I have been amember of the N-C for about 9 years. My husband was a member for only the most recent 4. I was thrown out twice and my husband only once. After my first banishment I eentered with my husband. Recently we were both thrown out. I fear that this will probably be our last time. I am sending you copies of 5 letters that I sent to Father Renato after my dismissal from the "Way". He is a priest assigned to the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Newark, NJ, USA. He comes from Newark to my Parish (St. Joan Of Arc in Queens, NY, USA). Maybe you can glean some insights into some of the experiences that I had along the "Way". I hope you find them enjoyable and or thought provoking. Please feel free to share them with whoever may be of
interest.
Sincerely,
Rose-Ellen and Tom Caminer
P.S. I hope to send you more documents describing my experiences in the
future.
Letter number one :
Dear Father Renato,
The N-C catechists silenced me from sharing on the grounds that I was leading people into temptation because people were angered whenever I spoke.
The chief catechist, Guisseppe, interrupted me when I was sharing on the grounds that I was confusing the people. [He later told me that I needed to be medicated because I was too animated.] The reality is that everything I shared while in the fifth community conformed to the teachings of the Church and the message of Jesus Christ. Therefore I was not leading people into temptation even though it is true I made people angry. You, the priests and catechists of the Way are confusing and misleading the people of God. You proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church with one breath and negate it with the next. You do this all of the time.
An example of this is your catechesis on the "Sermon on the Mount." You proclaim it as the Word of the Lord and then you in effect tear it up in front of us. You tell us that it is impossible to live by therefore it has nothing to do with us now. You tell us it is a promise to us about the future and therefore until then nothing is required of us in terms of how we live our lives and our dealings with our neighbor. It is open season on our neighbor until God Makes us holy. You encourage us to share (no matter how "advanced" we are in the Way) how incapable we are of following Christ. You tell us that it is a promise to us in the Way if we obey our catechists.
This is demonic. This is the serpent telling Eve to disobey God and to obey him and then she will be holy [like God]. It is not surprising therefore that the flock you have indoctrinated can only share ,either, that they are grateful for the Way and the catechists or that they are incapable of doing anything but hating their neighbor but that they take comfort in the fact that one day God will make them holy (i.e. "a new man" or a new creation).
Every homily you give asserts this false demonic principal of fatalism and determinism. Every homily you give invites us to hate our neighbor and everything in us that is Christ-like and human; compassion, mercy, justice, reflection, insight. Whenever the Gospels give us a catechesis in what it means to be Christian, you negate it. Nothing human, nothing humane, nothing Christ like is ever required of us. Christ’s obedience to the Father is equated with our obedience to the catechist. Christ’s silence in the face of being condemned to death is equated with our silence in the face of any abuse that the catechists chose to impose on us. Whether it manifests as lies, deceit, cruelty or false doctrine whatever they do is God’s will and to stand up to them is to not be Christ-like. We are waiting to be made holy and until then it is open season on our neighbor. You badger the children to admit how contrary to Christ they are then reassure them that it doesn’t matter because nothing Christ says applies to us or our every day lives. You teach that any attempt to conform to Christ by how we live or how we treat others, is of no value because we are incapable of love through our own power. We can only love when God gives us that grace, the grace to be like Him. The word "should" should be removed from our vocabulary according to your teaching. Of course, this did not prevent you from telling me that I should not defend myself when you threw me out or that I should not call the catechist a liar.
The reality is that Christ makes His home ,or nest, in the soul of the ones He is most comfortable in, like the womb of Mary, because of her purity of heart and innate goodness. If we attempt to conform to His will, He will be at home in us and fill us with His Spirit. Though conversion of heart can occur suddenly, a movement of the soul of the person is required by the person. Otherwise, we have no free will. You preach that nothing is required of us. Attempts at justice, mercy, compassion are worthless until God makes us holy by filling us with His spirit. You preach determinism and contempt for humanity.
