Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), whose
investigation continues, another special
prosecutor hired in January 2012 is still
considering whether any charges ought to
be filed against Blackmore and others in
Bountiful. (Vancouver Sun, 3/14/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A man exiled by the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints (FLDS) polygamous sect has won
permanent custody of his children from
two ex-wives who are still members of the
group. Judge James Shumate granted the
custody to Lorin Holm at the conclusion of
a 5th District Court trial in St. George, Utah.
Shumate left the door open for Holm and
his estranged polygamous wives to agree
on new family arrangements, the St. George
Spectrum reports.
Holm sued to get sole custody of the
children in 2011 after he was kicked out of
the sect based in the twin towns of
Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona
earlier that year for being deemed
unfaithful. He had three wives and more
than a dozen children. Today, he lives with
his first wife, who also left the church.
Holm argued that his children could be
sexually abused, forced into child labor, or
kicked out of the church while being
raised by his former wives, one of whom
said she tells her children to respect Holm
and denied knowing why they call him an
apostate. Other exiled FLDS men hailed
the ruling as a precedent-setting victory
that will make it easier for them to get
their kids back, if not their wives,
according to the Spectrum. (The Salt Lake
Tribune and Wire Services, 3/27/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The District Attorney of Pittsburg County
(Oklahoma) alleges that “the entire church
body of the Jehovah[‘s] Witness[es]
Church” of the town of McAlester
concealed crimes of child molestation
allegedly committed by former church
elder Ronald Lawrence, 76, who was
charged last November with felony counts
of lewd molestation, forcible sodomy, and
rape by instrumentation, all committed
decades ago. Lawrence told police he had
confessed his crimes to the church at the
time he committed them so the elders
would take him back into the fold. The DA
also alleges that the church prevented the
victims from telling police what Lawrence
had done to them. Lawrence’s lawyers,
invoking the statute of limitations, want
the case dismissed because the crimes
were not reported until 2013. (McAlester
News Capital, 2/4/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Charges have been dismissed for Ronald
Lawrence, 76, a McAlester church elder
with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, according
to court records. Associate District Judge
James Bland dismissed the charges based
on statute-of-limitation arguments from
Lawrence’s attorney the prosecutor in the
case announced her intent to appeal
Bland’s decision.
A court affidavit had alleged Lawrence was
a church elder at the time of attacks that
occurred at his home, in a pool and lake,
and in a basement and janitor’s closet at a
bank. The affidavit also alleges Lawrence
named four church elders involved in his
“dis-fellowship” from his McAlester church
and that he lost his job at a bank due to
some of the allegations. Lawrence had
faced more than 365 years’ imprisonment
if convicted of the charges. (McAlester
News-Capital, 2/28/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In her $40 million lawsuit against him,
former Kabbalah International Centre
student Jena Scaccetti alleges that Centre
Rabbi Yehuda Berg [who succeeded his
late father, Moses, as leader of the
organization] plied her with Vicodin and
alcohol, tried to have sex with her, and
threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
Scaccetti says that Berg has treated other
women similarly. (Courthouse News,
1/21/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In recent actions in a process of reform
that began in 2009, the Legionaries of
Christ elected new leaders and formally
apologized to victims of their disgraced
founder, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel
Degollado, who died in 2008. Following
Maciel’s death in 2008, the Vatican ordered
an apostolic visitation and investigation
after learning about at least one
illegitimate child Maciel had fathered and
minors he had sexually abused. In 2010,
Following a Vatican statement that Maciel
had been guilty of “seriously and
objectively immoral behavior” and “real
crimes” and had lived a “life devoid of
scruples and of genuine religious
meaning,” Pope Benedict XVI named
Cardinal Velasio De Paolis to supervise the
Legionaries' reform.
