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Families raise concerns about mission
People cite lack of communication after relatives join Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission
LuAnn Reicher misses her daughter, Rosie. She hasn’t spoken to her or heard from her for nearly two years.
Rosie, 49, is now Sister Rose Reicher, publication director for “The New Life in the Holy Trinity, The Holy Journey to Heaven,” a periodic publication of Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission, based in Chicago.
LuAnn Reicher, of Dyersville, Iowa, said she tries to call her daughter through the group’s headquarters and “communications center” at 7011 W. Diversey Ave. in Chicago, but all she gets is an answering machine. She writes letters to the group’s “convent” where her daughter lives, but never gets a reply. And her box of decorated Easter cookies went unacknowledged.
“It’s no use. I don’t know if she’s dead or alive,” said Reicher, 80. “It’s just horrible. My family is devastated.”
Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission considers itself “a mission within the Holy Roman Catholic Church.” They are currently going through the canonical process to become such a mission.
At least one Catholic leader has issued a sternly worded warning expressing concerns about the group. The vicar general of the Rockford (Ill.) Diocese said that Love Holy Trinity Blessed Mission is a group that “must be avoided by all Catholics as well as anyone else.”
Love Holy Trinity was founded in Chicago, but has a strong presence in the Dubuque area. The group recently purchased rental property in the Jackson Park area of Dubuque, and bought a farm near Bellevue, Iowa, to use as a retreat center.
Reicher remembers when Rose started attending mission meetings and retreats many years ago.
“I asked what this group was and she ignored me completely. You don’t get answers from them,” said the mother of six.
One day, Rose said she was moving to Chicago to do “mission work.” Reicher said Rose returned home one time to gather up and move all her belongings. She told her mother she was “teaching little children” in the group’s school. Reicher said she has not seen or heard from Rose since.
“I don’t mind mission work, but remember the Fourth Commandment says to honor your father and mother,” Reicher said.
Mission members are free to call, write or visit their families at any time, say local members of the group.
“The phone isn’t answered in person because we don’t have enough manpower,” said Marilyn Vogt, who joined the group when it was established in the Dubuque area 12 years ago.
New brothers and sisters living contemplative lives are not encouraged to take direct phone calls because that would interfere with their meditations and prayers, said the Rev. Thomas McAndrew, of Dubuque, who has been with the mission for six years. Their spiritual journey is also protected from calls of “constant harassment and bitterness,” from unsupportive family members, he said.
Diane Sturgill claims Love Holy Trinity “destroyed my family.”
Her sister and other family members from Dubuque have been members for a decade. Sturgill, of Fort Smith, Ark., said those who are in the group seldom see her family or talk to family members because they are usually at prayer meetings or retreats.
“After talking to them, I am thoroughly convinced that this is a cult,” she said.
Several other families who contacted the TH have used the word “cult” to describe the group their relatives are in, citing detachment from the world, an inordinate devotion of time and money to the leader, Kyo McDonald, and secrecy about the group’s activities.
Mission members vigorously deny the claims.
“In their anger (at family members who are in the group), they are making charges that have never been proven, ridiculous statements,” McAndrew said.
Detractors who repudiate McDonald, “try to take away from the simplicity and great beauty of what this group is for,” he said. McAndrew said the group’s leader never asks for money from mission members.
“God provides for her. This is the absolute mystery,” he said.
“Do we look like cult members, like suffering souls?” asked longtime member Luann LeConte, laughing.
Local mission leaders insist that members are “free to leave any time” and that the group’s movements are transparent. They invite public attendance at regular meetings in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin.
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