Controversies involving Catholic organizations

Controversies involving Catholic organizations have involved both church and secular politics, disputes over doctrine and practice, economic exploitation of members, concern over hype in fundraising appeals, concern that some organizations are too controlling, and abuse perpetuated by members of religious orders. Historically, certain orders were involved in controversies involving doctrine, practice, and politics. Certain controversial organizations have been denied recognition by the Roman Catholic Church, or formerly enjoyed such recognition, but now are suppressed and as a result are not currently recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as being Catholic organizations. However, such organizations and their members may still self-identify as Roman Catholic as part of a complicated relationship with the Roman Catholic Church.

Controversies involving specific organizations currently recognized as Roman Catholic

Adorers of the Blood of Christ

The Adorers of the Blood of Christ have been criticized for opposing a natural gas pipeline from being built under their property. A Williams Companies spokesman stated:

Like millions of homes and business across the U.S., the nuns’ retirement community enjoys the benefits of affordable, reliable natural gas service. Therefore, we find it ironic that the Adorers would challenge the value of natural gas infrastructure in the lawsuit, while at the same time promoting the availability and use of natural gas at their St. Anne’s Retirement Community.

Camillians

The Very Reverend Father Renato Salvatore, M.I., is the current Superior General, as of September 2012. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI to serve as one of the papally-appointed, non-episcopal participants, representing the Church's religious orders, for the October 2012 13th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization. Salvatore was arrested in November 2013 and charged with unlawfully detaining two priests to prevent them voting against him in the election for the Superior General. Fr. Leocir Pessini, was elected the new Superior General.

Cardinal Newman Society

The Cardinal Newman Society is often at the center of controversy, as for example when it solicited donations to "finance a major effort to expose the heretics within our Catholic colleges," an effort which was called "red-baiting in ecclesiastical garb" by the Rev. John Beal, canon law professor at The Catholic University of America. It has been criticized for "McCarthyite tactics" and a "fundamentalist agenda."

Charles L. Currie, president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities said that the society's "attacks can no longer go unchallenged," and characterized their work as "a long trail of distorted, inaccurate, and often untrue attacks on scholars addressing complex issues." Michael James, vice president of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, said the society is "destructive and antithetical to a spirit of unity in our commitment to serve society and the church."

Reilly has been referred to in Catholic publications as the "self-appointed ayatollah to Catholic academia in this country." Rev. James Keenan, a priest and professor at Boston College who was targeted in a fundraising letter sent out by the Society, said "Hopefully, someday our bishops will call us to end this awful conduct, which hurts not only those of us targeted, but more importantly, the unity of the church itself." According to Robert McClory, "If John Henry Newman, by some miracle of grace, were to rise from the dead today and be invited to speak at a prestigious Catholic institution, the most likely organization to protest and picket the event would be the Cardinal Newman Society."

The organization is also criticized for focusing on conservative political issues that are "only tangentially related to issues of Catholic higher education." One "review of 50 of the most recent headlines on the Society’s blog shows that 60% of them were related to abortion (9), homosexuality (10), or sexuality in general (10). That leaves only 40% for all other issues relating to Catholic education." When a group of Catholic scholars issued a statement calling on political leaders to consider the common good, the Newman Society attacked it saying that they were “distorting Church teaching in favor of left-leaning politics to take political shots at vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.” In their critique, however, the Society did not "cite a single instance where the statement strays from Catholic teaching. Instead, the Society makes an ad hominem attack on one of the signatories."

Catholic League

In 1997, David Carlin of Commonweal criticized Bill Donohue and the Catholic League for being overly sensitive in the identification of anti-Catholicism. In 1999, Jesuit priest James Martin, the associate editor of the Catholic magazine America wrote "Often their criticism is right on target, but frequently they speak without seeing or experiencing what they are critiquing, and that undercuts their credibility. Unfortunately, that type of response gives people the idea that the Catholic Church is unreflective."

A Catholic Scouts of Europe participant receiving the Sacrament of Penance.

Catholic Scouts of Europe

Especially during the 1990s, the work of the KPE was discussed controversial.

Critics of the KPE focus mainly on two points, namely:

• proselytization
• cooperation with Catholic fundamentalist groups

Critics accuse the KPE of forcing its members to participate in religious exercises, especially in attending mass and regular confession. In some cases younger Scouts and Guides had been horrified by drastic descriptions of Hell.