You are misleading the flock with this radical complacency you are preaching. I spoke and tried to wake you up. You , the people of God who have been lured into this demonic complacency by the teachings of the Way.
Wake up, smell the coffee, and return to Christ and the authentic teachings of His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church..
Sincerely in Christ,
Your sister,
Rose-Ellen Caminer
Letter number two :
Dear Father Renato,
You say that I should go away and leave all of you alone. The reality is that I am one of you though you have denied me. I was created by God and redeemed by Jesus Christ. I was Baptized into the faith. The reality is that you are a pagan at heart. You subscribe to the rule of the mob, the group.
You say that I offended the community so I must go. The reality is that I shook the complacency of those who were born into the Neo-Catechumenate (N-C) Way by speaking the truth rather than the double talk that the N-C insists upon. You say that I can not call the catechists liars. The reality is that the emperor has no clothes. You blaspheme God and take His name in vain by asserting that even your evil deeds are of God. You are the high priests who are now holding all of the cards.
You are a pagan at heart. You believe in the sacrificing and scapegoating of the one for the salvation of the group. You believe that evil is contagious and you can be contaminated by it. Christ put a stop to that demonic belief when He presented Himself as the last sacrifice. You are the resurgence of that ancient superstitious paganism that fails to recognize that God is love and no one is expendable.
Although you yourself have correctly admonished us to let go of all of our idols, you have idolized the early Christians rather than following Christ. You fail to realize that the early Christians were as capable of error as any other era in the history of the Church. You have become the Scribes and Pharisees in your relationship to your flock. Jesus Christ is the model that we should all follow.
You are a retro-virus in the Church. You hide behind the favor of the Holy See. However it appears to me that you have misled your superiors in the Church regarding your beliefs, policies and practices creating a false favoring. The Pope has affirmed that the Church on Earth which contains fallible human beings can and has made mistakes.
You have been seduced by the wolf in sheep’s clothing and put to sleep. You are unwittingly practicing demonology. This does not negate the fact that Christ is also present when you gather. Wherever the Devil is Christ is also present. Please wake up and come back to Jesus Christ who loves us and His One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church where all are welcome.
Sincerely in Christ,
Your Sister,
Rose-Ellen Caminer
PS. Please excuse the prior copies that may have inadvertently been sent under another person’s e-mail address.
Letter number three :
Dear Father Renato,
Your analogy of the community as a mountain climbing team where one member must be cut off to ensure the survival of the group shows your fundamental error. You have subscribed to the primitive, false, demonic principle that if one member of the group is damned the whole group will be too. This justifies the hatred and cruel treatment against anyone that the group has decided to label as evil. It encourages people to believe that fear and hatred of ones neighbor is necessary and good. This same false principle which seduced mankind was ended by Jesus Christ and his admonition to us that how we treat the least one is how we treat God. None of us deserve to be cut loose and thrown into the abyss. We will be judged as individuals, not as members of a group.
You have been indoctrinated in the false belief that damnation is contagious. This has allowed the flock to justify their fear and hatred of me because they perceive me as evil. That is why your catechists can tell me that because others will not come to the community with me there I must leave. You believe that they need community to be saved but I am expendable because you have wagered with God (through your "gift of discernment") that I am possibly a damned one and therefore a threat to their salvation and yours. This is contrary to the message that Christ has come to save us all and that only He can separate the wheat from the chaff.
When I try to explain the events that have led up to my being thrown out of the community, you silence me by saying that I am defending myself. You say that I do not have the Spirit of Christ and therefore I can not be part of community. You say this to me even as you consistently preach to the flock that none of us has the Spirit of Christ. We are all waiting for It and until we get It we can only sin. That is why God called each and every one of us here to wait for the Spirit of Christ. You use my lack of the Spirit as a sledge hammer to deprive me of community and the lack of the Spirit in yourself and others as an excuse for sin and a comforting promise of glories yet to come. In each case you are taking the Lord’s name in vain by using God to torment me for my sins and to excuse your own.
