In case you hadn't noticed, today's society has a BIG child abuse problem.
I'm sure you've heard of Jeffrey Epstein by now. European fashion house Balenciaga is in the news for some absolutely horrendous photoshoots with young children. The Washington Post gave a glowing review to a new play about pedophiles, whose "most disagreeable character" is one of the perps' victims. Explicitly pornographic books are making their way into school libraries, and those who don't want their kids exposed to such filth are accused of authoritarian-style "book banning." The prevalence, but especially the unrelenting push to normalize child grooming and subsequent abuse is stunning in its abysmal depravity.
It’s not rocket science guys
— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) May 24, 2021
They’re just evil and want to diddle kids
Unfortunately, the Catholic Church has not remained immune from this trend, either--as the Boston Globe made us all painfully aware of two decades ago. As of July 2021, the website Bishops Accountability counts 95 bishops around the world publicly accused of sexual crimes against children. This is to say nothing of the many more bishops who cover up for the abuse of others, such as Matthew Clark, the long-time Bishop of Rochester, New York (1979-2012); or José Ornelas, the current Bishop of Fátima, Portugal--just to name a couple.
The pseudo-Catholic Neocatechumenal Way belongs uniquely and firmly in this camp, as well.
And while the Neocatechumenal Way may not exactly be openly bragging about all the young lives they've ruined (as some raving leftists despicably seem to be), they're certainly not pushing for justice for all their victims, either. In fact, some of them even argue that they're the protectors and healers of victims!
Here we examine just a few cases, from all around the world, of the systemic grooming and abuse of minors and young adults within the Way.
In Catanzaro, Italy, an 11-year-old girl (and quite possibly her brother, also) were abused at the hands of a fellow community member. The girl's family had been walking in the Way for 20 years. The girl's father told Gazzetta del Sud, one of Southern Italy's largest newspapers:
"In this system, if you report something as serious as this, you are a traitor who has committed the serious crime of shedding light on a tangle of power and economic interests...
The first person we turned to was the person in charge of the Catanzaro community... he advised me not to say anything to anyone; that perhaps the child was wrong and that I should forgive...
After a few days, three catechists from outside the congregation arrived, and they told me that for the credibility of the journey of faith, for the image of the Church, and for the reputation of the community leader, I should silence everything."
In Guam, former Archbishop Anthony Apuron was convicted by a Vatican tribunal on numerous counts of abuse. Apuron abused altar boys for decades, and may have even solicited sex in the confessional. Apuron is a member of the Neocatechumenal Way. He long maintained his innocence (perhaps he still does) and was diligently defended by his high-status cohort of Neocatechumenal allies, including canon lawyer and Pillar co-founder Ed Condon (pictured in the "innocence" link above).
Father Luis Camacho is another Guamanian Neocat. He was arrested for illegally transporting a 17-year-old girl (a member of his congregation) away from her high school and engaging in "sexual contact" with her on a nearby beach. Rather than face any kind of discipline, he was whisked away to Qatar and given an assignment working a youth retreat! (Qatar, incidentally, is part of the Vicariate of Northern Arabia, whose cathedral seat in Bahrain should look awfully familiar to fans of Kikian architecture...) After Qatar, Camacho was sent off to the "banks of the Galilee" where many a problematic Kiko-priest has retreated in disgrace.
Father Adrian Cristobal comes directly from the Apuron stable, serving as the Archbishop's chancellor. Cristobal deflected attention away from Apuron when confronted by his accusers. He deflected attention away from Camacho, saying that he was "being followed psychologically and spiritually" when in reality he was being given a free hand with teenagers in another country. And then, he ran into his own trouble when he was accused of sexually abusing a minor (starting at age 11) for over a decade. Though he was eventually laicized, he has to date not faced justice.
Father John Wadeson is neither Guamanian nor Neocatechumenal, but his story intersects with both. Wadeson is a Divine Word Missionary who was accused of abusing children in California in the 1970s. He found a haven working with Archbishop Apuron in Guam, and was even sent for a time to the "Neocatechumenal Center" in San Francisco. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, his current whereabouts are unknown.