The cooperation of the KPE with the Servants of Jesus and Mary (SJM) is used as evidence when accusing the KPE of Catholic traditionalism. Until 1992, the adherence to the Work of the Holy Angels was officially advocated by the KPE.

In 2011, the executive governing board of the KPE issued an official statement to each of the points made by critics. The KPE expressly distanced itself from any nationalistic ideology and anti-Semitism. In questions of religion, the KPE rejects all questionable teachings which deviate from the common teachings of the Catholic Church. In addition, the KPE insistently rejects pressure and force as a pedagogical means of teaching the Catholic faith. Contacts to the Work of the Holy Angels – both organizational as well as concerning the content – are also emphatically denied.

Catholic Secular Forum

Further information: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay § Controversy

Opus Dei

For a response to this criticism, see Sign of contradiction § Prelature of Opus Dei and the Holy Cross.

Vatican Radio

The Vatican Radio lawsuit was started by the Regional Health Department for "Throwing of dangerous things" on the Italian ground at their antenna site.

The Santa Maria di Galeria transmitter site is the subject of a dispute between the station and some local residents who claim the non-ionising radiation from the site has affected their health. However these claims are not accepted by the station. The only peer reviewed study of these statistics did find a statistically higher incidence of leukemia within 6 km (4 miles) of the transmitter site, but stated that no causal implication can be drawn due to the small sample size. The paper discusses several similar findings around the world, with similar conclusions. Effects are reported to be more significant in the case of Childhood Leukemia. With one exception in 2005, where a 10 day suspended sentence was eventually overturned on appeal, every time it has been sued, the station cited the Lateran Treaty, bilateral agreements signed by the Holy See and Benito Mussolini which exempt it from Italian law. (The area around the antennas at the time it was built was not heavily populated.)

Vatican Radio covers an area of Rome, as set by the 'extraterritorial right' in Italian law. Within this area, some of the station's pylons are higher than 100 meters (330 feet). These transmitters have been in place since 1957. Since this part of Rome is not under Italian jurisdiction, these transmitters are not subject to the Italian laws that limit the radiation that a radio station can emit. In the vicinity of these pylons, the radiation emitted can be more than the double the amount allowed by Italian law, as verified officially by the Italian Civil Defense and the Department for the Environment of the region of Lazio.

Residents who have moved to the area near the transmitters have experienced other disturbances relating to the station, as is common near transmitter sites the world over. The most common complaints are that one can hear the transmissions breaking through on telephones, and other electronic devices (due in many cases to the devices having poor electromagnetic immunity to the strong signals). A press report in the Region of Lazio has also reported that the people in the area around the transmitters are more likely to have leukemia; the closer those in the examined sample lived to the radio station, the more likely they were to have leukemia, up to six times the Italian national average. This report may have resulted from a press release of a report submitted for peer review in 2001. The press report was not itself peer reviewed.

Dramatizing the study, a well known Italian TV program called Le Iene went to the radio station and replaced the radio's insignia with a new one stating 'Radio Erode' meaning 'Herod's Radio', referring to Herod the Great and the Massacre of the Innocents, since the study showed that the most affected people are children 0 to 14 years old.

Organizations currently recognized as Roman Catholic involved with modern positions on doctrine

Catholic Relief Services

Main article: Catholic Relief Services § Controversies

Catholic Relief Services has been criticized for both actions and official positions pertaining to contraception at odds with traditional Catholic moral theology.

Leadership Conference of Women Religious

The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious was founded as a conservative opposition group of nuns to the more liberal Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Additionally, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued concerns that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious was insufficiently faithful to Catholic doctrine.

Nuns on the Bus

The Nuns on the Bus were at one time criticized by the Vatican under Benedict XVI's leadership for having "serious doctrinal problems" and "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith." When American religious sisters were under investigation by the Vatican, the International Union of Superiors General, in contrast, issued a strong statement of support for U.S. women religious congregations. The IUSG praised American women religious for living up to the directives and spirit of the Second Vatican Council. Unlike U.S. bishops at that time, the Nuns on the Bus group was supportive of national health care legislation known as Obamacare. Simone Campbell was one of the American nuns targeted by then Pope Benedict XVI in 2012 through his controversial investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The Vatican investigators accused the American nuns of insufficient adherence to traditional doctrines. However, Pope Francis ended the investigation in 2015 and reconciled with the American nuns.