Christ proclaims the end of hate, fear and scapegoating for the sake of the group. He proclaims the acceptance, salvation and love of everyone and He is our only judge.
Wake up, smell the coffee, and return to Christ and the authentic teachings of His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Sincerely in Christ,
Your Sister,
Rose-Ellen Caminer
Cc: Archbishop McCarrick
Bishop Bootkoski
Seton Hall University
Letter number four :
Father Renato February 20, 2001
Redemptoris Mater Seminary
672 Passaic Ave
Kearny, NJ 07032
Dear Father Renato,
You say that the community is the Body of Christ. You justify throwing me out of the community claiming that I abused the Body of Christ, and cite Scripture that says "if thy right hand offend thee cut it off, etc…". You confuse the Scripture reading that tells us we are all members of the Body of Christ with the reading that warns us to rid ourselves of that which tempts us to sin. I am a member of the Body of Christ. I have not been excommunicated. I did not tempt the rest of the community to sin, though you rationalize that I did. I called the community, rather, to confront the false, anti-Christian beliefs and practices inherent in the Way.
The people you throw out of the masses that take place in the Parish may also be members of the Body of Christ and, in reality, you mistreat them by using the Catechesis of the Way to divide the members and instill a system of advancement and separation for the initiated. You are a parallel, secret church and you are mistreating the Body of Christ [i.e., the non-catechized (uninitiated) members] by negating their right and also violating the obligation the Church has to celebrate the Eucharist in unity with the whole Parish as symbolic of the unity of the whole people of God. Your catechesis is a deliberate, contrived obstacle. You are also mistreating the members of the Body of Christ who are the N-C members by indoctrinating them in this fatalistic, inhuman, anti-Christ catechesis of Kiko.
A catechesis is not a natural separation which would justify private masses. A natural separation is organic; it exists as a result of the natural world we inhabit. Therefore constraints of time and place (a parish or cluster of parishes), language groups, prisons, disabilities (blindness or deafness), levels of mental development (masses only for children), hospitals, workplaces, professions - all of these are natural divisions which would justify private masses. A catechesis only separates an additional cross-section of society because they have been given a separate and secret initiation.
This is different from the tendency many human beings have had throughout history to want to live ascetic, cloistered lives devoted to prayer and meditation. Religious orders of monks and nuns close themselves in, they do not shut others out. Anyone who has such a calling can join such an order if they are willing to abide by the rules of that order. The N-C mass is based on the false premise that Kiko’s catechesis is a start of a spiritual path that only the initiated [those catechized ] are a part of. It is inherently isolationist. Each community becomes closed based on their catechesis at a particular time and place.
Even if the catechesis of the way was not teaching fatalism, determinism, indifference to Gospels including the Sermon on the Mount, the reality is there is no hierarchy of spiritual advancement in the Church.. Gnosticism should be left in the Church’s past where it belongs. Jesus Christ is the only ‘advanced’ One and He calls us all as brothers and sisters in Christ. Baptism brings us to His Church and the sacraments are universal to those who qualify. There is no closed system outside of the sacraments to be enjoyed by the initiated few.
Christ did not found a caste system where those of one level of spiritual development gather together and separate themselves from those on other levels. The N-C Way is in direct opposition to the Church which is one and universal. It’s oneness invalidates your claim that private masses are justified on the grounds that people who are not catechized in the Way "won’t understand us, and might take offense". The Church is one and the mass is valid for all Christians whether people understand it or not. The center of the mass is the Eucharist and the Gospel, not the sharing. The fear that someone may take offence at the sharing does not justify closing the mass to members of the Body of Christ who may be suffering and in need. A simple disclaimer, or explanation, before the sharing portion of the mass would be sufficient to keep offence to a minimum or at least a manageable level. Sharing has it’s value and should be encouraged. The problem occurs when it is used as a rationale to shut people out. Most of the N-C congregation would not really be afraid to share in front of strangers if they had not been predisposed to be fearful and paranoid about strangers. The primary purpose of the mass including the sacrament, the Word of God and the unity with all God’s people is negated if members of the Church are not allowed to partake.
