PRESS RELEASE
14/04/2022
Formation announced of OREF, a new international association to combat abuses of power in the Focolare Movement founded by Chiara Lubich
Following the publication of the independent report issued by GCPS Consulting on the sexual abuse of minors in France by Jean Michel Merlin (a longtime leader of the Focolare Movement) and the attempt of some former members of the Movement to have an open and honest meeting with Co.Be.Tu. (the body founded by focolarini to help people abused by the Movement), we announce the founding of the Organisation Ex Focolare (OREF).
The aim of the group is to report and record cases of abuse of all kinds within the Focolare Movement, phenomena that we consider a systemic problem, and to seek justice and truth for the victims. Our approach will be characterised by transparency - we reject the style of secrecy that is typical of the Focolare Movement and more generally of the Catholic Church, that we have witnessed at least until the start of the pontificate of Pope Francis.
The report by the British organisation GCPS, published on 30 March, confirmed not only the sexual abuses committed in France, but also the failure of the Movement to prevent and investigate the alleged crimes - especially by listening to and helping the victims. Crucially, the GCPS document also cites numerous testimonies of other types of abuse within the Focolare Movement such psychological, spiritual and economic abuses.
In the days preceding the release of the GCPS Consulting report, a scheduled meeting between a group of former members of the Movement and Co.Be.Tu., the so-called 'independent' commission set up within the Focolare by order of the Vatican, collapsed due to Co.Be.Tu.’s rejection of requests made by the former members. In preparation for this meeting, we had proposed in the first instance that firstly an independent journalist and secondly a lawyer of our choice should be present; Co.Be.Tu. refused this request (whereas their commission was to have four people present, three of them lawyers). Since the presence of a journalist and a lawyer was considered absolutely necessary and a protection for us, and considering that any kind of response was delayed by many days, we decided that under these conditions it was not possible to proceed with the meeting.
After a long delay and repeated requests, Co.Be.Tu. finally broke its silence and accepted only the request that one of our lawyers could be present. But by the time this happened, we felt our trust in this group had been fractured by the long delay in any kind of response and because by that time the GCPS Consulting Report had already appeared, which also raised questions about the Co.Be.Tu. group. Having assessed these factors, we no longer considered it useful or constructive to meet with the commission.
As a result of the events described above, the decision was taken to form the OREF group.
The founders of OREF are all former members of the Focolare Movement, of various nationalities (Italy, Great Britain, Holland, Sweden, Brazil, France, Canada and Luxembourg), many of whom have testified to the abuses they suffered in Ferruccio Pinotti's book La setta divina (Piemme 2021). Many were internal members of the Movement for decades and held senior positions in the Focolare Movement in various parts of the world, including the International Mariapolis Centre in Rome. The abuses they have suffered range from emotional manipulation (including arranged marriages and separations) to the use of sectarian methods of proselytising (such as love-bombing and the progressive revelation of internal teaching in order not to scare off new proselytes), the obligation to repress any manifestation of suffering (forcing a smile and repressing any expression of negative feelings), the pathologisation of sexual orientations and gender expressions that do not conform to the heteropatriarchal cisgender model, and unpaid employment in exhausting jobs that have left some of us with no savings and no pension cover. All of us have seen first-hand the exacerbation of serious mental disorders in many members as a result of the pressure, both physical and mental, imposed by the Movement which, in some cases, has brought members to the brink of suicide.
The most problematic aspects of the Focolare culture that we have come into contact with are not written in any rules or official documents. Abuse is the natural consequence of a formation that puts the Movement at the centre and believes that the institution is worth more than any individual. In February 2021, at a private audience in the Vatican, Pope Francis singled out this abuse to an international gathering of Focolare leaders, explicitly branding it as a sin. This internal system of abuse is carefully hidden from outsiders, but we and many other former members have witnessed it directly and can therefore offer ourselves as privileged observers. OREF has a growing team of expert advisors such as lawyers, theologians, experts in canon law and journalists.
OREF (Organisation Ex Focolare)
For further information, interviews etc., please contact:
orefmail@gmail.com
Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/OREF_ORganizzazione-Ex-Focolari-101495039205186
No comments:
Post a Comment