coach. As a physician, mindfulness coach, and former Stanford gymnast, my life's purpose is preventing and relieving suffering, and supporting people (particularly athletes),enhancing their well-being and finding joy and flow."

Out: Priest Arrested After Using Parish Money to Fund Gay Sex Parties

"A Catholic priest in Italy has been arrested and accused of stealing over $100,000 from his parish which he then used to fund drug-fueled gay sex parties with his roommate.

Father Francesco Spagnesi, 40, was put on house arrest after authorities received a tip that his roommate was buying and importing the date-rape drug GHB, which they then sold to guests at his sex parties. According to Corriere, Spagnesi allegedly confessed to his lawyers and has promised to make full restitution to the parishioners he victimized.

"So much pain," Bishop Giovanni Nerbini said in a videotaped message to parishioners at the Annunciation at Castellina after news of Spagnesi's arrest broke earlier this month.

Nerbini said church leaders became suspicious last spring about financial transfers from the parish coffers to Spagnesi. When he confronted the popular priest, Nerbini explained, "I was told that it was aid for needy people in the parish."

As the internal investigation unfolded, however, he was forced to relieve Spagnesi of both his ministerial and fiduciary responsibilities at the parish. He then gave the priest a year-long sabbatical.

"In my heart, I wanted to save the person," Nerbini said.

According to La Nazione, Spagnesi experienced a difficult past and had become addicted to drugs about two years ago. They also reported the Spagnesi had been sexually and romantically involved with a childhood friend for the past seven years.

Police became involved in the investigation following the tip of Spagnesi's roommate being in possession of various amounts of drugs. Prosecutors alleged he purchased the drugs both online from The Netherlands and local dealers, and the drugs were then sold to gay men attending their private group sex parties, which were also arranged online. According to TV Prato, investigators believe up to 200 men may have been involved in these parties."

Grunge: THE MESSED UP TRUTH ABOUT OPUS DEI

" ... Let's take a look at exactly what Opus Dei says they are, and what their critics and former members claim they are. Opus Dei says that they're essentially an organization that provides guidelines on how Christian laypeople can live "a life fully consistent with their faith, in the middle of ordinary circumstances of their lives." That involves things like "divine filiation," embracing Christian values like "charity, patience, humility, diligence, integrity, [and] cheerfulness," prayer, the offering of sacrifices, and "sanctifying work," which means work that's done "ethically."

That sounds not-so-bad, but like anything involving people, it gets very complicated very quickly. Opus Dei has claimed to be different things over the years: NPR says it's currently defined as a "personal prelature," but it's also been called things like a "secular institute" and a "priestly society of common life without vows." Both laypeople and clergy are members, new members are usually recruited by existing members, and when joining Opus Dei, a contract is signed promising (in part): "with firm resolve I dedicate myself to pursue sanctity and to practice apostolate with all my energy."

Critics, however, accuse Opus Dei of being everything up to and including a right-wing cult. Take, for example, a joke published in the magazine Tablet: 'How many members of Opus Dei does it take to screw in a lightbulb? The answer is, 100... one to screw in the lightbulb, and 99 to chant, 'We are not a movement, we are not a movement.''"

NY Post: 'I went to Sarah Lawrence and unwittingly joined a dangerous sex cult'

" ... In the apartment, Ray forced his charges to listen to his favorite music, like Neil Young and The Who, telling them the songs had "magic powers." He advised Isabella that her birth control pills were making her depressed and complained that the underage girls living with him weren't washing their genitals properly.

"You wouldn't believe how many women hate, hate their vaginas," Ray told Levin, before launching into a lecture about the best lubricants for masturbation and the importance of having sex in public.

People are so negative about the word 'brainwashing.' I don't see what's wrong with it. That is what I'm doing. I'm washing your brains.

"It'll be good for you," he told Levin. "It can be with anyone."

But Ray would explode at the smallest perceived betrayal, like the time one of his kitchen pans had a mysterious scratch.

"You scraped it on purpose, as hard as you could?" Ray screamed at Levin. "What were you thinking about? Mommy and Daddy?"

The threats became more ominous.

"I see you, Danny," Ray told him one time. "I know when you say something against me, when you doubt me, when you fear me. I see it. I see your fear."

Within just a year of moving in, Levin already wanted to leave, but he worried that Ray wasn't bluffing and really did have powerful friends.

Once, when he was chauffeuring Ray around Manhattan and their path was blocked by a parade route, the older man called over a police officer and whispered something — and suddenly they were waved through."

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

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Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

Vatican Forces lay Movements to Term Limit Those in Leadership Amid Scandals

MAGGIE GILE

Newsweek

June 11, 2021

On Friday, the Vatican started to implement term limits on their lay leaders and require internal elections to be held, the Associated Press reported.

Vatican leadership hoped the move would reduce scandals like the recent reports of several cases of lay movement founders allegedly sexually abusing their members and instances where founders refused to relinquish control over their communities.

An essay published in Friday's Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said that applying term limits and other governance measures would prevent "an arbitrary, or even abusive," use of power used by authorities of the church.

The Vatican's laity office cracked down on the largely unregulated world of international associations of the faithful after some cases of abuses of authority and bad governance had been reported.

Canon lawyers and theologians said the crackdown was perhaps a sign that other lay movements, which have flourished over the last half-century but were largely left to govern themselves, might be similarly targeted. It follows the Vatican's recent decision to rewrite its sex abuse laws to also provide punishments for lay Catholics in positions of authority in the church who commit abuse, rather than to focus exclusively on clerics.

The Vatican's laity office oversees some 109 international lay associations, including the Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation, the Focolari Movement and the Sant'Egidio Community.

In the decree published Friday and an explanatory note approved by Pope Francis, the office said the governance regulations were necessary to discourage cults of personality from growing around the founders of these groups. The aim is to also reduce conflicts among members and encourage generational renewal within the communities.

