The United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child has accused the Vatican
of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse of
children by Roman Catholic priests,
imposing a “code of silence” on clerics, and
shifting abusers from parish to parish“ in
an attempt to cover up such crimes.” The
Vatican said the report that contains the
charges was “distorted” and “unfair,” and
ignored steps taken in the past decade to
protect children. (Reuters, 2/5/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In the past two years there have been
several apparently ritual murders of young
people involved in small satanic cults in
the Johannesburg area. A clinical
psychologist has offered a number of
possible reasons that youth have become
associated in such groups. (Destiny
Connect, 11/11/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Hollywood writer Skip Press, while
detailing his long-term and high-achieving
membership in Scientology, recommends
John Atack’s new book, Let’s Sell These
People a Piece of Blue Sky. Press says the
book is better than Lawrence Wright’s
recent fine book on the church because
”Atack was actually involved with the cult
and lived it.” (Morton Report, 11/7/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Comal County (TX) District Judge Dib
Waldrip has ruled that Scientology leader
David Miscavige must submit to a
deposition in a lawsuit filed against him
and two church entities by Monique
Rathbun, the wife of prominent church
critic Murray Rathbun. The suit describes
an alleged 3-year campaign of surveillance
and harassment of the Rathbuns. The issue
is whether or not Miscavige supervised
these actions. The reclusive leader has
testified in only a few cases during his 27
years as head of Scientology. (Tampa Bay
Times, 12/13/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Monique Rathbun sued the Church of
Scientology for harassment last August,
but she says they’re still making her life a
living hell. The wife of former high-ranking
Scientologist Marty Rathbun has filed a
motion asking the judge in her ongoing
case to hold the Church and its leader,
David Miscavige, in contempt for what
she calls a campaign of “abuse” meant to
delay justice. In addition, she’s also
requesting sanctions.
According to the motion, obtained by
Radar, Scientology and Miscavige “have
engaged in a pattern of intentional abuse
of the discovery process” and that the
Church of Scientology, together with
Miscavige and Scientology legal counsel
Allan Cartwright “have disobeyed and/or
caused CSI to disobey a direct order from
this Court.” (Radar Online, 2/26/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The recent decision by the UK Supreme
Court that Scientology is a religion, and
that its services are an act of worship also
declared that the term religion should no
longer be confined to “religions that
recognize a supreme deity.” (National Law
Review, 12/25/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Following the judge’s ruling in a landmark
Supreme Court legal battle, Louisa Hodkin
and Alessandro Calcioli, both 25, were
married in late February in the first
wedding in a Scientology chapel in
England. Miss Hodkin had taken legal
action after the registrar general of births,
deaths, and marriages refused to register a
central London Scientology chapel under
the 1855 Places of Worship Registration
Act because it was not a place for “religious
worship” because Scientology does not
believe in a supreme deity. In 1970, the
Church of Scientology launched a similar
case. At that time, the Court of Appeal
ruled that Scientology did not involve
religious worship because there was no
“veneration of God or of a Supreme Being.”
Miss Hodkin argued that the 1970 ruling
should not be binding because
Scientologist beliefs and services had
evolved during the past four decades. She
said services were “ones of religious
worship,” and she likened Scientology to
Buddhism and Jainism. David Hodkin, the
bride’s brother, had been married at the
Church of Scientology in Edinburgh after
Scientology ministers were authorized to
perform wedding ceremonies by the
Scottish registrar general in 2007.
Five Supreme Court Justices, who
considered the issue at a hearing in
London in July, upheld Miss Hodkin’s
challenge. They said religion should not be
confined to faiths involving a “supreme
deity” and that the Church of Scientology
was a “place of meeting for religious
worship” because it held religious services.
A government source stated at the time of
the Supreme Court ruling in December
that it could “open the floodgates” to other
groups that claim to be religions for tax
purposes.
After what the couple described as “a long,
five-year battle to achieve a simple
freedom—the right to marry in our own
church,” the Church of Scientology said it
was “delighted” and that this would be “the
first of many weddings,” and that people
living out of the country were planning to
come to London to get married. “This is an
historic day for religious equality and
freedom for all in the UK.” (The
Independent, 2/23/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
After more than thirty years as a member
of the Church of Scientology, Leah Remini
made headlines last year with her decision
to leave the religious organization behind.
Now Remini has revealed that her 9-year-
old daughter, Sofia, was her motivation for
the move. “She was getting to the age
where the acclimation into the Church
would have to start,” she explained, and
memories of her own early years in
Scientology made facing that prospect
difficult. “We were working from morning
until night with barely any schooling,” she
said of her experience. “There was no
saying no. …There was only ‘Get it done,’”
whatever the size of the task. Those tough
times damaged Remini’s relationship with
her own mother, who was often too busy
with her role in the Church to be there for
her child. “…But my mom thought she was
doing something good she thought she
was helping the planet. That’s what the
Church tells you.”
Ultimately The Exes actress didn’t want
history to repeat itself. “In my house, it’s
family first — but I was spending most of
my time at the Church,” she said. “So, I was
saying ‘family first,’ but I wasn’t showing
that. I didn’t like the message that sent my
daughter.”
Remini ended her affiliation with
Scientology and inadvertently with many
longtime Church members. But her
relationship with her mother just got
stronger. “The fact my mother stood by me
after all her years in the Church totally
took away any resentment I may have
been harboring,” she said. “When it
mattered the most, my mother was there
for me.” (Today.com, 2/27/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In the current session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr.
