The Cult of Caryana

 

A Narrative Summary

Affidavits and Witness Statements of
Child abuse allegations against the Community of Caryana
21st June, 2022

Introduction:

Founded in 1972, CARYANA, also known as Sent of God Foundation, is the offshoot of a retreat conducted by Father de Castro at Benedictine-run St. Scholastica´s College, Manila.
At its largest, the movement consisted of over 300 members, made up of around 80 men, 150 women, and over 100 children. They live on a 82-hectare compound in Magalang town, Pampanga province, 60 km north of Manila.

CARYANA later expanded to include married couples, most of them wealthy.
They claim to follow a way of life based on the ancient rules of St. Basil and St. Benedict and the spirit of poverty of St. Francis.Rumours of abuse began circulating in the late 80’s and early 90’s, due to some children leaving and parents raising concerns regarding abuse and neglect. TV journalist Loren Legarda (now a senator and Deputy Speaker in the House of Representatives) reported on these issues on ABS CBN’s the “Inside Story”.

The affidavits and letters in this report cover the period from 1978- 2022. The children were abused from ages 3 till adulthood in many cases. The abuse was violent, both public and private, and carried out daily and constantly, over decades.

There are many examples where children tried to inform those highest in charge of the rape and abuse, namely Fr. Odon de Castro and S. Monsie Fernandez. But not only were these reports not taken seriously or investigated, but the children were ignored, asked to recant, punished and sent back to their abusers. This ensured the abuse was left to continue for many years, to many more children, to the point of causing severe mental illness, permanent health issues, and in several cases – death. 

The collection of children

The children in the community were made up of orphans, children taken from poor families, children sourced from the Department of Social Welfare, and children of ‘outside’ members of the community.
The community targeted mothers facing extreme poverty, promising their children would have better lives, and making sure they wrote and signed letters saying they were handing them over to their care.

 

 

 

Figure 1: Hand-written letters collected from mothers who were persuaded to hand over their children to the community

They also collected abandoned children from hospitals or from mother’s pregnant out of wedlock or on drugs. 

 

Figure 2. Documentation of a child taken by the community born out of wedlock 

 

Many dealings were done through a community member who worked for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) however, the children were never registered with the department and for all intents and purposes became undocumented individuals. Years later when these children managed to escape and attempted to find any paperwork on their existence, they were told by the aforementioned social worker that they had none because they were ‘under the table’ and to investigate no further. Those that the DSWD knew about were moved from place to place and given new names so as to be untraceable.
The children, now adults, then had to register themselves with the Department when they left as there was no record of them every existing beforehand. The danger here being that if they had died in the community, no one would have been notified of their deaths or held to account for them.
The community also collected children from wealthier parents, convincing them that if they handed their children over they would turn them into saints.

Secrecy

Aside from irregular sporadic visits by a few parents, the children were banned from having any contact with parents, guardians and the rest of the outside world. They were not allowed to write letters, make phone calls, or otherwise speak to anyone outside the community.
They also discouraged parents from contacting their children or visiting regularly, citing that it was it was unhealthy and distracting for the children’s spiritual health. This resulted in a breeding ground for abuse as there was no one the children could confide in or report these incidents to, as well as no one regularly checking on the children’s wellbeing.
Requests to leave or to contact parents were merely ignored, and the children were made to believe that due to their age they had no say in where they went or what happened to them.

 

Abuse in the form of corporal punishment

One of the most prolific types of abuse documented by the escaped children was physical abuse in the form of corporal punishment. These were handed out daily for any of the following reasons: Not maintaining proper praying posture; talking; laughing; refusing to consume certain food or drink; 'Fighting back'; falling asleep during 3am prayers; attempting to escape. The list below is only a fragment of the forms of abuse meted out, as the affidavits cover this in more detail. 

Severe public beatings: Children from the ages of 4 to 16 were publicly stripped of their clothes and tied or held down to beds or wooden benches to be beaten with strips of car tyres, bamboo canes or leather belts. This would happen several times daily for most of their lives inside. The other children were made to watch as a deterrent.

 

Starvation: Punished children were fed only small portions of rice and sometimes nothing at all. Children who refused food or ate too slowly had their food removed and given to them repeatedly over several days while the food grew mouldy and fermented.

Thirst: Children who were punished specifically for grievances such as wetting the bed were not given any water to drink over several days at a time.

Solitary confinement: This punishment was reserved for children who tried to run away or who were deemed ‘delinquent’. They were locked in windowless cells for weeks and months at a time.