The decree imposes a once-renewable five-year term on governing positions and requires that all members have a direct or indirect vote in community elections.

The laity office said the norms were needed because the absence of term limits had favored "personalization, centralization and expressions of self-referentiality which can easily cause serious violations of personal dignity and freedom and even real abuses."

Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and author of "The Rising Laity" and "A Brief History of the New Catholic Movements," said the Jesuit pope knows well that members of small religious communities can be manipulated by charismatic leaders.

"This is very big," Faggioli said of the new regulations. While the decree only applies to the groups that fall under the Vatican's laity office, "it sends a message to everyone else," he said.

Faggioli noted that under the papacy of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, lay religious movements were often seen as the future of the Catholic Church and were largely left to govern themselves as long as they remained orthodox and faithful to the Holy See.

But he said recent years had shown such communities can foster an unhealthy culture and "dynamics of power" surrounding their charismatic founders, with little recourse for members who might be harmed..

The Rev. Ulrich Rhode, dean of the canon law department at the Pontifical Gregorian University, said the new norms address the "perhaps excessive" freedom that lay religious movements have enjoyed to date. Romano said he hoped they would serve as a model for other lay associations that report to other Vatican departments.

Bishops and even the pope have intervened on a case-by-case basis in individual communities, sometimes drawing complaints of unfair or ideologically motivated crackdowns.

https://www.newsweek.com/vatican-forces-lay-movements-term-limit-those-leadership-amid-scandals-1599829

CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/27/2021 (Former Member Stories, The Missionaries of Charity, Westboro Baptist Church, Vatican, Pope Pius XII)

Former Member Stories, The Missionaries of Charity, Westboro Baptist Church, Vatican, Pope Pius XII

Forbes: From Growing Up In A Cult To Building A 7-Figure Business

"Julia McCoy is the CEO of Express Writers, educator and founder of The Content Hacker, and bestselling 3x author. But it didn't start out all rosy for this successful entrepreneur.

Having been raised in a Fundamentalist cult led by a narcissistic father in the state of Pennsylvania, Julia learned how to make decisions for herself and follow her passion. She escaped the prison that she had been confined to for the first 21 years of her life. It was then that Julia began her new life. But it took courage to escape the confines she grew up in and boldly pursue a life of happiness, especially when the odds were stacked against her."

Salon: "The Turning": The dark side of Mother Teresa's order, according to nuns who left

Salon talks to the maker of a new podcast on abuse, suffering and forbidden love within The Missionaries of Charity.

"One of the most striking things about the new podcast "The Turning: The Sisters Who Left" is how some of the former nuns describe their experiences with life behind the walls of Mother Teresa's world-famous order, the Missionaries of Charity: in language reminiscent of the way we talk about cults. 

They use terms like "isolation" and "brainwashing." They were only permitted to write home once a month and visit home once every decade. They describe what it feels like to look at a single human: as having a direct line to holiness. 

Of course there were beautiful, spiritually affirming moments, too — times where these women felt achingly close to the God for whom they'd given up their normal lives — but for some, the suffering and separation were too much. "The whole idea was to make you feel as alone as possible," Kelli Dunham, a self-described "ex-nun," said. 

It was enough to make some fantasize about escaping — and some did. Through "The Turning," a new 10-episode podcast by Rococo Punch and iHeartMedia, producer and host Erika Lantz tells their stories."

" ... The sisters kept a rigid schedule that began at 4:30 a.m. and only included 30 minutes of unstructured recreation time, which was most often spent catching up on work that hadn't gotten done. Though they were required to go everywhere in pairs, the nuns were never allowed to have private conversations and would instead recite prayers together. 

This was to encourage chastity, a virtue that, as Lantz found out in her reporting, Mother Teresa was strict about maintaining, almost to the point of paranoia. After all, the Missionaries of Charity were spiritually wed to Jesus and were organized to "satiate the thirst of Jesus Christ on the Cross for Love and Souls."

It's a telling detail that Mother Teresa was so intently focused on Christ's crucifixion. While, as Lantz put it in "The Turning," one would anticipate that the scriptural passages that would have most impacted Mother Teresa would have centered on Jesus' interactions with the poor, sick and hungry, she was perhaps most moved by how his pain catalyzed his holiness. 

This was reflected in how the sisters lived in their respective convents, the series reports. Why would you pray from a chair when you could kneel on the hard ground? Why would you open the windows or wear one less layer when you could simply swelter? Why, as in the case of one nun, would you rest in bed after sustaining major burns when you could go back to work in almost unspeakable pain? 

However, as Lantz found out, the emphasis on achieving holiness through suffering didn't stop there. As is revealed early in "The Turning," the sisters would frequently engage in self-flagellation. 

Mary Johnson, a former nun and author of "An Unquenchable Thirst" — who also spoke with Salon back in 2013 about her experiences in the order — joined the Missionaries of Charity when she was 19 after seeing Mother Teresa on the cover of TIME Magazine."

Insider: A man bought a home right across the street from a homophobic church and painted it the colors of the Pride flag

"When Aaron Jackson found a property for sale across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, right away he had the idea to buy the house and paint it the colors of the Pride flag.

The founder of Planting Peace — a global nonprofit whose initiatives include environmental conservation and LGBTQ advocacy campaigns — Jackson wanted to make a statement with his choice of paint colors.

While a number of religious groups are supportive of LGBTQ inclusion and equality, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Westboro Baptist Church is not one of them.

The organization is considered to be an extremist and anti-gay religious group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. And its members believe that homosexuality is a sin, according to the church's website (which includes a homophobic epithet in its URL)."

