28 ICSA
Report from Poland
Piotr T. Nowakowski
On November 17, 2015, a conference
titled Spiritual Threats to Present-Day
Youth was organized in Lublin by the
Family and Individual Preservation
Society (a FECRIS member). The first
speaker, Professor Robert T. Ptaszek,
Head of the Department of Theories
of Religion and Alternative Religious
Movements at the John Paul II Catholic
University of Lublin, presented a paper,
Not Only Cults: Various Forms of Present-
Day Spirituality and Their Influence on
Youth. Ireneusz Kamiński, MA, Director
of the Council of Documentation and
Research on Alternative Religious &
Parareligious Movements at Nicolaus
Copernicus University in Toruń,
spoke about official documents
and declarations on new religions,
religious movements, and practices of
spiritual development. Professor Piotr
T. Nowakowski from the Off-Campus
Faculty of Law &Social Sciences at
the John Paul II Catholic University
of Lublin touched on the issue of
preventive activities that would limit
the influence of psychomanipulative
groups on school youth.
On November 20–21, 2016, a
conference titled Psychomanipulation
and Cults was organized in Kraków by
Friar Emil Smolana from the Dominican
Centre of Information on New Religious
Movements and Cults. The conference
comprised more than twenty papers
presented by the representatives of a
significant number of academic and
professional institutions in Poland.
The contributors represented the
vast range of disciplines: psychology,
criminology, law, sociology, religious
studies, pedagogy, social work,
philosophy, and theology. The papers
focused not only on cults but also on
the current problem of terrorism in
Europe. Dominican Centre is a cult-
awareness organization, established at
the beginning of the 1990s. Now it has
branches in Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław,
Gdańsk, and Poznań.
Report from Spain
Luis Santamaria
General Information
In February 2016, workshops titled
Fanatismo, Identidad y Adolescencia
(Fanaticism, Identity and Adolescence)
were held in Madrid, organized
by hospitals and psychologists.
Coordinator Manuel de Miguel
explained that 5 percent of Spanish
adolescents could develop radical
ideologies because “in adolescence
young people are particularly sensitive
to these kinds of radical ideologies
and to belonging to sects which will
reinforce their identity and make them
feel stronger and more important.”
The Iberian-American Network for
the Study of Sects (RIES) opened
the José María Baamonde Library-
Documentation Center in Zamora,
Spain as a space devoted to the study
of sects and open to researchers. The
center contains 1,800 books and a
broad range of materials on sects.
Groups of Christian Origin
Nuroa, a Spanish properties company,
has published an investigation in
which it calculated the real value of 10
Mormon temples (out of a total of 40)
in Latin America. The most expensive
is the one in Santiago, Chile, worth $20
million.
In December 2015, an 18-year-old
Argentinean Jehovah’s Witness died
because his family denied him a blood
transfusion after he was hospitalized
for a thigh injury.
A biological son of Teófilo “Aarón”
Vargas, leader of the Congregación
Mita, has published a book called The
Child Against the Beast, in which he
denounced the abuses committed
by the sect founded by his father,
describing the abuses as “institutional,
physical, psychological, emotional, and
even sexual.”
The Mexican group La Luz del Mundo
(Light of the World) carried out a
strong proselytizing campaign in
Spain from the end of 2015 through
the beginning of 2016 in more than
10 towns, inviting people to a great
baptismal act on February 14. The
sect’s main center is in Getafe. Its choirs
are well known in Spain as the Casa
Cultural Berea Europa.
The Puerto-Rican group Creciendo
en Gracia, currently known as Rey de
Salem (King of Salem), remains active
in several parts of Latin America. The
group’s leader is Lisbet García de
Jesús, widow of founder José Luis de
Jesús Miranda, deceased in 2013. She
claims to be Jesus Christ and instructs
her disciples twice a week by video
conference from Miami, where she
runs an important media business.
Scientology
In December 2015, the Spanish
Ministry of Education, Culture and
Sports registered an institution
attached to the Church of Scientology
called la Fundación para la mejora
de la vida, la cultura y la sociedad
(Foundation for Self-Improvement,
Culture and Society), whose aim is to
spread “the teachings and practices of
Scientology as developed by L. Ronald
Hubbard, and its applications for the
betterment of the individual and of
society.”
The Church of Scientology is looking
for a suitable building near Barcelona
to make a million-dollar investment in
its second “ideal organization” in Spain
(the first one is in Madrid close to the
House of Representatives).