The Legionaries’ statement expressed
“deep sorrow” for Degollado’s
“reprehensible and objectively immoral
behavior” and says they will change
leaders more frequently and appoint
advisory councils to “prevent potential
arbitrary behavior and abuses of
authority.”The statement also includes
data on changes in Legionaries
membership numbers and other details
(see http://ncronline.org/news/faith-
parish/legionaries-christ-elect-new-
leaders-apologize-founders-victims).
In ongoing efforts to redress these wrongs,
the extraordinary general chapter
members comprising 61 priests from 11
countries admitted and apologized for a
“long institutional silence” in response to
the accusations against the late friar.
Chapter members also expressed a desire
to maintain “friendship and fraternal
dialogue” with former Legionaries, and
noted they have been learning to “freely
debate” the governance of their
congregation.
Before adjournment at the end of
February, the chapter was to approve a
revised constitution, which Pope Francis
also must approve before it takes effect.
(Catholic News Service, 2/6/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Although the scandal-ridden Legionaries
of Christ has elected a new superior and
governing council, the Holy See
apparently does not trust the Legion’s
choices and has appointed two reformist
priests to serve on the order’s governing
council. The Rev. Eduardo Robles Gil
[Orvananos], the new general director
chosen by the Legionaries, was a favorite
of the organization’s disgraced late
founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel. Priests
who have left the order call Robles Gil a
“spiritual son” of Macial and say his
election does not represent a break with
the past. (AP, 2/6/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Father Robles Gil, the first elected leader
of the Legionaries of Christ, has told the
Catholic News Service that neither he nor
any other Legionary leader knew about
Father Maciel’s crimes before 2006, when
the Vatican disciplined the founder,
instructing him to follow a “life reserved to
prayer and penitence, renouncing all
public ministry.” Only after Maciel’s death
in 2008 did Robles Gil believe in the
founder’s guilt, when Maciel’s successor
personally told him the accusations were
true. The new general director later sat on
a commission dealing with some of
Maciel’s victims, seven of whom received
what he describes as “symbolic” amounts
of financial compensation for sexual
abuse.
32 ICSA TODAY
investigation continues, another special
prosecutor hired in January 2012 is still
considering whether any charges ought to
be filed against Blackmore and others in
Bountiful. (Vancouver Sun, 3/14/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
A man exiled by the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints (FLDS) polygamous sect has won
permanent custody of his children from
two ex-wives who are still members of the
group. Judge James Shumate granted the
custody to Lorin Holm at the conclusion of
a 5th District Court trial in St. George, Utah.
Shumate left the door open for Holm and
his estranged polygamous wives to agree
on new family arrangements, the St. George
Spectrum reports.
Holm sued to get sole custody of the
children in 2011 after he was kicked out of
the sect based in the twin towns of
Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona
earlier that year for being deemed
unfaithful. He had three wives and more
than a dozen children. Today, he lives with
his first wife, who also left the church.
Holm argued that his children could be
sexually abused, forced into child labor, or
kicked out of the church while being
raised by his former wives, one of whom
said she tells her children to respect Holm
and denied knowing why they call him an
apostate. Other exiled FLDS men hailed
the ruling as a precedent-setting victory
that will make it easier for them to get
their kids back, if not their wives,
according to the Spectrum. (The Salt Lake
Tribune and Wire Services, 3/27/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The District Attorney of Pittsburg County
(Oklahoma) alleges that “the entire church
body of the Jehovah[‘s] Witness[es]
Church” of the town of McAlester
concealed crimes of child molestation
allegedly committed by former church
elder Ronald Lawrence, 76, who was
charged last November with felony counts
of lewd molestation, forcible sodomy, and
rape by instrumentation, all committed
decades ago. Lawrence told police he had
confessed his crimes to the church at the
time he committed them so the elders
would take him back into the fold. The DA
also alleges that the church prevented the
victims from telling police what Lawrence
had done to them. Lawrence’s lawyers,
invoking the statute of limitations, want
the case dismissed because the crimes
were not reported until 2013. (McAlester
News Capital, 2/4/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Charges have been dismissed for Ronald
Lawrence, 76, a McAlester church elder
with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, according
to court records. Associate District Judge
James Bland dismissed the charges based
on statute-of-limitation arguments from
Lawrence’s attorney the prosecutor in the
case announced her intent to appeal
Bland’s decision.