NCR: No 'smoking gun' yet in Pius XII archives, researchers say

" ... According to the experts, much of what is in the seemingly endless secretive archival records are actually kind of boring — housing documents like requests for money to buy shoes. But scholars predict the vaults will shed light upon the range of opinion within church leadership at the time about how to respond to the reports about treatment of Jews in Nazi Europe.

Rioli described the opinions of bishops on the continent as "a mosaic" that will "give us a more wide view of mid-century church leadership."

Valbousquet said she had recently uncovered Vatican correspondence from shortly after the war that suggested officials had a deep lack of understanding of what had happened during the Holocaust and harbored antisemitic sentiments.

Valbousquet found a 1946 letter from a Vatican official about Jewish refugees performing a hunger strike to be allowed to immigrate to what was then Palestine. In the letter, the official commented that: "I don't believe that the hunger strike will last very long because Jews do not like to suffer and they are not used to suffering."

Kertzer stressed the importance of understanding the length of Pius' tenure, which went well past the war into the era of post-war reconstruction, the founding of Israel, and the theological debates that would eventually lead to the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council.

Understanding the postwar era of his papacy is crucial to understanding what Pius signifies today, said the researcher.

"Part of the reason that Pope Pius XII has such staunch defenders is that there are some who believe that the Second Vatican Council is where the church went wrong and Pope Pius XII was the last pre-Second Vatican pope," said Kertzer."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultEducationEvents.com

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.

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Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

Federation Entertainment Boards 'Vatican,' 'The Sect' (Exclusive)

Elsa Keslassy
Variety

February 9, 2021

Federation Entertainment, Pascal Breton and Lionel Uzan’s independent production and distribution group, is ramping up its premium documentary output with a slate of new acquisitions, including “The Vatican” and “The Sect.”

“The Vatican” is a six-part investigative documentary series exploring the pinnacle of Catholicism, and how incessant scandals and an ever changing society have weakened its foundations. “The Vatican” is directed by Kat Steppe, co-written by Rik Torfs and Jo Badisco, and produced by Kato Maes and Kristoffel Mertens at Belgian outfit Paneka for the broadcaster VRT. Now filming, the series has already been pre-sold to French SVOD service Salto.

“The Sect,” meanwhile, delivers an in-depth look into the Order of the Solar Temple. The five-part docuseries sheds light on what led 74 members of the cult to commit mass suicide across France, Switzerland and Canada, between 1994 and 1997. “The Sect” is produced by Matthieu Belghiti and Jean-Xavier De Lestrade, the Oscar-winning director of “Murder of a Sunday Morning” and “The Staircase,” and produced by What’s Up Films (“Trial 4”). “The Sect” is the first original documentary series commissioned by Salto.

Federation has also secured worldwide distribution rights to Mai Hua’s documentary “Make Me a Man: Meetings with Incredible Men,” which follows a charismatic therapist, Jerry Hyde, interviewing his male patients about the different definitions of masculinity in today’s world.

The company’s recent acquisitions also include “Lil’ Buck: Real Swan,” a multi-award winning documentary that charts the journey of a hip-hop dance prodigy from the streets of Memphis who also becomes a standout ballet dancer. The movie, directed by Louis Wallecan, was part of Tribeca’s selection in 2019 and won best film at San Francisco in the dance category.

Federation’s previous documentary pickups include “Paris: a Wild Story,” “First Man,” “The Secret Journey of Migratory Birds,” “Homo Sapiens,” as well as docu-dramas “The Assassination of Henry IV,” “The Escape of Louis XVI” and “The Appeal of 1940.”

Federation’s push into premium documentary is being spearheaded by Myriam Weil, the company’s head of documentaries. The company’s current documentary slate includes “Wenger, Invincible.”

https://variety.com/2021/film/global/federation-entertainment-boards-vatican-the-sect-exclusive-1234903836/

Priest's Aboriginal victims sue Pope Francis over church's failures

Chip Le Grand

Sydney Morning Herald

November 27, 2020

Pope Francis has been named as a defendant in a Victorian Supreme Court damages claim by three Aboriginal men who were sexually assaulted as young boys by paedophile priest Michael Glennon after the Vatican knew of his crimes against children but did not defrock him.

It is the first known case in Australia in which victims of clerical sexual abuse have sought to hold the world’s most senior Catholic personally responsible for his church’s failure to take decisive action against predators in its ranks.

The three plaintiffs, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, all claim to have experienced significant, ongoing impacts from their childhood abuse including drug addiction, homelessness and unemployment.

They are seeking compensation and exemplary or punitive damages against Pope Francis, the Archdiocese of Melbourne and Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli for the inaction of their predecessors.

If successful it would represent the first time an Australian court has punished the church – as distinct from compensating victims of abuse – for its failure to protect children from paedophile priests.

The claim lodged this week will test Pope Francis’s public commitment to treat all cases of clerical abuse with the “utmost seriousness’’ and the practical reach of Victorian civil law into the Vatican.

As of Friday, the Melbourne-based lawyers for the plaintiffs, Angela Sdrinis Legal, were waiting for the Holy See’s representative in Australia, Papal Nuncio Adolfo Tito Yllana, to accept service of the writ on the Pope’s behalf.

Angela Sdrinis said the Vatican’s refusal to accept service had frustrated previous claims against the church brought elsewhere around the world.

"It is about getting the Pope and the Vatican to accept responsibility," Ms Sdrinis told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

"What possible excuse could they have for not laicising him [Glennon]?"

Glennon, a charismatic, guitar-playing priest and karate teacher from Melbourne’s northern suburbs who established a youth camp outside the town of Lancefield, first pleaded guilty to a child sex offence in 1978 – the indecent assault a year earlier of a 10-year-old girl – and was sentenced to two years' jail.

Despite this, he was able to use his status as an ordained minister of the church to gain access to children and abuse them for 23 more years.

By the time of his death in 2014 he was in jail for the rape, sexual assault and physical abuse of 15 children. Police suspect he abused many more victims.