The mass is not a group encounter session, though sharing has it’s place. [And the success of groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), shows that strangers will share there inner most experiences with people they don’t know.] The universality of the Church invalidates your claim that separate masses for those catechized at different times should be held. The Church is for everyone at every point in time. Telling people they are not welcome at a mass because they are not part of a community [they were not catechized at a particular place and time] goes against the universality of the Church.. The mass is an expression of the unity of the people of God who are saved through Jesus Christ and to transform it into an isolationist rite of solidarity with the Way and the communities of the Way divides the One True Church. It is also contrary to Christ’s Gospel of love for our neighbor to throw someone out of a mass because he is not " one of us", i.e.-"catechized" in the "Way".
I have witnessed your preliminary and careful search of the congregant’s faces to detect any non-catechized presence at the start of each mass, thereby fostering the paranoia and division of the N-C. I have seen you stop a mass in progress in order to have an unfamiliar person escorted out of the mass by a catechist. I have also witnessed the catechists throw some neighborhood children out while saying, "they are not our children". You claim that, unlike the world, you love children yet you will not even let one attend a mass unless they are N-C. Christ would not throw any child out. You have fooled the Bishops by parading the N-C children around, but you have not fooled me. Christ loved the children, widow’s and orphans but I witnessed you throwing the children out.
Though it is natural and good to form small prayer groups where people can forge intimate lasting relationships with one another, the constraints imposed on these groups by Kiko’s false catechesis nullify the validity of the communities through the insistence that we are only allowed to share according to the formula dictated by Kiko and the catechists. We are allowed to express our praise for the Way and/or our inability to do anything but sin. I was never allowed to speak about Jesus. I was shouted down, silenced and finally banished for expressing what being a Christian means to me. The readings and Gospels spoke to me about opening myself to His Spirit by doing His will but this was not acceptable sharing to catechists who instructed that the word "should" should be removed from the language. These groups are being used to thwart any genuine spiritual growth. by discouraging any promptings of the Holy Spirit. The sharing during the mass is only intended to reinforce the sense of success by a parallel church and not to express any true religious or spiritual insight or vision.
If these groups are sealed and closed to new members and insist on celebrating the Eucharist separately and in secret from the rest of the Church than they violate the unity of the Church and are contrary to the Gospel of love and the Holy Spirit. One evening I was threatened with physical violence and pursued to my car by an angry mob after having privately asked the priest who had presided over the N-C mass to explain his remark about the N-C being persecuted by the Pastor of a Catholic Church who having been charged with the responsibility of running his Parish found it necessary to restrict the N-C’s access to his facilities for the summer after finding that they were consistently violating at least one of the rules included in the contract that he had with them. The pastor had allowed them room for liturgies and other events but had only allowed them one Eucharist for the combined communities on each Saturday night. In violation of this agreement and to encourage division amongst communities as well as separation from the regular Parish church the N-C saw fit to have separate masses for separate communities whenever possible.
I believe that Father Gioacchino had a sense of the evil machinations of the Way, and how the catechists were trying to manipulate and control him and dictate to him who was of God and who wasn’t. He was tormented, I believe, by an inner light enabling him to realize that something was wrong with the Way. The mind can be easily misled and deceived but the soul, made in God’s image, knows the truth. He tried once, prior to the start of a mass to speak out against this reality of the catechist who wanted to manipulate him. "Who is the priest here?" he asked out loud. The power of the Way however, was too strong for him and he gave in to their demands. He called me aside after the mass and told me in front of the catechists that I could not join a community that was about to form.. I had been banished from the fourth community but allowed to attend the N-C mass on condition that I not share. I was hoping to join a new community as soon as there was another catechesis.
