Church Condemns Jesus The Saviour Community Cult And Sets Up Support Group For Victims
A free support group made up of professionals will be set up for anyone who was harmed mentally by a Maltese cult that targeted families.
“After months of listening to personal experiences, the Maltese church has come to a decision on the Jesus the Saviour Community. Malta’s and Gozo’s bishops have decided the group cannot use Maltese churches or chapels for its activities, and bishops and priests should not participate in these meetings of this community,” a Curia spokesperson said in a new video statement.
The church’s official reaction comes after Lovin Malta revealed the extensive mental control the cult leaders’ would place on their members. They were allegedly told how to vote, to avoid getting medical treatment in the face of serious conditions and made to take part in strange rituals.
Following this, the church set up an investigative commission that interviewed people who had been affected by the group.
“We’ve listened to a lot of people over these last few months, and many of them shared their painful experiences with us and what they went through,” the church’s representative continued following the Maltese Episcopal Conference’s decision.
“The church has studied this community from a theological perspective and found it didn’t comply with what the church applies.”
Following an investigation by the church commission’s, the fundamentalist group was said to “demonstrate the sociological characteristics of a closed cult community which is causing untold harm to many of its members, most of whom are unfortunately unaware of it”.
Even though the group might have believed it was doing good, the commission concluded that it was giving “a wrong and confused interpretation of Church teachings, an erroneous interpretation of scriptural texts, and an attitude that hurts those who are passing through challenging situations in life”.
They’ve now set up a support group for anyone who was negatively affected by the group, which you can contact for free on 25906510.
Though the church and Lovin Malta, as well as former members have spoken out about the harm the cult is causing, it is still operating and uploading sometimes hours-long videos till this very day.
Aside from the strange methods used within the cult to shape members’ minds, some “lessons” they tried to teach were just traumatic.
One lesbian woman who was a former member of the group recounted that after she lost her mother to cancer, members within the group had said it was because she had accepted her daughter as gay.
What do you make of the curia’s decision?
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