The principal claim against church authorities here and in Rome is they did nothing to stop him.

“By acquiescing in Fr Glennon’s continuing egregious conduct against children after his release from prison in 1979, failing to publicly denounce his behaviour and keeping his abuse of children a secret, the defendants allowed Fr Glennon to continue to avail himself of opportunities in the community to engender and then breach the trust of parishioners and their children,’’ the statement of claim reads.

“At all material times [the defendants] were in a position to warn the public of the danger that Fr Glennon posed to children. They did not do so.’’

Glennon was one of Australia’s worst paedophile priests. He targeted vulnerable children from migrant families and cynically cultivated the trust of Aboriginal families by professing to have a deep knowledge of Indigenous culture.

At Karaglen, the bush retreat he established outside Lancefield, north of Melbourne, he invited families to take part in self-styled corroborees. After he plied the parents with alcohol, he molested their children.

The three plaintiffs in the Supreme Court claim against the Pope were each abused at Karaglen and at Glennon’s house over several years, from the ages of seven or eight. One of the boys was repeatedly raped. Another said Glennon threatened to kill his parents and take custody of him if he told anyone about his abuse.

Their ordeal covers a nine-year period, from 1983 to 1991. During this time, Glennon gained national notoriety when broadcaster Derryn Hinch publicly revealed his prior convictions while he was awaiting trial on further charges.

For Hinch, the outing of Glennon as a repeat child sex offender became a cause celebre. He was charged, convicted and eventually jailed for contempt after a failed High Court appeal and later, formed his eponymous Justice Party to launch a political career.

For the three plaintiffs, the broadcaster’s high-profile campaign had a different outcome. Glennon’s lawyers cited the adverse publicity to secure a stay in the prosecution and he was released on bail and continued to abuse the boys.

Glennon was finally jailed in 1992 for multiple child sex crimes and remained behind bars until his death.

The Melbourne Archdiocese withdrew Glennon’s faculties as a priest after his 1978 conviction but only the Vatican had the power to laicise him.

In a 1994 letter petitioning the Vatican to take action, then archbishop of Melbourne Frank Little said there was "abundant evidence" Glennon had continued to present himself as a man of the cloth.

This included presiding over baptisms, confirmation, confession and administering other sacraments. One of his criminal trials was shown a video of Glennon leading a mass at Karaglen, with a procession of robed altar boys.

Archbishop Comensoli’s predecessor Denis Hart told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse that Archbishop Little first petitioned the Vatican in 1990 to have Glennon laicised and again in 1994.

It was not until 1999 – after Archbishop Little's successor George Pell vowed to bring it to the personal attention of the Pope – that John Paul II issued a decree expelling Glennon from the priesthood.

The Melbourne archdiocese confirmed it was aware of the claim before the Supreme Court.

"The crimes of Michael Glennon were horrendous and the archdiocese fully acknowledges the deep hurt of those vulnerable people he wounded," a spokesperson said on Friday.

"It was on his arrest [in 1978] that Glennon's abusing ways first came to the attention of the archdiocese. He was immediately placed on administrative leave and his priestly faculties were consequently removed. He was never again permitted by the church to minister as priest.

"Tragically, after he was released from Pentridge, he continued to offend.''

The decision to join the current Pope to the Supreme Court claim reflects the complex legal structures of the church where a priest is supervised by his local diocese but under canon law, can only be laicised or excommunicated for sex crimes against children by Rome.

It is rare in Australia for courts to award exemplary damages in sex abuse cases.

Earlier this year, the ACT Supreme Court awarded exemplary damages against an Australian National University residential college for its inadequate response towards a student raped during a hazing ritual.

In Victoria, the most recent example is the 2015 case of Dassi Erlich, one of three sisters allegedly molested by their school principal, Malka Leifer.

In that case, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Jack Rush awarded exemplary damages against the Adass Israel School for its "disgraceful" conduct in arranging for Ms Leifer to flee the country.

Ms Leifer’s appeal against her extradition from Israel is due to be heard next week.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/priest-s-aboriginal-victims-sue-pope-francis-over-church-s-failures-20201126-p56ia1.html

CultNEWS101 Articles: 10/22/2018

Cult Leaders, Aum Shinrikyo, Japan, Legal, Mia Farrow, Maharishi, Catholic Church, Sexual Abuse

Refinery29: 4 Personality Traits Cult Leaders Have In Common

" ... Regardless of the goals or nature of their cult, most cult leaders behave the way they do in order to cultivate and maintain a power imbalance, Dr. Lalich says. If their followers never know how they are going to react to something, they're in control. If their followers don't know when they'll make their next appearance, they're in control. If their followers can't guess what their next demand will be, yes, they're still in control."

NHK: NHK obtains Aum execution documents

"NHK has obtained documents on the executions of the leader and 12 former senior members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. The Justice Ministry released the documents through the information disclosure system. But most of the details have been redacted, including the discussions about the death sentences that were carried out in July."

" ... Shizue Takahashi, a representative of the victims of the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, says there is not enough information in the documents to determine whether legal procedures were followed correctly."

Academia: How have the Jehovah's Witnesses adapted child safeguarding practices and guidance to local circumstances in the United States of America, England and Australia

"How have the Jehovah's Witnesses adapted child safeguarding practices and guidance to local circumstances in the United States of America, England and Australia"  76-page PDF

Elle: MIA FARROW TAKES AN UNFLINCHING LOOK AT HER PAST IN THE WAKE OF THE METOO MOVEMENT

"At the Maharishi’s compound in Rishikesh, India, by the way, Farrow did find that his practices helped her regain a foothold in the world. But soon the calm of his ashram was shattered by the arrival of the Beatles—photographers scrambled into trees trying to get a shot. In the days that followed, the Beatles wrote “Dear Prudence” for Farrow’s sister. Then, after a private meditation session, the Maharishi made an unwelcome advance on Farrow. “Suddenly I became aware of two surprisingly male, hairy arms going around me,” she writes. She immediately left the ashram. And in keeping with the ways Farrow’s life has twisted through a trivia night’s worth of events, this encounter also set in motion the Beatles’ break with the guru. Their song “Sexy Sadie,” about a woman who made a fool of everyone, was originally titled “Maharishi.”