Rudy Salles of France presented a report
entitled “The Protection of Minors Against
Excesses of Sects” on behalf of the
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
VOLUME 5 |NUMBER 2 |2014 35
Rights of the Child has accused the Vatican
of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse of
children by Roman Catholic priests,
imposing a “code of silence” on clerics, and
shifting abusers from parish to parish“ in
an attempt to cover up such crimes.” The
Vatican said the report that contains the
charges was “distorted” and “unfair,” and
ignored steps taken in the past decade to
protect children. (Reuters, 2/5/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In the past two years there have been
several apparently ritual murders of young
people involved in small satanic cults in
the Johannesburg area. A clinical
psychologist has offered a number of
possible reasons that youth have become
associated in such groups. (Destiny
Connect, 11/11/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Hollywood writer Skip Press, while
detailing his long-term and high-achieving
membership in Scientology, recommends
John Atack’s new book, Let’s Sell These
People a Piece of Blue Sky. Press says the
book is better than Lawrence Wright’s
recent fine book on the church because
”Atack was actually involved with the cult
and lived it.” (Morton Report, 11/7/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Comal County (TX) District Judge Dib
Waldrip has ruled that Scientology leader
David Miscavige must submit to a
deposition in a lawsuit filed against him
and two church entities by Monique
Rathbun, the wife of prominent church
critic Murray Rathbun. The suit describes
an alleged 3-year campaign of surveillance
and harassment of the Rathbuns. The issue
is whether or not Miscavige supervised
these actions. The reclusive leader has
testified in only a few cases during his 27
years as head of Scientology. (Tampa Bay
Times, 12/13/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Monique Rathbun sued the Church of
Scientology for harassment last August,
but she says they’re still making her life a
living hell. The wife of former high-ranking
Scientologist Marty Rathbun has filed a
motion asking the judge in her ongoing
case to hold the Church and its leader,
David Miscavige, in contempt for what
she calls a campaign of “abuse” meant to
delay justice. In addition, she’s also
requesting sanctions.
According to the motion, obtained by
Radar, Scientology and Miscavige “have
engaged in a pattern of intentional abuse
of the discovery process” and that the
Church of Scientology, together with
Miscavige and Scientology legal counsel
Allan Cartwright “have disobeyed and/or
caused CSI to disobey a direct order from
this Court.” (Radar Online, 2/26/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The recent decision by the UK Supreme
Court that Scientology is a religion, and
that its services are an act of worship also
declared that the term religion should no
longer be confined to “religions that
recognize a supreme deity.” (National Law
Review, 12/25/13)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Following the judge’s ruling in a landmark
Supreme Court legal battle, Louisa Hodkin
and Alessandro Calcioli, both 25, were
married in late February in the first
wedding in a Scientology chapel in
England. Miss Hodkin had taken legal
action after the registrar general of births,
deaths, and marriages refused to register a
central London Scientology chapel under
the 1855 Places of Worship Registration
Act because it was not a place for “religious
worship” because Scientology does not
believe in a supreme deity. In 1970, the
Church of Scientology launched a similar
case. At that time, the Court of Appeal
ruled that Scientology did not involve
religious worship because there was no
“veneration of God or of a Supreme Being.”
Miss Hodkin argued that the 1970 ruling
should not be binding because
Scientologist beliefs and services had
evolved during the past four decades. She
said services were “ones of religious
worship,” and she likened Scientology to
Buddhism and Jainism. David Hodkin, the
bride’s brother, had been married at the
Church of Scientology in Edinburgh after
Scientology ministers were authorized to
perform wedding ceremonies by the
Scottish registrar general in 2007.
Five Supreme Court Justices, who
considered the issue at a hearing in
London in July, upheld Miss Hodkin’s
challenge. They said religion should not be
confined to faiths involving a “supreme
deity” and that the Church of Scientology
was a “place of meeting for religious
worship” because it held religious services.
A government source stated at the time of
the Supreme Court ruling in December
that it could “open the floodgates” to other
groups that claim to be religions for tax
purposes.
After what the couple described as “a long,
five-year battle to achieve a simple
freedom—the right to marry in our own
church,” the Church of Scientology said it
was “delighted” and that this would be “the
first of many weddings,” and that people
living out of the country were planning to
come to London to get married. “This is an
historic day for religious equality and
freedom for all in the UK.” (The
Independent, 2/23/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
After more than thirty years as a member
of the Church of Scientology, Leah Remini
made headlines last year with her decision
to leave the religious organization behind.
Now Remini has revealed that her 9-year-
old daughter, Sofia, was her motivation for
the move. “She was getting to the age
where the acclimation into the Church
would have to start,” she explained, and
memories of her own early years in
Scientology made facing that prospect
difficult. “We were working from morning
until night with barely any schooling,” she
said of her experience. “There was no
saying no. …There was only ‘Get it done,’”
whatever the size of the task. Those tough
times damaged Remini’s relationship with
her own mother, who was often too busy
with her role in the Church to be there for
her child. “…But my mom thought she was
doing something good she thought she
was helping the planet. That’s what the
Church tells you.”
Ultimately The Exes actress didn’t want
history to repeat itself. “In my house, it’s
family first — but I was spending most of
my time at the Church,” she said. “So, I was
saying ‘family first,’ but I wasn’t showing
that. I didn’t like the message that sent my
daughter.”
Remini ended her affiliation with
Scientology and inadvertently with many
longtime Church members. But her
relationship with her mother just got
stronger. “The fact my mother stood by me
after all her years in the Church totally
took away any resentment I may have
been harboring,” she said. “When it
mattered the most, my mother was there
for me.” (Today.com, 2/27/14)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
In the current session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, Mr.
Rudy Salles of France presented a report
entitled “The Protection of Minors Against
Excesses of Sects” on behalf of the
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human
VOLUME 5 |NUMBER 2 |2014 35