A court affidavit had alleged Lawrence was
a church elder at the time of attacks that
occurred at his home, in a pool and lake,
and in a basement and janitor’s closet at a
bank. The affidavit also alleges Lawrence
named four church elders involved in his
“dis-fellowship” from his McAlester church
and that he lost his job at a bank due to
some of the allegations. Lawrence had
faced more than 365 years’ imprisonment
if convicted of the charges. (McAlester
News-Capital, 2/28/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In her $40 million lawsuit against him,
former Kabbalah International Centre
student Jena Scaccetti alleges that Centre
Rabbi Yehuda Berg [who succeeded his
late father, Moses, as leader of the
organization] plied her with Vicodin and
alcohol, tried to have sex with her, and
threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
Scaccetti says that Berg has treated other
women similarly. (Courthouse News,
1/21/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In recent actions in a process of reform
that began in 2009, the Legionaries of
Christ elected new leaders and formally
apologized to victims of their disgraced
founder, the late Fr. Marcial Maciel
Degollado, who died in 2008. Following
Maciel’s death in 2008, the Vatican ordered
an apostolic visitation and investigation
after learning about at least one
illegitimate child Maciel had fathered and
minors he had sexually abused. In 2010,
Following a Vatican statement that Maciel
had been guilty of “seriously and
objectively immoral behavior” and “real
crimes” and had lived a “life devoid of
scruples and of genuine religious
meaning,” Pope Benedict XVI named
Cardinal Velasio De Paolis to supervise the
Legionaries' reform.
The Legionaries’ statement expressed
“deep sorrow” for Degollado’s
“reprehensible and objectively immoral
behavior” and says they will change
leaders more frequently and appoint
advisory councils to “prevent potential
arbitrary behavior and abuses of
authority.”The statement also includes
data on changes in Legionaries
membership numbers and other details
(see http://ncronline.org/news/faith-
parish/legionaries-christ-elect-new-
leaders-apologize-founders-victims).
In ongoing efforts to redress these wrongs,
the extraordinary general chapter
members comprising 61 priests from 11
countries admitted and apologized for a
“long institutional silence” in response to
the accusations against the late friar.
Chapter members also expressed a desire
to maintain “friendship and fraternal
dialogue” with former Legionaries, and
noted they have been learning to “freely
debate” the governance of their
congregation.
Before adjournment at the end of
February, the chapter was to approve a
revised constitution, which Pope Francis
also must approve before it takes effect.
(Catholic News Service, 2/6/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Although the scandal-ridden Legionaries
of Christ has elected a new superior and
governing council, the Holy See
apparently does not trust the Legion’s
choices and has appointed two reformist
priests to serve on the order’s governing
council. The Rev. Eduardo Robles Gil
[Orvananos], the new general director
chosen by the Legionaries, was a favorite
of the organization’s disgraced late
founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel. Priests
who have left the order call Robles Gil a
“spiritual son” of Macial and say his
election does not represent a break with
the past. (AP, 2/6/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Father Robles Gil, the first elected leader
of the Legionaries of Christ, has told the
Catholic News Service that neither he nor
any other Legionary leader knew about
Father Maciel’s crimes before 2006, when
the Vatican disciplined the founder,
instructing him to follow a “life reserved to
prayer and penitence, renouncing all
public ministry.” Only after Maciel’s death
in 2008 did Robles Gil believe in the
founder’s guilt, when Maciel’s successor
personally told him the accusations were
true. The new general director later sat on
a commission dealing with some of
Maciel’s victims, seven of whom received
what he describes as “symbolic” amounts
of financial compensation for sexual
abuse.
32 ICSA TODAY