Ruters: Pope accepts resignation of Cardinal Wuerl as archbishop of Washington, D.C.

Pope accepts resignation of Cardinal Wuerl as archbishop of Washington, D.C.

"Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl as archbishop of Washington, D.C., the Vatican said on Friday."

"Wuerl, 77, who was bishop of Pittsburgh between 1988 and 2006, has been under scrutiny over his handling of sexual abuse cases during that period. He keeps the title of cardinal."

For some Catholics, it is demons that taunt priests with sexual desire

Elizabeth McAlister (Professor of Religion, Wesleyan University)
The Conversation
August 23, 2018

Disclosure statement: Elizabeth McAlister received a grant from the Social Science Research Council's Project on New Directions in the Study of Prayer to study Aggressive Forms of Prayer in 2013 .
Partners: Wesleyan University provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.

A Pennsylvania grand jury recently released a report on the systematic ways Catholic priests aided and abetted one another to sexually abuse children for 70 years.

It reveals once again how the strict patriarchal hierarchy of the Catholic Church gives rise to conspiracies of silence and allows for routine cover-up of crimes. Cover-ups are also encouraged by clericalism – the belief that ordained priests are inherently superior and closer to God than the laity. This much has been demonstrated by countless observers.

But there is another, lesser-known factor contributing to the abuse, that I want to point out as a scholar of spiritual warfare in some forms of Christianity. This factor lies in the realm of belief: In some strands of Catholic thought, when priests abuse children, it is because they have been tempted by demons, and succumbed.

History of demon beliefs

The Catholic Church invites priests to view sexuality as a battle in the war between good and evil. Spiritual warfare is one name for this view of the world and it has a long history in Catholic teachings.

The idea of demons has been around since antiquity – in the Mediterranean world, the Middle East and elsewhere. In Christianity, preoccupation with demons reached its peak in the Middle Ages. Demons were explicitly defined by the church in 1215 under Pope Innocent III.

Theologians worked to identify classes and ranks of demons who operated under the authority of the devil himself. Demons were seen as fallen angels who disobeyed God and worked to subvert God and goodness.

Demons are malevolent beings who lord over specific domains of sin. Christians are called to battle evil, including evil that comes by way of the demonic. The more pious one is, the more intense will be the attacks from the demons.

After the Second Vatican Council of 1964, demons faded out of focus and exorcisms were rare. But my research shows that the spiritual warfare world view is on the rise in the Catholic Church. This is despite the fact that demons and exorcisms are largely viewed by most American Catholics as remnants of a medieval past.

The return of demons and exorcisms

In 1999, Pope John Paul II brought back a focus on the formal rites of exorcism – the official ritual that priests use to rid a person from demonic affliction or possession. The pope later recommended that every diocese in the Catholic world appoint and train an exorcist.

The Catholic Church in the United States took up the call and in 2012 founded the Pope Leo XII Institute in Illinois to support “the spiritual formation of priests to bring the light of Christ to dispel evil.” To this day it serves as a “school for exorcism and deliverance” of the laity from demons.

The institute offers workshops for clergy such as “Angels and Demons, Natures and Attributes.”

Under this belief system, in the battle for souls, demons can establish relationships with people who open the door to them through sin and disobedience to God. If someone masturbates, for example, which is a mortal sin, they are opening the door wider to demons of more serious sexual perversion.

Such demons include figures mentioned in the Bible such as Baal, the ancient Phoenician sun God, and his consort Ashtoreth, now viewed as a force of sexual immorality and perversion. Jezebel, the ninth-century B.C. Phoenician princess, lives into the modern era as a demonic personality who encourages illicit sexual acts, violence and rape.

Devil and role-play in one church

Writing for Commonweal, an American Catholic journal, one ex-seminarian described a formation, or training, workshop sponsored by his seminary. He described how participants were given nametags with the names of demons on them and asked to play the role of demons to tempt one another. He explained how they would choose one person and “hiss and curse” to entice him to “watch pornography” and “masturbate.”

The point, of course, was to train the participants how to choose chastity and to stand strong against sexual desire.

To be clear, this is only one documented instance. However, I would argue that it points to the Church’s current preoccupation with evil spirits and the need for priests to ritually remove that evil.

It is sobering that one seminary should choose to offer those training for a life of service and celibacy, a role-play of hissing demon impersonators, as a way to govern their conduct.

Medieval practices in today’s church?

Ascribing sexual desire to demonic temptation takes away the blame from the perpetrators. It puts the cause, the consequences, and questions of accountability into an invisible world populated by angels and demons, sin and repentance.

Suggesting that the offending priests were afflicted by demons is a version of “the devil made me do it.”

There is a second heartbreak. Many of the abused report feeling guilty, as if they had sinned themselves. I have heard from my own research participants that because sinning opens the door to more demons and more sin, then some abuse survivors think of themselves as being in relationships with personal demons and more vulnerable to demonic attack.

As investigations continue into the institutional factors allowing for this horrific abuse, it may also be pertinent to look into some of the intellectual and theological elements at the heart of the Catholic tradition.

For some branches of the Church, this includes the medieval world of demons.

https://theconversation.com/for-some-catholics-it-is-demons-that-taunt-priests-with-sexual-desire-101935

How Iowa Priests Are Reacting To Catholic Church Abuse

Randy-Evans
Iowa Starting Line
August 22, 2018

At most services, Father P.J. McManus moves quickly through the announcements — typically covering such things as the coming Christ the King Church sweet corn festival, the signup for the fall retreat, or a new book study group that soon will begin.