Jesuits

Main articles: Society of Jesus § Controversies, and Sexual abuse scandal in the Society of Jesus

There has existed a sometimes tense relationship between Jesuits and the Holy See due to questioning of official church teaching and papal directives, such as those on abortion, birth control, women deacons, homosexuality, and liberation theology. Usually, this theological free thinking is academically oriented, being prevalent at the university level. From this standpoint, the function of this debate is less to challenge the magisterium than to publicize the results of historical research or to illustrate the church's ability to compromise in a pluralist society based on shared values that do not always align with religious teachings. This has not prevented Popes from appointing Jesuits to powerful positions in the church. John Paul II and Benedict XVI together appointed ten Jesuit cardinals to notable jobs. Under Benedict, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer was Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Federico Lombardi was Vatican Press Secretary. The current Pope, Francis, is himself a Jesuit.

Abuse cases by members of orders recognized as Roman Catholic

Sexual abuse cases by members of orders

As distinct from abuse by some parish priests, who are subject to diocesan control, there has also been abuse by members of Roman Catholic orders, which often care for the sick or teach at school. Just as diocesan clergy have arranged parish transfers of abusive priests, abusive brothers in Catholic orders are sometimes transferred.

De La Salle Brothers

In the Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA), an inquiry into institutional sexual and physical abuse in Northern Ireland institutions that were in charge of children from 1922 to 1995, the De La Salle Brothers admitted in 2014 to the abuse of boys at two institutions: the former De La Salle Boys' Home Rubane House in Kircubbin, County Down, and St Patrick's Training School in west Belfast, and apologised to its victims. The order accepted that one of its earliest overseers engaged in sexual offences. Representing the de la Salle order, Kevin Rooney QC said the brothers recognised that some of their members had caused "immense pain" to children which was "in contradiction to their vocation". Senior Counsel Christine Smith QC said, "...[T]hose homes operated as outdated survivors of a bygone age."

According to Tom O'Donoghue, in contrast to the more elite boarding school, "...schools for the lower social orders usually had the highest pupil-teacher ratios, resulting in many turning to corporal punishment as a behavioural management strategy". He also notes, " ...they were often... placed in charge of huge numbers of children from troubled backgrounds at a time when there was no professional child-care training."

The Inquiry's first public hearings were held from January to May 2014 with the inquiry team reporting to the Executive by the start of 2016. Module 3: De La Salle Boys Home at Rubane House, Kircubbin, started on 29 September 2014 and was completed on 17 December, when the chairman paid tribute to the victims who testified. By October 2014 about 200 former residents of Rubane House made allegations of abuse, and 55 alleged that they themselves were physically or sexually abused. Billy McConville, orphaned when his mother Jean McConville was abducted and shot by the IRA in 1972, waived anonymity and described repeated sexual and physical abuse, and starvation, at Rubane House. During the inquiry counsel for the De La Salle order said compensation had been paid, and accepted that some members had abused young boys at the home, but that the order believed that some claims "did not take place".

Brother Francis Manning FSC said that the order welcomed the inquiry. Before the abuse issue had become public a Brother wrote in a letter to an alleged abuser "It is best forgotten and I have told some brothers that no reference is to be made to it among themselves or the boys. The whole affair is best dropped with the prayer that all will learn that lesson that our holy rule is very wise in its prescriptions". The order conducted dozens of internal interviews in this case, but did not report the matter to police.

On 11 March 2022 statements of apology were made in the Northern Ireland Assembly by ministers from the five main political parties in Northern Ireland and by representatives of six institution where abuse had taken place, including Br Francis Manning representing the De La Salle Brothers. Several abuse survivors and their family members were critical of the apologies that were made by the institutional representatives.

In the 1960s the deputy headmaster of St Gilbert's approved school (for young minor offenders) run by Brothers from the De La Salle order in Hartlebury, Worcestershire, England, was convicted of six counts of sexually abusing boys at the school. He was subsequently reinstated as a teacher at another school. In 2014, former pupils of the school described "a 30-year campaign of sadistic and degrading abuse" including rapes and beatings. A headmaster, a deputy headmaster, and Brothers were reported to have been among those responsible. Police launched an investigation into allegations of abuse at the school between the 1940s and 1970s after former pupils were interviewed by BBC Hereford and Worcester, and documents intended to be unavailable until 2044 were released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In 2017 and 2018 two former staff members were tried for serious sexual offences, assault causing actual bodily harm, and child cruelty. They were acquitted of all charges other than three charges of child cruelty against one of the defendants, on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Other, named, abusers were reported to have died.

