Council of Europe - Recommendation 1178 (1992)

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Parliamentary Assembly

RECOMMENDATION 1178 (1992) ON SECTS AND NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS 

The Assembly is concerned at certain problems connected with the activities of sects and new religious movements.

It has been alerted by various associations and families who consider that they have been harmed by the activities of sects.

It has taken account of the invitation, given to the Council of Europe by the European Parliament in the Cottrell report, to consider this problem.

It has asked all the member states to indicate what practices they follow and what the legal problems are.

It considers that the freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights makes major legislation on sects undesirable, since such legislation might well interfere with this fundamental right and harm traditional religions.

It considers, however, that educational as well as legislative and other measures should be taken in response to the problems raised by some of the activities of sects or new religious movements.

To this end, the Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers call on the member states of the Council of Europe to adopt the following measures :

the basic educational curriculum should include objective factual information concerning established religions and their major variants, concerning the principles of comparative religion and concerning ethics and personal and social rights ;

supplementary information of a similar nature, and in particular on the nature and activities of sects and new religious movements, should also be widely circulated to the general public. Independent bodies should be set up to collect and circulate this information ;

consideration should be given to introducing legislation, if it does not already exist, which grants corporate status to all sects and new religious movements which have been registered, together with all offshoots of the mother sect ;

to protect minors and prevent abductions and transfers abroad, member states which have not yet done so should ratify the European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions concerning Custody of Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children (1980), and adopt legislation making it possible to implement it ;

existing legislation concerning the protection of children should be more rigorously applied. Additionally, those belonging to a sect must be informed that they have the right to leave ;

persons working for sects should be registered with social welfare bodies and guaranteed social welfare coverage, and such social welfare provision should also be available to those deciding to leave the sects.

[1] Assembly debate on 5 February 1992 (23rd Sitting) (see Doc. 6535, report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Rapporteur : Sir John Hunt ; and Doc. 6546, opinion of the Committee on Culture and Education, Rapporteur : Mr de Puig).

Text adopted by the Assembly on 5 February 1992 (23rd Sitting).

The powerful vicar of the Legionaries of Christ has fallen

Article by  Vatican Insider (07/17/2011)

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Luis Garza Medina is living his last days as vicar general of the Legionaries of Christ. This coming August 1st he will leave the position and all its responsibilities in Rome. Last Friday July 15th, the congregation advised that the Mexican priest will be the future superior in the United States. The Pope sees this as a downgrade in terms of the reforms he asked for

Andrés Beltramo Álvarez - Rome

Up until a few months ago Garza was the Legion's most powerful figure given the several positions he held. He has been vicar since 1992 and he formed part of the leadership when the director general was still the founder, Marcial Maciel Degollado: the priest who, according to The Vatican, lived an “unscrupulous” existence and committed all kinds of immoral acts, among them sexual abuse against minors.

 

Garza Medina was a key piece in the framework of the congregation, not only because of his proximity to “our father” (that is what the followers called Maciel) but also because, in recent years, he managed to be awarded up to four positions. Besides being vicar general he was the prefect of studies, territorial director in Italy and delegate of the director general for the consecrated of the Regnum Christi, the lay movement.

 

But his power extended beyond this: he controlled the finances of the religious institute by means of a parallel structure that he himself created, the Integer Group, whose bosses completely replaced the legitimate territorial superiors of the Legion, at least administratively. This anomaly also looked to disappear, by decision of the pontifical delegate for reform of the Legionaries, Velasio De Paolis.

 

All this seems to suggest that the same cardinal De Paolis wanted to “straighten the blackboards” inside the congregation and this is why he pressed for the vicar general's departure, barely a few days after he strongly criticised the “dissidents”: priests and seminarians dissatisfied with the course taken by the renewal process of the religious institute that has been going on for one year. Reform desired by Benedict XVI after the scandals of Maciel.

 

Nevertheless Garza will not be  excluded definitively, he will take over a new legionary region: the “North American Territory”, created thanks to the unification of the old territories of Atlanta and New York.

 

Due to a simple incompatibility he felt obligated to also leave the General Council, the highest governmental entity of the congregation. He will only maintain his title of delegate of the director general for the consecrated of the Regnum Christi temporarily, until a successor is found.

 

According to the official position, revealed in a communiqué, the decision of the vicar’s departure was taken by the director general, Álvaro Corcuera, with the consent of the general council and the approval of the delegate De Paolis.

 

It is unknown who the next successor will be. What is known however, is that a nomination will be made in the coming months, depending on what Corcuera and the council will decide.

 

The announcement of the change was communicated in a letter to all the legionaries and the consecrated members of the Regnum Christi. In the above text the priest stated that last June, one of the members of the general council traveled to the United States to get the opinion of the priests, religious order members with perpetual voting rights as well as that of members of the lay movement. In essence, a kind of “lobbying”. This is interesting when one considers how reluctant the American legionaries were to have a Mexican superior.

 

The missive added that the results of the consultation showed a “large consensus” in favor of the unification of territories and of the designation of Luis Garza as future territorial director.

 

The marginalization of the vicar coincides with the imminent departure of the then secretary general, Evaristo Sada, who had to leave his position in the fall in accordance with that which was officially announced last January. The network of superiors is beginning to be dismantled, although not all at once. They will still maintain a certain influence from their new roles, but they will not bring together the same power as before.

 

The dissidents, recently reprimanded by De Paolis, had insisted that as part of the reform process that the Legion is going through, the vicar general should step out of the picture because he was considered an accomplice to the abuses committed by the founder. One way or another they achieved their mission. For some of them, with Garza and Sada out of the way, there is now strong hope for real change. Others are less optimistic. Life after Maciel continues.

Mediating to settle conflicts in cultic groups (Conference 2011)

ICSA CONFERENCE

Psychological Manipulation, Cultic Groups, Social Dependencies, and Harm 

Barcelona, Spain

July 7-9, 2011

 

MEDIATING TO SETTLE CONFLICTS IN CULTIC GROUPS 

Suggesting Some Useful Methodologies

by Raffaella Di Marzio

       PRESENTATION  (POWER POINT)

       FOTO GALLERY