This past weekend, however, the announcements took a very different theme and tone.

Father P.J. began by mentioning he was at a Des Moines Hy-Vee on Wednesday, shopping for a dinner he was hosting that evening for leaders of the youth group. He was not wearing his Roman collar at the store, and a parishioner he encountered asked about that unusual occurrence.

McManus told the audience he did not wear his collar because of the news out of Pennsylvania the day before — news about another sickening scandal within the Catholic church.

Clearly agitated and with his voice rising, Father P.J. conveyed his personal sense of betrayal by the shocking events that had been documented by the grand jury in Pennsylvania. There was evidence that 300 priests had sexually abused 1,000 children over seven decades while church leaders looked the other way.

Father P.J.’s message was clear: It is up to the leaders of the Catholic church to hold the priests and bishops accountable for violating the trust of church members like those in front of him. And it is up to members to ensure that their priests and bishops do this, he told them.

The scandal is not a result of Catholic church’s demands for celibacy by its priests, McManus said. The scandal is a direct result of priests and bishops abusing their authority over the children, he said.

When Father P.J. concluded, scattered applause began in the back of Christ the King and grew louder as it moved toward the altar.

My friend Chuck Offenburger said his parish priest in Perry was similarly blunt on Sunday. Father Chris Reising told parishioners at St. Patrick’s Church, “God forbid that anything like that would happen here. But if it did, don’t call the bishop. Call the police.”

It doesn’t do any good to focus on the vast number of “good priests” when the church hierarchy in parts of the United States either directly or indirectly allows abusers to continue their horrible deeds.

The New York Post called the church’s response to the Pennsylvania grand jury “heavily lawyered blabber” that sounded more like a corporation worrying about its profits and reputation rather than the successors of Jesus and the apostles worrying about their flocks.

The ultimate responsibility for cleaning up this mess rests with the Vatican. Pope Francis’ legacy will be determined, in large part, by how he deals with this scandal.

We don’t need more expressions of sorrow from the bishops. Church leaders need to see this from the perspective of families and believers and recognize it for what it is — a massive crime wave that has been deliberately covered up and that is tearing away at the fabric of the church.

There need to be resignations and removal of lawbreaking priests and bishops who have averted their eyes from what was occurring or who were content to move lawbreakers to other parishes where unsuspecting families provided a fresh supply of children for abusers.

The grand jury’s findings are lurid, and horrific.

A Pennsylvania priest raped a girl and impregnated her, then arranged for an abortion. The bishop of Scranton wrote, “This is a very difficult time in your life, and I realize how upset you are. I too share your grief.”

But the letter went to the priest, not to the girl.

The bishop of Erie wrote to a priest who admitted assaulting a dozen boys. The bishop thanked the priest for “all you have done for God’s people. The Lord, who sees in private, will reward.”

A group of priests in Pittsburgh created their own child pornography ring and shared nude photographs of altar boys they had violated.

Another priest finally resigned after years of abuse complaints. He was given a letter of reference for his next job — at Walt Disney World.

Chad Pecknold, a professor at Catholic University of America, explained to reporters what is different about this church scandal: “Previously, everyone understood that abuse was rampant and that the church worked hard to try to resolve the problem. What was not clear before, and is clear now, is how many bishops worked just as hard to cover things up.”

Most of the crimes occurred beyond the statute of limitations, making criminal charges impossible now. Many of the priests are now deceased.
But some of those involved are still active in the church, including Archbishop Donald Wuerl, a member of the College of Cardinals, who heads the Washington, D.C., archdiocese. He was bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006, a time period covered by the grand jury report.

The grand jury said: “We can say that despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability. Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing, they hid it all.

“For decades, monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, have mostly been protected. Many, including some named in this report, have been promoted. Until that changes, we think it is too early to close the book on the Catholic church sex scandal.”

Father P.J. is correct. We all must hold priests and bishops accountable for this nightmare.

https://iowastartingline.com/2018/08/22/how-iowa-priests-are-reacting-to-catholic-church-abuse/

Vatican-OK'd journal strikes out again at US evangelicals

NICOLE WINFIELD
AP
July 18, 2018

VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican-approved journal has dismissed “prosperity gospel” as a pseudo theology dangerously tied up with the American Dream and President Donald Trump’s politics, launching its second major critique of American evangelicals in as many years.

Two of Pope Francis’ top communications advisers — an Italian Jesuit and an Argentine Protestant pastor — penned “The Prosperity Gospel: Dangerous and Different” for the current issue of the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, published Wednesday.

In the article, the authors note that the “prosperity gospel” and its belief that God wants his followers to be wealthy and healthy has spread throughout the world, particularly in Latin America and Asia, thanks to its charismatic proponents’ effective use of TV and media.

But they point to its origins in the U.S. and its underpinning of the American Dream, and say its vision of faith is in direct contrast to true Christian teaching and Pope Francis’ emphasis on the poor, social justice and salvation.

“In truth, one of the serious problems that the prosperity gospel brings is its perverse effects on the poor,” wrote the authors, the Rev. Antonio Spadaro and Marcelo Figueroa.

“In fact, it not only exasperates individualism and knocks down the sense of solidarity, but it pushes people to adopt a miracle-centered outlook because faith alone — not social or political commitment — can procure prosperity.”

While “popularity gospel” is widely popular, many Christians consider it heretical. Ministers in the tradition often hold up their own wealth as evidence that their teachings work.

Trump campaigned in part on his record as a wealthy real estate developer and businessman, and “prosperity gospel” preacher Paula White is a key Trump adviser. She and another prosperity preacher, Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, were among the religious leaders selected to offer prayers at Trump’s swearing-in.