I believe he is like me in that his need to be loved and accepted by a group of people [a community]compelled him to abandon his insight about the controlling, manipulative and hateful nature of the Way. I too, because of my need for human connection [community] as well as my love of the mass, the sharing and the liturgy of the Word was willing to deceive you in claiming that whatever you did was right and whatever I said that offended you was wrong when I was confronted with the realization that you intended to banish me yet again. The devil got me [like he did Father Gioacchino] between a rock and a hard place. We were both aware that what was being said and done was contrary to Christ and the Church on the one hand but our deep need to be loved and accepted by others made us turn a blind eye. I believe that the torment Father Gioacchino showed indicates that he still has a conscience that he knows is answerable only to God and made in His image. God spoke to me, I believe, in allowing me to perceive the torment Father Gioacchino experiences in the Way. He showed me that there are priests in the Way who have not been completely seduced and put to sleep by the false deterministic complacency of the Way.
I know, Father Renato, that you will continue to start every mass as you have always done by slowly looking around for the presence of any one who you believe does not belong at the mass taking place in my Parish. You come from outside of my Parish every week to do this. If you spot an unknown you will alert the catechists who will throw him out without saying a word to the person yourself. He is not part of your flock so he is not entitled to common human decency, let alone Christian compassion and the comfort of the mass. This is the paranoid, hateful fruit of the Way which you have been seduced into obeying and in which you are seducing your flock to believe. It is in direct opposition to Christ and the Universal Church.. By your paranoid actions you are spreading contempt for the Church and the people of God.
You pride yourself in not being sentimental. Any expression of genuine love is equated, by you, with sentimentality; acceptance of one not catechized, compassion, forgiveness, remorse, concern for justice, pity for those suffering. You see any shortcomings or problems that people suffer as being God’s will and any attempt to alleviate suffering is sentimentality. You have been seduced to believe that your lack of compassion in barring someone from a mass (for example) is an act of love. Every time some one in the Way says it’s actions are done out of love than I know an atrocity is about to be committed. You have been led astray by the wolf in sheep’s clothing which is the Way.
Wake up, smell the coffee and come back to Christ and the One, Holy,
Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Sincerely in Christ,
your sister,
Rose-Ellen Caminer
Addendum
The contempt the N-C has for the parish was made evident when the Monsignor McGuirl (Pastor of St. Joan Of Arc) revoked the privilege you were given to conduct private N-C masses during the summer. Rather than accept this decision from the Pastor with humility the members of the Way took this as a sign of their being persecuted for the faith (as if the Pastor and the Parish are not part of the Church). Father McGuirl revoked a privilege. He did not deprive you of your right to attend Sunday mass. That would have been persecution for the faith.
You call the Way a sign of love and unity to the Parish. Yet, rather than join the Parish masses for the summer you opted to rent space in the neighboring Protestant church for your private N-C masses.
You consistently make a mockery of your claim to be a sign of love and unity to the Parish when you function apart and in secret or even in the Protestant church to avoid joining the Parish. I do not mean to slight my Protestant brethren who at least open their door to all. Your actions reflect the divisiveness toward the Church that is inherent in the Way.
The irony of calling yourselves a sign of love and unity to the Parish is blatantly revealed in light of the fact that you throw people out of your secret and private masses if they are not N-C. This blatant irony also allows you to throw people out of community if you can’t love them. "People don’t want to come to the community with you there." Is what you’re your Catechist said when you threw my husband and me out of the community.
It is easy (and meaningless) to be a sign of love and unity once you have rid yourselves of all the undesirables. Your method of promoting love is more like ethnic cleansing. People involved in ethnic cleansing also believe that they are trying to achieve a community of love and unity by ridding themselves of the one’s that they can’t love.
The fact that you don’t see the irony of calling yourselves a sign of love and unity when you close your doors and hide your existence to all but the initiated, when you keep your activities and celebrations separated and hidden from the Parish, shows the demonic influence that you are under.