In the U.K., Kevin Woodhouse was 18 when he joined the Neocatechumenal Way. Woodhouse, a homosexual, was kicked out of the Way because he ultimately would not leave his partner. Though no evidence suggests he was ever actively abused, his account of his experiences is enlightening:
"They built up a real dependency culture... There was a big emphasis on money and sex; these were the two sticks they used to beat us with...
It was cringing, listening to other people's confessions. The most amazing things came up. People were asked outright if they were homosexual, how often they masturbated and whether they thought of men or women when they masturbated...
I was close to a nervous breakdown. Everything I believed in was shattered. All the friendships with other members of my NC community were broken. It completely destroyed my faith in Catholicism."
In Lima, Peru, Father Víctor Guerrero abused a young man named Camilo, a homeless teenage runaway. Camilo's catechists (among them professional soccer players) told him that "if someone touched you, it's because God allowed it for your salvation." Guerrero proceeded to fund Camilo's increasing cocaine habit on the condition that Camilo keep silent, and he even threatened to cut off the apartment the Way was renting for Camilo if he ever told anyone. The Way's leadership in Peru, led by Arequipa Archbishop Javier del Río, denies any knowledge of a complaint of sexual abuse against Father Guerrero. (The above link is an archived original news article in Spanish. Translations can also be found here (EN) and here (IT)).
Somewhere in Latin America, as this blog recently related, an anonymous 20-year-old woman was raped at a convivence by one of her childhood friends. She was made to apologize to her rapists and was shamed by her community for being the "occasion of sin" and "cause of fornication." Meanwhile, her rapists continued in the Way with the highest standing and utmost esteem.
The disgraced ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick operated in the United States, but regularly traveled throughout the world. A great friend and patron of the Way, one blogger remarks "it is interesting to note that everywhere he visited, the NCW established lasting bridgeheads." It was McCarrick who established the Way in the Turks and Caicos Islands and with them his good friend, the now-Bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Peter Baldacchino. McCarrick, who committed some of the worst crimes in Church history, was welcomed into Washington's Redemptoris Mater Seminary and resided in retirement there until 2009, when Pope Benedict ordered him to vacate.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, another great Neocatechumenal patron who opened a seminary for them in his Brooklyn, New York diocese, was accused of molesting two young boys in the 1970s. While it must be noted that DiMarzio was officially exonerated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2021, he remains tied to other related scandals, as well. For instance, he conducted what many believe to be a severely inadequate investigation of sex abuse in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, then headed by Bishop Richard Malone. Additionally, DiMarzio is alleged to have attempted to bribe a New York State Assemblywoman to remove her support of legislation to revise the statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases. DiMarzio is also a McCarrick protégé, being ordained a bishop by him in 1996 and serving briefly as his auxiliary in Newark before being transferred to neighboring Camden. Exonerated by the Vatican or not, color us skeptical that there might not still be something "off" about this guy... And yet, the Way still loves him.
In Australia, where the Way is beloved of Cardinal Pell, over a thousand abuse cases within the pseudo-Christian sect of Jehovah's Witnesses went unreported. Candace Conti, a former JW from California, was sexually abused beginning at the age of 9. The elders in her congregation knew of this abuse, but it went unreported. As this archived official press release relates, "We are very sorry for whatever harm this young lady may have suffered. However, the organization is not responsible." In the linked article on Conti above, another inter-organizational release (marked "confidential") says "[Elders] must be careful not to divulge information about personal matters to unauthorized persons... Often the peace, unity, and spiritual well-being of the congregation are at stake."
What do these specific cases have to do with the Neocatechumenal Way? Well, nothing... except if you perhaps consider that in 2013, Kiko remarked that "It is what we have said so many times, that God through Jehovah's Witnesses is telling us something." The Kikatechists and the Watchtower Society seem to be two peas in a demented little abuser-sheltering pod.
A personal story: In February of this year, I was at Mass with my family when a 15-year-old girl was invited to give her "testimony" after the priest's homily. Though ostensibly a testimony of the saving power of God in her life, this young girl confessed to the (hopefully and presumably past) habit of masturbation. Her parents were nowhere to be found, and when she returned--alone--to her seat, she appeared suspicious and concerned, as if she were in trouble.