The Civilta Cattolica article said “prosperity gospel” clearly serves the U.S. economic-political model, especially under Trump, and the idea of “American exceptionalism” and that the United States “has grown as a nation under the blessing of the providential God of the Evangelical movement.”

It cited Trump’s own inaugural speech and the militancy associated with prosperity preachers, in which in a few short sentences Trump mixed in the idea of “God, the army and the American Dream.”

The article named several prominent U.S. and international televangelists and megachurch pastors, including Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen — and denounced how they have increased their own wealth and popularity thanks to a “pseudo-Gospel” that subverts the Bible.

Most problematic, they said, was their preaching that if the faithful give money to the preachers, they will reap the rewards exponentially because of their faith that God will provide them riches.

“This is why there can be a lack of empathy and solidarity in these cases from (prosperity gospel) followers,” the article said, referring to migrant crises and natural disasters. “There can be no compassion for those who are not prosperous, for clearly they have not followed the rules and thus live in failure and are not loved by God.”

It was the second time the two authors have joined forces to criticize religious movements in the United States, signaling once again the clash of cultures underway in the Francis papacy and Trump White House.

Last year, the two condemned the way some American evangelicals and their conservative Roman Catholic supporters mix religion and politics in an “ecumenism of conflict,” saying their worldview promotes division and hatred.

Then again, they took aim at conservative religious support for Trump, accusing activists of promoting a “xenophobic and Islamophobic vision that wants walls and purifying deportations.” Trump has sought to bar travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and vowed to build a wall on the Mexican border.

Articles in La Civilta Cattolica are reviewed and approved by the Vatican Secretariat of State. Under Francis, who is a Jesuit, the publication has become something of an unofficial mouthpiece of the papacy.

The initial article was criticized by some on the Catholic right, including Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput.

https://apnews.com/4538501646f645d3b497d473765fc1fd

Cardinal Pell likely to face two trials, court hears

Lawyers have asked for two separate trials

BBC
2 May 2018

Cardinal George Pell is expected to face two trials on sexual assault charges, an Australian court has heard.

The Vatican treasurer, 76, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

On Tuesday, a magistrate ordered him to stand trial. The allegations relate to the 1970s and 1990s, a court heard.

Cardinal Pell appeared at the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday, where prosecution and defence teams asked for the case to be split across two trials.

If a judge agrees, separate juries would hear allegations against Cardinal Pell about his time as a priest in Ballarat in the 1970s, and charges relating to when he was archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

Much of the evidence given at a previous hearing was not open to the public, and remains confidential.

Cardinal Pell is Australia's most senior Catholic and one of the most powerful officials in the Vatican.

Speedy process urged

On Wednesday, Judge Susan Pullen said a trial date was expected to be set during an administrative hearing on 16 May.

The cardinal's lawyer, Robert Richter QC, argued for matters to proceed quickly because "my client is 76 years old [and] everyone needs to get on with their lives".

He also said one "critical witness" was now aged in his 80s, and that health was "important" for other witnesses.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Lawyers have asked for two separate trials
The court heard that one trial could examine charges relating to a swimming pool in Ballarat, while the other could hear of an alleged incident at Melbourne St Patrick's Cathedral.

"They are of a completely different nature... and separated by 20 years," Mr Richter told the court, Fairfax Media reported.

The proposed trial arrangements would run for a total period of 10 weeks, the court heard.

Vatican leave

Last June, Cardinal Pell was charged in the state of Victoria with allegations involving "multiple complainants".

Following a month-long preliminary hearing, a magistrate ruled that there was enough evidence for some charges to proceed to a jury.

However, half of the original charges were struck out on the basis of insufficient evidence and doubt over the reliability of testimony.

Cardinal Pell has strongly denied all accusations, saying last year: "I am innocent of these charges, they are false. The whole idea of sexual abuse is abhorrent to me."

The cleric has taken a leave of absence from the Vatican to fight the charges in his home country.

In a brief statement on Tuesday, the Holy See said it had "taken note of the decision issued by judicial authorities in Australia".

"Last year, the Holy Father granted Cardinal Pell a leave of absence so he could defend himself from the accusations. The leave of absence is still in place," the statement said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-43971385

Shut Up, Satan: Rome Course Teaches Exorcism, Even by Cellphone

Master class on how to yell at the devil on your cellphone.

JASON HOROWITZ
New York Times
April 19, 2018


ROME — Andrés Cárdenas sat in the back of the auditorium, opened his folder and took careful notes as a Catholic cardinal with decades of experience casting demons out of possessed bodies gave a master class on how to yell at the devil, rid Muslims of black magic and purge Satan on your cellphone.

Father Cárdenas, a Colombian priest, wrote vigorously as the 89-year-old instructor, Ernest Simoni, explained that although exorcisms — what he called “a spiritual scientific instrument” — can be practiced on Muslims, “they stayed Muslims after.”

Cardinal Simoni, who is Albanian, also said that fasting sometimes helped the possessed, but that often you had to play hardball with Beelzebub by saying things like “shut up, Satan.”

After jotting it all down, Father Cárdenas, 36, explained he had come to Rome to learn about exorcisms “because it is a gift” he wanted to share with his parishioners back in El Espinal. He was one of 300 Roman Catholics — mostly clerics but also lay men and women furnished with authorization letters from their bishops — to attend the 13th annual, weeklong “Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation” course that organizers hoped would recruit and train armies of potential exorcists to confront spreading demonic forces.

Participants paid about $372 (simultaneous translation was $309 extra) to attend the sessions, which were sponsored by conservative Catholic groups and held at the Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum, run by the conservative Legionaries of Christ religious order.

The would-be exorcists blamed the internet and atheism for what they see as a spike in evil, but the urgency evident in the course also seemed to have something to do with a growing conservative view that the church has gone astray under Pope Francis, and that end times had drawn nigh.

