Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2005, Page 46
Book Details Crimes
A forthcoming book by two Chilean journalists, detailing the sexual abuse and other crimes
of Paul Schaeffer’s paramilitary religious commune, Colonia Dignidad, indicates that the
number of young victims may number in the thousands, including the children of the
German immigrants who settled there as well as the children of local Chilean farming
families who attended the settlement‘s agricultural school. The book will also say that every
branch of the Chilean state is ―guilty of omission‖ in preventing Schaeffer‘s arrest for four
decades. Human rights groups say that the commune served as a secret torture and
detention center during the Pinochet dictatorship. The book is to be published this fall by
Random House Mondadori.
Author Claudio Salinas says commune members ―were under a spell cast by a leader who is
neither a psychopath nor brutish, but a charismatic man, and also a homosexual who only
likes boys.‖ Co-author Hans Stange says Schaeffer ―did not allow the commune members
to have a private life or freely associate among themselves, and they had to work between
12 and 14 hours a day without speaking with anyone.
The authors say the youngest members of the commune can‘t go to school because most
don‘t speak Spanish, and won‘t be able to find jobs since the only thing they‘ve ever done is
work on the farm. ―They should be protected ...[but] they don‘t fit into our society or into
modern-day German society.‖ (Maria Cecelia Espinosa, Inter Press Service News Agency,
Internet, 5/3/05)
Closed Cult Now Opening Up
The bucolic Colonia Dignidad settlement, now called Bavarian Villa, has become a more
open society since leader Paul Schafer left. Residents now live as families rather than in
separate groupings in dormitories. The new leaders are men in their 30‘s and 40‘s, most of
whom were sexually molested by Schafer. But they don‘t want to talk about that, or about
how the organization now distributes living quarters, land for cultivation, or shares in the
profitable businesses Schafer controlled. When asked about reports that a Jewish American
math professor, hiking in the area in 1985, was executed on Schafer‘s orders, members
reportedly said, ―We were very young, we don‘t know, we can‘t be sure.‖ (Larry Rohter,
New York Times, Internet, 5/16/05)
Arms Cache Discovered
Chilean officials have discovered a cache of machine guns and rocket-launchers on the
property of Colonia Dignidad, the cult formerly led by Paul Schafer that is now opening
up to the wider society, freed of his totalitarian control. The arms are evidence that Colonia
Dignidad had paramilitary functions [during the Pinochet regime], according to Interior
Minister Jorge Correa. (Reuters in New Zealand Herald, Internet, 6/16/05)
Exorcism
Priest and Nuns Charged with Murderous Ritual
Romanian Orthodox priest Daniel Petre Corogeanu and four nuns at a monastery in Tancu,
Romania, have been charged with murder and depriving a person of liberty in connection
with an exorcism they performed on an apparently schizophrenic young woman. ―You can‘t
take the Devil out of people with pills,‖ Corogeanu told Romanian TV, before he was
arrested.
Among other things, the exorcism involved chaining Maricica Irina Cornici to a rough cross,
keeping her supine upon it for three days, and stuffing a towel into her mouth to stop her
from cursing the exorcists while they prayed and wet her lips with holy water.
Book Details Crimes
A forthcoming book by two Chilean journalists, detailing the sexual abuse and other crimes
of Paul Schaeffer’s paramilitary religious commune, Colonia Dignidad, indicates that the
number of young victims may number in the thousands, including the children of the
German immigrants who settled there as well as the children of local Chilean farming
families who attended the settlement‘s agricultural school. The book will also say that every
branch of the Chilean state is ―guilty of omission‖ in preventing Schaeffer‘s arrest for four
decades. Human rights groups say that the commune served as a secret torture and
detention center during the Pinochet dictatorship. The book is to be published this fall by
Random House Mondadori.
Author Claudio Salinas says commune members ―were under a spell cast by a leader who is
neither a psychopath nor brutish, but a charismatic man, and also a homosexual who only
likes boys.‖ Co-author Hans Stange says Schaeffer ―did not allow the commune members
to have a private life or freely associate among themselves, and they had to work between
12 and 14 hours a day without speaking with anyone.
The authors say the youngest members of the commune can‘t go to school because most
don‘t speak Spanish, and won‘t be able to find jobs since the only thing they‘ve ever done is
work on the farm. ―They should be protected ...[but] they don‘t fit into our society or into
modern-day German society.‖ (Maria Cecelia Espinosa, Inter Press Service News Agency,
Internet, 5/3/05)
Closed Cult Now Opening Up
The bucolic Colonia Dignidad settlement, now called Bavarian Villa, has become a more
open society since leader Paul Schafer left. Residents now live as families rather than in
separate groupings in dormitories. The new leaders are men in their 30‘s and 40‘s, most of
whom were sexually molested by Schafer. But they don‘t want to talk about that, or about
how the organization now distributes living quarters, land for cultivation, or shares in the
profitable businesses Schafer controlled. When asked about reports that a Jewish American
math professor, hiking in the area in 1985, was executed on Schafer‘s orders, members
reportedly said, ―We were very young, we don‘t know, we can‘t be sure.‖ (Larry Rohter,
New York Times, Internet, 5/16/05)
Arms Cache Discovered
Chilean officials have discovered a cache of machine guns and rocket-launchers on the
property of Colonia Dignidad, the cult formerly led by Paul Schafer that is now opening
up to the wider society, freed of his totalitarian control. The arms are evidence that Colonia
Dignidad had paramilitary functions [during the Pinochet regime], according to Interior
Minister Jorge Correa. (Reuters in New Zealand Herald, Internet, 6/16/05)
Exorcism
Priest and Nuns Charged with Murderous Ritual
Romanian Orthodox priest Daniel Petre Corogeanu and four nuns at a monastery in Tancu,
Romania, have been charged with murder and depriving a person of liberty in connection
with an exorcism they performed on an apparently schizophrenic young woman. ―You can‘t
take the Devil out of people with pills,‖ Corogeanu told Romanian TV, before he was
arrested.
Among other things, the exorcism involved chaining Maricica Irina Cornici to a rough cross,
keeping her supine upon it for three days, and stuffing a towel into her mouth to stop her
from cursing the exorcists while they prayed and wet her lips with holy water.