A near-identical event occurred the previous June, that time with a 13-year-old boy. In that instance, the boy was sitting--again, alone--just across the aisle from my family, so I observed much more closely how visibly shaken he was from his experience. In our respective professions, my spouse and I both work extensively with young people and are trained to identify worrying or concerning signs that things may not all be well. Both of these children exhibited some of these signs.
Though 8 months apart, the same priest was celebrating Mass for both children's testimony. In both instances, he actively coached them--during Mass--to summon the courage to tell their stories. After the second incident, I confronted him after Mass, asking him if he was aware that coaching kids to make public statements like that could easily be considered grooming behavior. I later reported both incidents, and this priest, to the sex abuse office of my diocese.
Word got back to the pastor, and I was called into his office to offer my side of the story, as he was professionally required to file his own report of the incident. What I did not expect was to be ganged up on. Both the pastor and another priest challenged my accusation, calling it baseless and defamatory - "God has freed her from this sin, and you are throwing her back into it!" They said if only I knew how often they heard kids talking about it amongst themselves, or how often they brought it into the confessional, I'd understand it's not really so taboo. They laughed at the very suggestion that such testimony was inappropriate, and demanded why I dared to presume to know more than Saint Paul himself, who confessed his own struggles with sin to his flock. I angrily left that office and never returned to that parish. As for my report to the diocese, supposedly (though I never heard officially) the Neocat priests were given a "slap on the wrist" and encouraged to have people "emphasize more of God's mercy" in their testimonies. But of course not a word about immediately ceasing inappropriate public confessions of children. And only the Lord knows what those two kids (and others) may be subjected to behind closed doors.
Oh, and the priest I confronted and named in my official complaint? As of a few months ago, he's "continuing studies" in another diocese 1700 miles away. But I'm sure that's entirely unrelated.
Finally, I relate the experience of a friend and former Neocatechumenal, who attended the 2016 World Youth Day in Poland with her 12-year-old son. While there, she recalls a talk given by a Neocatechumenal priest which graphically described homosexual acts--thankfully not heard by her then-sleeping son, although other young, impressionable people certainly did hear. As her son later told her, however, it was nonetheless on that same trip that he first learned of other deviant sexual behavior from their young travel companions.
An obsession with sex. The most lurid details of your most depraved sins, spilled bare not in front of your private confessor, but amongst the members of your community, and even occasionally the unwitting attendees of Sunday Mass. Candid and often graphic acknowledgments on any occasion of adultery, fornication, masturbation, pornography, and even abortion.
Merriam-Webster defines "groom" as "to get into readiness for a specific objective; prepare."
The Way desensitizes its members--even its youngest, most vulnerable members--to sexual sin. "It's normal. Everyone does it. God forgives and saves you in the end, so what do you have to be ashamed of?" THIS. IS. GROOMING. When you remove all social stigma from depraved sexual acts, you are breaking down people's completely natural and completely necessary alarm mechanisms and defense barriers against those who would will them harm. Even if none of the three priests in my former parish ever lay hands on a child, they are implicitly making it easier for some other creep to do it later.
Urban Dictionary's most up-voted (at least of this writing) definition of
"groomer" is "someone who builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit, and abuse them."
If we consider that all abuse need not necessarily be sexual, and not all victims are necessarily children, then it becomes even more abundantly clear: THE WAY'S ENTIRE SYSTEM IS BUILT FOR GROOMERS AND ABUSERS. No one builds dependency issues and brainwashes quite like Kiko, Carmen, and the Way. And no one manipulates, exploits, and abuses quite like Kiko, Carmen, and the Way.
The Neocatechumenal Way does not care about the abuse of children. It is, as JungleWatch asserted, an "underground syndicate within the Church to move around, protect, harbor, and otherwise keep beneath the radar, problem clerics." But as the cases of the family from Catanzaro and M.E. above illustrate, it doesn't even have to be clergy. Anyone power-hungry and sick enough to buy into the system can participate seemingly at will.
The grooming, the abuse, the hiding and shameless cover-up, the DARVO tactics, the progressive normalization, the indifference, the pay-outs, the power games, and all the sordid baggage in between... This must stop.
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