One of the buildings the Church
has shown interest in is an old 18th-
century mansion, remodeled as
a medieval castle, in the town of
ICSA TODAYTODAY
Correspondents
,
Reports
Report from Poland
Piotr T. Nowakowski
On November 17, 2015, a conference
titled Spiritual Threats to Present-Day
Youth was organized in Lublin by the
Family and Individual Preservation
Society (a FECRIS member). The first
speaker, Professor Robert T. Ptaszek,
Head of the Department of Theories
of Religion and Alternative Religious
Movements at the John Paul II Catholic
University of Lublin, presented a paper,
Not Only Cults: Various Forms of Present-
Day Spirituality and Their Influence on
Youth. Ireneusz Kamiński, MA, Director
of the Council of Documentation and
Research on Alternative Religious &
Parareligious Movements at Nicolaus
Copernicus University in Toruń,
spoke about official documents
and declarations on new religions,
religious movements, and practices of
spiritual development. Professor Piotr
T. Nowakowski from the Off-Campus
Faculty of Law &Social Sciences at
the John Paul II Catholic University
of Lublin touched on the issue of
preventive activities that would limit
the influence of psychomanipulative
groups on school youth.
On November 20–21, 2016, a
conference titled Psychomanipulation
and Cults was organized in Kraków by
Friar Emil Smolana from the Dominican
Centre of Information on New Religious
Movements and Cults. The conference
comprised more than twenty papers
presented by the representatives of a
significant number of academic and
professional institutions in Poland.
The contributors represented the
vast range of disciplines: psychology,
criminology, law, sociology, religious
studies, pedagogy, social work,
philosophy, and theology. The papers
focused not only on cults but also on
the current problem of terrorism in
Europe. Dominican Centre is a cult-
awareness organization, established at
the beginning of the 1990s. Now it has
branches in Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław,
Gdańsk, and Poznań.
Report from Spain
Luis Santamaria
General Information
In February 2016, workshops titled
Fanatismo, Identidad y Adolescencia
(Fanaticism, Identity and Adolescence)
were held in Madrid, organized
by hospitals and psychologists.
Coordinator Manuel de Miguel
explained that 5 percent of Spanish
adolescents could develop radical
ideologies because “in adolescence
young people are particularly sensitive
to these kinds of radical ideologies
and to belonging to sects which will
reinforce their identity and make them
feel stronger and more important.”
The Iberian-American Network for
the Study of Sects (RIES) opened
the José María Baamonde Library-
Documentation Center in Zamora,
Spain as a space devoted to the study
of sects and open to researchers. The
center contains 1,800 books and a
broad range of materials on sects.
Groups of Christian Origin
Nuroa, a Spanish properties company,
has published an investigation in
which it calculated the real value of 10
Mormon temples (out of a total of 40)
in Latin America. The most expensive
is the one in Santiago, Chile, worth $20
million.
In December 2015, an 18-year-old
Argentinean Jehovah’s Witness died
because his family denied him a blood
transfusion after he was hospitalized
for a thigh injury.
A biological son of Teófilo “Aarón”
Vargas, leader of the Congregación
Mita, has published a book called The
Child Against the Beast, in which he
denounced the abuses committed
by the sect founded by his father,
describing the abuses as “institutional,
physical, psychological, emotional, and
even sexual.”
The Mexican group La Luz del Mundo
(Light of the World) carried out a
strong proselytizing campaign in
Spain from the end of 2015 through
the beginning of 2016 in more than
10 towns, inviting people to a great
baptismal act on February 14. The
sect’s main center is in Getafe. Its choirs
are well known in Spain as the Casa
Cultural Berea Europa.
The Puerto-Rican group Creciendo
en Gracia, currently known as Rey de
Salem (King of Salem), remains active
in several parts of Latin America. The
group’s leader is Lisbet García de
Jesús, widow of founder José Luis de
Jesús Miranda, deceased in 2013. She
claims to be Jesus Christ and instructs
her disciples twice a week by video
conference from Miami, where she
runs an important media business.
Scientology
In December 2015, the Spanish
Ministry of Education, Culture and
Sports registered an institution
attached to the Church of Scientology
called la Fundación para la mejora
de la vida, la cultura y la sociedad
(Foundation for Self-Improvement,
Culture and Society), whose aim is to
spread “the teachings and practices of
Scientology as developed by L. Ronald
Hubbard, and its applications for the
betterment of the individual and of
society.”
The Church of Scientology is looking
for a suitable building near Barcelona
to make a million-dollar investment in
its second “ideal organization” in Spain
(the first one is in Madrid close to the
House of Representatives).
One of the buildings the Church
has shown interest in is an old 18th-
century mansion, remodeled as
a medieval castle, in the town of
ICSA TODAYTODAY
Correspondents
,
Reports