There were other cases with many victims in countries including Scotland (St Ninian's in Gartmore, Stirlingshire; St Joseph's in Tranent; St Mary's in Bishopbriggs), Australia, and Ireland. Serious and detailed allegations about decades-old abuse have been reported in the US, with several lawsuits being settled in favour of victims. After the scandal became widely known, branches of the Order apologised, publicly or to individual victims, for several of these cases. At St William's residential school in Market Weighton, England, between 1970 and 1991 many boys were abused; 200 now-adult men have said they were abused. Abusers including the principal, James Carragher, were imprisoned in 2004 for past sexual abuse at the home. Five victims started High Court action for compensation in 2016. Four of the cases were dismissed in December 2016 The De La Salle order repeated their apologies for and condemnation of the abuse. In Australia the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which started in 2013, reported in December 2013 that in the period 1 January 1996 to 30 September 2013, 2,215 complaints of abuse were received by the Catholic Church's Towards Healing programme, mostly relating to 1950–1980. "The Church authority with the largest number of complaints was the Christian Brothers, followed by the Marist and then the De La Salle Brothers. The most common positions held by the Church personnel and employees subject to a Towards Healing complaint at the time of the alleged incident were religious brother (43% of all complaints), diocesan priest (21% of all complaints) and religious priest (14% of all complaints)." The De La Salle Brothers also operated the controversial BoysTown school between 1961 and 2001, which is known for having the largest case of child abuse at a single institution in Australia's history.

Investigations and trials continued into 2022 involving a number of other schools and the De La Salle order has only apologised where they have been legally found guilty and not where the allegations haven't been prosecuted. This had brought about a widespread condemnation from former, allegedly abused pupils who lack the evidence to bring about a prosecution.

Lasallian Saints and Blesseds

Saints

• Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (canonised on 24 May 1900)
• Bénilde Romançon (canonised on 29 October 1967)
• Miguel Febres Cordero (canonised on 21 October 1984)
• Mutien-Marie Wiaux (canonised on 10 December 1989)
• Jaime Hilario Barbal (canonised on 21 November 1999)
• Cirilo Bertrán Sanz Tejedor and 7 Companions (canonised on 21 November 1999)
• Salomone Leclercq (canonised on 16 October 2016)

Blesseds

• Julian-Nicolas Rèche (beatified on 1 November 1987)
• Jean-Bernard Rousseau (beatified on 2 May 1989)
• Diego Ventaja Milán and 8 Companions (beatified on 10 October 1993)
• Jean-Baptiste Souzy and 63 Companions (beatified on 1 October 1995)
• Leonardo Olivera Buera and 5 Companions (beatified on 11 March 2001)
• Raphaël Rafiringa (beatified on 7 June 2009)
• James Alfred Miller (beatified 7 December 2019)

See also

• List of Lasallian educational institutions
• Parochial patronage

External links

• LaSalle.org, Web site of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools – La Salle
• De La Salle Christian Brothers, Province of Great Britain Archived 3 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Brief history of the Lasallian Institute
• Works by Christian Brothers at Project Gutenberg
• Internet Archive
  • Works by or about Brothers of the Christian Schools at Internet Archive
  • Works by or about Christian Brothers at Internet Archive (but some will be about the Irish Congregation of Christian Brothers)
  • Works by or about Frères des écoles chrétiennes at Internet Archive

Historical controversies involving organizations recognized as Roman Catholic

Capuchins

At the outset of its history, the Capuchins underwent a series of severe blows. Two of the founders left it: Matteo Serafini of Bascio (Matteo Bassi) returning to the Observants, while his first companion, on being replaced in the office of Vicar Provincial, became so insubordinate that he had to be expelled from the Order. Even more scandalously, the third Vicar General, Bernardino Ochino, left the Catholic faith in 1543 after fleeing to Switzerland, where he was welcomed by John Calvin, became a Calvinist pastor in Zürich, and married. Years later, claims that he had written in favor of polygamy and Unitarianism caused him to be exiled from that city and he fled again, first to Poland and then to Moravia, where he died.

