/RELIGIOUS BULLETIN 6/ URUGUAY: Cult founded by Catholic priest

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

comes under investigation police

by Raul Ronzoni MONTEVIDEO, Feb 25 1996 (IPS) - The Uruguayan justice system launched an investigation of Catholic priest Fr. Adolfo Antelo this week, leader of the Jerusalem Community, a recently established cult in all of the southern cone nations.

Fr Antelo was accused of hypnotising his followers, some of whom reported being viciously beaten or sexually abused by the priest.

The Jerusalem Community, founded in 1982, has centres in Buenos Aires, Argentina, San Leopoldo, Brazil and Santiago de Chile.

Fr Antelo, a charismatic Salesian priest, recruited his followers from economically well-off adolescents in the influential sectors of society.

Using this support, the 46 year old Spaniard wangled his way into presenting the only religious programme seen on Uruguayan television, “the Holy Mass.”

Fr Antelo was born in Spain, and when, at the age of 22, he was diagnosed to have cancer of the foot he developed his mystic vocation, joining the priesthood three years later, in 1975.

Ana Coutinho, a 26 year-old former Community member told the Uruguayan magazine “Tres” that Fr Antelo told his followers, “I am the historical Jesus for you.”

In October 1993 the Archbishop of Montevideo, Msgr Jose Gottardi, initiated an investigation into the community.

In 1994, Antelo wrote to his followers from San Leopoldo claiming that his accusers were suffering from a “demonic obsession.”

This declaration marked the moment when the Jerusalem Community became a thorn in the side of the battered Uruguayan Catholic Church, already suffering from a severe financial crisis and falling congregations.

Information from the Common Diocese Fund said 58.4 percent of churches have insufficient funds, and there is often not enough money to pay the priests and their medical coverage.

Only four percent of Montevideans, 45 percent of the 3.1 million national population, attend church regularly once a week.

In most Latin American countries the proportion is nearer to 25 or 30 percent, according to Daniel Bazzano, pastoral curate of Montevideo.

Other voices within the archbishopric said the Jerusalem Community scandal could further diminish the numbers.

Investigating Judge, Jose Balcaldi, told IPS the group would be given a tough trial with court appearances by those affected and Fr Antelo himself.

The psychologist Daniel Corlazolli, who is treating several former Community members, told a local radio station that the brainwashing used by Antelo could provoke suicide attempts or even incite murder.

Corlazolli said several of his patients had described beatings by Fr Antelo which sometimes ended in serious bodily harm – on one occasion he broke his own hand with the strength of the beating.

Alvaro Vasquez, son of the Broad Front coalition leader, was involved with the community and he suffered several beatings before escaping from the organisation in Buenos Aires.

Several of the youngsters who had abandoned the Community said the psychological pressure was so great that they were convinced they had been raped.

Coutinho said Fr Antelo fondled the breasts and bodies of the female members, forcing them to strip and kissing them in order to convince Satan to leave them in peace. Vasquez said the leader frequently slept with women from the group.

The Community was dissolved by Archbishop Gottardi in Uruguay in Nov. 1995, but it is still operative in the other nations. A Jerusalem Community appeal to the Vatican has so far remained unanswered.