lay movements Archives

What Catholicism didn’t do amid COVID shouldn’t obscure what it did

Jul 8, 2020

ROME – When we look back at the Catholic experience of the coronavirus, it will be tempting for closures and suspensions to be what we remember most. In many parts of the world Catholics were unable to attend Mass for months, driving some of them online for worship and others

By John L. Allen Jr.

Cleanup underway for Argentine order after Catholicism’s own ‘nuclear option’

Nov 7, 2019

According to one expert in Church law, carrying out the recent suppression of an Argentine religious institute is a complicated, messy and time-consuming process that no churchman looks forward to. Yet for victims thirsting for justice, explanations aren’t enough – they want action.

By Elise Harris

Members of suppressed Argentine order share harrowing tales of abuse
- Nov 6, 2019
Similar to the Legion of Christ founded by the late Mexican Father Marcial Maciel Degollado or the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) launched by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, members of the Hermanos Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista tell of a toxic internal culture where abuse and manipulation ran rampant.

By Elise Harris
After their order’s suppression, victims struggle to move forward
- Nov 5, 2019
When the Vatican suppressed Argentina’s Hermanos Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista this summer, the act was welcome news for ex-members, some of whom have been waiting for years to get justice for alleged abuses suffered under the group’s founder and other members.

By Elise Harris
Argentine order classic case of ‘be careful what you wish for’
- Nov 4, 2019
When Chrystian Contreras Javier Gomez, entered Argentina’s Hermanos Discípulos de Jesús de San Juan Bautista at age 15, he thought he was walking among spiritual giants whose life of contemplative prayer fueled a heroic service to the poor. Yet it wouldn’t take long for him to discover that there were more sinners than saints behind the community walls.

By Elise Harris