The pope recently had conservative heads spinning when he was quoted, incorrectly according to the Vatican, by an Italian reporter with credibility issues as not believing in hell. “Beyond what is tolerable,” the American cardinal Raymond Burke, a leader of the conservative resistance to Francis, said at the time.

In fact, the pope often speaks about the devil. In this month’s apostolic exhortation, Rejoice and Be Glad, he wrote that while in biblical times, “epilepsy, for example, could easily be confused with demonic possession,” the faithful should not conclude “that all the cases related in the Gospel had to do with psychological disorders and hence that the devil does not exist or is not at work.”

Father Cárdenas had no doubts about the pope’s belief in the devil. Neither did Cardinal Simoni, who has encountered evil firsthand, surviving decades in prisons and work camps for practicing his faith under the Albanian Communist regime of Enver Hoxha.

During Monday’s keynote address, the cardinal answered the questions of Father Cárdenas’ fellow priests, like one from a French priest who asked him to share his exorcising secrets. “Pray without interruption,” the cardinal said, reminding the audience that “more than anything, chastity” was key.

Asked if he preferred the ancient ritual or the new Vatican norms introduced in 1999, Cardinal Simoni said, “Jesus knows all the languages.”

Another priest asked how to tell the difference between bipolar and possessed personalities. “It’s important to differentiate between psychopathic illnesses, neurasthenia, pathologies,” the cardinal said. “Satan you can recognize.”

“This theme will be tackled on Tuesday afternoon,” interjected Professor Giuseppe Ferrari, an organizer of the course, who runs a socio-religious research group.

At that, Father Cárdenas perused his blue program, illustrated with Raphael’s Transfiguration. On Tuesday, he could listen to an exorcist lecture on “The Prayer of Liberation, a Theological and Pastoral Approach” or “The Auxiliary Exorcist: Skills and Duties.”

On Wednesday, there was “Magical, Esoteric and Occult Links to Some Alternative and Energy-giving Therapies,” followed by Friday’s “The Exorcist: Life, Choices and Mistake.” But he was especially interested in Wednesday’s talk on “Witchcraft in Africa.”

The Vatican has had an uncomfortable relationship with some of its best-known African exorcists. Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, of Zambia, gained notoriety as a healer and exorcist in the 1990s, when he lived in Italy and where he was known as the “witch doctor bishop.” He later married a Korean woman at a group wedding presided over by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and was excommunicated for ordaining four married men as priests.

More recently the Vatican has formally recognized an International Association of Exorcists in 2014, which keeps its 250 or so members updated on the latest best practices in confronting the devil. The death in 2016 of Father Gabriele Amorth, Italy’s most famous demon remover, prompted a new national outcry for recruits.

An exorcism documentary, “Libera Nos,” won a prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2016. The film follows a rotund Sicilian priest in a friar’s frock and wool hat; in one scene, he yanks on the bangs of a woman who grunts at his command that she love her neighbors.

In a separate cellphone conversation in the film with a possessed woman, the priest implores, “I exorcise you, Satan.” He then signs off with, “O.K., talk soon,” and “say hello to your husband for me.”

(“It’s a good way to learn how not to do an exorcism,” Professor Ferrari said.)

In the seminar on Monday, Cardinal Simoni reported dramatic successes. Asked by one priest how he knew if an exorcism had worked, he responded, “Ah, you can see it immediately,” explaining that one possessed person went from jumping up and down and “keeping three or four men busy” to rising with a “joyous smile.”

“Your exorcisms are very effective, it seems,” said Professor Ferrari, who then told the crowd, “We will meet back here after the coffee break.”

The students headed for a long table with snacks and soda while reporters pressed Cardinal Simoni about conducting exorcisms by cellphone, which is technically banned by church law. (He had done them “100, 1,000 times” he said.)

Father Cárdenas waited in the aisle, his cellphone out, hoping to get a picture of himself with the cardinal. But the elderly exorcist shuffled past, leaving the Colombian grumbling, though not demonically.

Turning back to the topic at hand, Father Cárdenas warned that black magic can be transmitted through screens (“American films are also a problem”), that demons enter the body “through the back of the brain,” and that early traumas, like sexual abuse, can make a person vulnerable to homosexuality and the demons who, in grave cases, cause suicidal or violent tendencies and need to be chased away.

A few feet away, The Rev. Joseph Poggemeyer, from Toledo, Ohio, said exorcists needed to confront the evil spread on the internet. He said that every diocese should have an exorcist on hand, but that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and its “confusion” had eroded exorcism expertise and deprived seminarians of instruction in demonology.

“That was simply lost,” he said. “A lot of dioceses in the United States haven’t had exorcists for a very long time.”

Organizers called the priests back in for a lesson on a bishop’s role in exorcism, after which they broke for lunch. While budding exorcists waited in line for pasta behind texting students, or discussed the manifestations of pure evil over yogurt, Mr. Ferrari said he hoped to invite the pope’s preferred exorcist, a Lutheran, to next year’s conference.

Replenished, Father Cárdenas and the others returned to the basement hall for the afternoon session, “Exorcism as a Ministry of Mercy and Consolation Amid the Bewilderment of Contemporary Society.”

It was led by Archbishop Luigi Negri, who made news in 2015, when he was overheard on a train wishing for the death of Pope Francis. The pontiff subsequently replaced him as the leader of the Ferrara archdiocese.

On Monday, Archbishop Negri warned the priests what dark forces they would be up against.

“The actor of this evil — this diabolical and evil entity,” he explained, “is greater than any single man.”

A version of this article appears in print on April 20, 2018, on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Amid Fears That Evil Is Winning, Learning To Cast Out il Diavolo.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/world/europe/exorcism-catholic-church.html