Diocese To Sue Chapel Claiming To Be Catholic

By PRISCILLA GREEAR, Staff Writer

Published: September 4, 2003

ATLANTA—The Archdiocese of Atlanta is preparing to file a lawsuit against the “Capilla de la Fe” network of nine churches around North Georgia. The lawsuit contends that those leading the network falsely claim association with the Roman Catholic Church and mislead members into believing that they are a part of the Roman Catholic Church by engaging in a series of actions designed to imitate the Catholic liturgy.

Archdiocesan attorney David Brown said the group not only calls itself Catholic but also, in various forms of media, has claimed association with the Roman Catholic Church. It presents itself as Catholic through its Mass, its administration of sacraments, the clerical dress and its observance of other Roman Catholic traditions, he said. In an interview Aug. 27 he said the archdiocese will file an injunction action against the group in coming days to stop it from continuing to mislead the public and to “require that they advise the public that they are not associated with the Roman Catholic Church.”

“We’ve attempted to work with their attorney on a cooperative basis. That has been unsuccessful so we’re going to court. What they’re doing in Atlanta is misrepresenting themselves to be associated with the Roman Catholic Church and they’re misleading these folks to make them believe they’re part of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and none of that is true.”

While the Capilla de la Fe church has no affiliation with the archdiocese or the Roman Catholic Church, the organization has identified itself as a “Catholic mission” and as a “Catholic charismatic” church.

This past spring the church headquarters on Singleton Road in Norcross had a sign in its yard stating “Catholic Mission. On this April 13 Palm Sunday receive a blessed palm.” Father José Duvan, priest liaison with the archdiocesan Hispanic Apostolate, said that after discussion with the archdiocese the group stopped calling itself a “Catholic Mission” but continues to identify itself as Catholic.

“This group is not part of the Roman Catholic Church. Neither are they in communion with Pope John Paul II, and the archdiocese is worried about the confusion that this group is creating,” said Father Duvan. “They say that they are Catholic and with this they mislead the community into believing that they are part of the Roman Catholic Church, to confuse Catholics. And they use the church’s own words like Mass, sacraments …They call themselves ‘Fathers’ … They offer confessions.”

Father Duvan said the problem was brought to the attention of church officials last January and February when his office began receiving calls from confused Hispanic Catholics who had visited Capilla de la Fe, or the Chapel of Faith, and wanted to know whether, in fact, it is Catholic.

“We are concerned that any group of unscrupulous persons use the name of Catholicism, use the work of more than two millennia (to represent themselves). They are using the prestige of the Roman Catholic Church” to further their cause, said the priest. “Only we are Catholic. The immigrant doesn’t know how to distinguish between Catholic and Roman Catholic.”

In an article June 12 in the Spanish weekly Nuestro Seminario, Julio César Freitas, who is identified as a bishop in the Chapel of Faith, responded to the question “What is the Chapel of Faith?” with the response “Catholic Church by the grace of God.” To the question “Does it belong or not to the Roman Catholic Church?” he wrote, “Yes, we belong. We belong to the Charismatic Church.”

An existing movement in the Roman Catholic Church is called the Catholic charismatic renewal .

Responding to “Are you a sect?” he wrote “No, thanks to the Blessed Virgin.” Finally, to the question, “What do you think about the Catholic priests that call you a sect?” he answered, “For many years the charismatic group (Catholic followers of the Holy Bible) has not had the sympathy of those professing a traditional Catholic faith.”

During prayer services Aug. 25 at two locations, Capilla de la Fe pastors stated in conversation at the locations on Peachtree Street downtown and on Briarcliff Road that they were a “charismatic Catholic church” but not a Roman Catholic one.

In a July/August edition of their church publication, “The Truth,” a front page article addresses the conflict with the archdiocese when it states: “We are trying to understand why a Church barely two years old, with its similarities and differences (to Roman Catholicism), has provoked such a reaction by the very Catholic Church, Apostolic, only Roman.”

It goes on to explain la Capilla de la Fe as “a Catholic Church that seeks to spread the word of God without distinction to race or religion, based in the Apostolic Faith, that brings about miracles by the same means on which the early Church was founded, bringing to all the opportunity to experience, not in part but in full, the kingdom of God…All our sacraments are based on the holy Bible. For that we ask people to take seriously what is written in the Bible…”

Page four features several small articles on the sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church and has a caption that states “Sincere people don’t stay in the Roman Catholic Church. Rather they leave it!”

Leonardo Jaramillo, Hispanic youth and young adult minister with the Hispanic Apostolate, attended several services at various locations. He found that they present themselves as another Catholic “option,” or “as a new Catholic Church,” and was told by one priest that they are in communion with the Vatican.

“The Hispanic community is not accustomed to question. If they see people dressed like a priest they think that they are.” He estimated that 90 percent of participants are Hispanic and found the emphasis in homilies was on supporting the Chapel of Faith and on cleansing oneself from the evil within.

Father Duvan has also heard church leaders on Spanish radio. “We don’t know who they are. They have pretty many programs and advertisements on the radio and they put on the radio testimonies of persons who supposedly have had recent healing. Their slogan is miracles exist and stop suffering.”

In a July 28 letter to Catholics of the archdiocese, Archbishop John F. Donoghue addressed the religious group’s use of the word Catholic. “They give the impression that they are priests and loyal Catholics and in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. For months now this group, ‘Capilla de la Fe,’ has been creating confusion in the Hispanic community by pretending to be in communion with the Church and the Magisterium of the Church. They even use the same terminology that the Roman Catholic Church uses in referring to the Mass and the sacraments,” he wrote. “I feel I must inform you that this group is not in communion with our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, and they are not approved by me as Archbishop of Atlanta.”

The location at 205 Peachtree Street, which holds services in English and calls itself the “Stop Suffering Center,” also identifies itself as part of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, a Pentecostal church which reports a presence in over 85 countries. According to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, after the church’s opening in 2001, the church newspaper “City News” said it began 27 years ago with a radio program started by disgruntled Catholic Edir Macedo, that grew into an international movement.

In an interview with the Spanish Catholic newspaper Siglo Católico, Msgr. Bill Hoffman, pastor of the predominantly Spanish-speaking St. Joseph Church in Dalton, noted how the issue is not its freedom of religious expression. “They have the freedom to do as they wish, but their intent to mislead the people by pretending to be Catholic bothers us.”