As a result, the whole province came under the suspicion of heretical tendencies and the Pope resolved to suppress it. He was dissuaded with difficulty, but the Capuchins were forbidden to preach.

Carmelites

Historically, the Carmelites were criticized for holding to and teaching about the Sabbatine Privilege.

Cistercians

Historically, the Cistercians were criticized for worldliness.

Dominicans

Although some early Domicans became inquisitors, there is no evidence that St. Dominic was one, despite a famous painting showing him as an inquisitor and later Protestant allegations that he was.

Franciscans

Further information: Franciscans § 14th century

Jesuit political intrigue

The Jesuits were temporarily banished from France in 1594 after a man named Jean Châtel tried to assassinate the king of France, Henri IV. Under questioning, Châtel revealed that he had been educated by the Jesuits of the Collège de Clermont. The Jesuits were accused of inspiring Châtel's attack. Two of his former teachers were exiled and a third was hanged. The Collège de Clermont was closed, and the building was confiscated. The Jesuits were banned from France, although this ban was quickly lifted and the school eventually reopened.

In England, Henry Garnet, one of the leading English Jesuits, was hanged for misprision of treason because of his knowledge of the Gunpowder Plot (1605). The Plot was the attempted assassination of James VI and I, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in a single attack, by exploding the Houses of Parliament. Another Jesuit, Oswald Tesimond, managed to escape arrest for his involvement in this plot.

Paulists

The founder of the Paulist Fathers, Isaac Hecker, was accused by the French cleric Charles Maignen (article in French) of subjectivism and crypto-Protestantism. Additionally some who sympathized with Hecker were accused of Americanism.

Controversies involving organizations not currently recognized as Roman Catholic

House of Prayer

In 1993, House of Prayer was founded in Ireland and then spread to the United States. In October 2014, a former member, Mick Power, asked publicly for the excommunication of Christina Gallagher, the founder of the House of Prayer movement. He accused Gallagher of scaremongering, simony, and heresy after she and Father Gerard McGinnity claimed that the state of Texas would be destroyed when the pilgrims did not fund a new House of Prayer there. In the event Texas was destroyed, people could be saved at the great chastisement by buying a € 250 picture.

Community of the Lady of All Nations

Further information: Order of Our Lady of Charity § Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge

A spokesman for the Army of Mary called the 2007 excommunication of the nuns and the other members of the sect an injustice. Father Eric Roy, superior general of the Sons of Mary, an affiliate of the "Army of Mary", said that Marie-Paule Giguère has not claimed to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and that the 102-year-old Quebec woman "receives graces" from the Virgin Mary and God. "The Virgin Mary took possession of her soul. I would rather say it that way," said Roy.

Intercessors of the Lamb

During 2004, some neighbours to the Bellwether Contemplative Formation Center opposed their plans to build four group homes, the chapel (Our Lady of Light) and 18 hermitages.

There are allegations that many members signed over their assets to the Intercessors before 2010.

The Intercessors of the Lamb have a distinctly Catholic Charismatic Renewal piety. CatholicCulture.com noted the society's emphasis on Medjugorje and its "uncritical focus on an exclusively charismatic spirituality".

Society of Saint Pius X

There have been several controversies surrounding the Society of St. Pius X, many of which concern political support for non-democratic regimes, alleged antisemitism, and the occupation of church buildings. There is an overlap in French society between the SSPX's constituency of support and support for reactionary political positions. In 1977, a group of SSPX priests and laypeople led by Monsignor François Ducaud-Bourget entered the parish Church of Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet in central Paris and celebrated Mass. They subsequently refused to leave, and the church remains in the possession of the SSPX to this day.

The various French municipal authorities have had ownership of the older churches in France since the enactment of the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, though the buildings are permitted to be used by the appropriate religious denominations. Ducaud-Bourget maintained that the Traditionalist Catholics represented by the SSPX were the true heirs of the Catholics of 1905. Although the occupation was declared illegal by the French courts, the authorities reached the conclusion that, by comparison with forcibly evicting the SSPX, the continuing occupation would cause less disturbance to public order. An SSPX attempt in 1993 to occupy another church in Paris, that of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois, was unsuccessful.