Exposure: Another public punishment to deter children from ‘running away’. They left a 15-year-old girl handcuffed to a tree for several days.

Hard labour: Children, particularly the boys (aged 8 onwards) were forced to endure hard labour in the fields as punishment, most often without food or drink.

Prolonged restraint: Tying children's hands and feet to wooden stools with hoods over their heads for 12 hours at a time. 

 

 Figure 3. After every prayer time the kids were lined up and held down to be beaten. This was 7-8 times a day from morning until night. The belt was favored more than the stick and sometimes misplaced because of its use in various areas to threaten or punish. Children were made to fetch it or hunt for it to be used on their peers.

 

 

 Figure 4: Bamboo sticks were smooth and felt almost soft in the hand from constant use. It was flexible and made whipping sounds when used.

Figure 5: Long black belt with a fraying tip. Bits of rubber would sometimes fly off because of constant use.
 

Figure 6. Visual representation of one of the children who witnessed this abuse daily

Figure 7: Tombstone of Sarah Jane, who passed away in 2006 due to severe dehydration being used as a form of punishment.

 

Death of 12-year-old girl from abuse

 
The treatment and abuse continued from the late 80’s till the late 2000’s, and eventually led to death of 12 year old girl from dehydration in 2006. The following account of this incident seems to be public knowledge among the community and the children who left. She had refused to drink some medication, and to punish her she was locked in a room without any water for several days. The day before she died she informed the Sister that she was dying, and was laughed at for over reacting. The next day her body was found already stiff as rigor mortis had set in. The brother who arrived as a ’medical technician’ noted that the death was due to dehydration. It is alleged that the priest sent a message to the responsible sisters saying that if they had been in the outside world they would have gone to jail for manslaughter due to criminal negligence. The sisters involved were excommunicated for 6 months and punished by fasting.

Negligence regarding medical issues, physical and psychological

 
It was the community’s view that any sickness or suffering was bestowed onto the individual as a punishment by God for their sins, and they rarely provided any medical help or took any health complaints seriously.

A girl was continuously punished for wetting her bed and not being able to get herself to the toilet on time. She was punished every day for at least 7-8 years, belted and made to wash her own sheets, before a visiting doctor noticed her limp and sent her for a medical check. It turned out that the reason she had kept wetting her bed was because half her brain was paralysed. She passed away from her condition one year after her diagnosis.

Another girl continually complained of headaches and fever, but was told by the Senior sister that she was overreacting. They continued to make her work for months till she became extremely thin, and someone else notified another senior of her health concerns. She was diagnosed with Typhus, and the doctor questioned why no one had noticed this issue over several months. The intense fever caused by the Typhus and the length of time she endured these fevers led to the girl suffering permanent brain damage.

Another girl complained about stomach pain for many years and was ignored. Eventually her mother (who had entered the community) took her to be checked. It turned out that her stomach was full of large, infected ulcers, due to the intermittent starvation used as punishment.

 

Rape and sexual abuse

 
Several of the boys have reported that as well as being physically abused they were also raped repeatedly and sexually abused by the brothers and sisters they were left with. These were reported many times by the victims to the higher ups, - Fr. Odon de Castro, and Sis Monsie. Instead of their reports being investigated, they were ignored and sent back to their abusers. 

Forced incarceration and lack of formal education

 
The community claimed that everyone living within their walls were there voluntarily, of their own free will. However for the children who were taken and grew into adulthood there, that was not the case. The children aged 3 onwards were not given a choice in the way they were being treated and forced to live. Requests to leave were either denied or ignored completely. Children were told that they would die if they passed through their gates.

If any child attempted to escape and was caught, they were publicly beaten, and their heads were shaved. They were then thrown into the windowless cells also referred to as the ‘Penitentiary’ for up to 3 months and fed only small amounts of rice. It was announced to the other children that this is what would happen to anyone who tried to run away. They would emerge from the cells months later extremely thin, emaciated and subdued.

To this day, many of the adults remaining are children who were forced into the community. These children, unable to escape grew into adulthood in this manner.

Formal education was actively denied to the children. This meant that those who escaped in adulthood had great difficulty securing jobs to support themselves, and many are left having to choose between attempting to get a formal education (grade school/high school) or merely working to get food on the table.

Treatment of those who managed to escape

 
If anyone managed to escape, the community refused to hand over any paperwork associated with that child - birth certificates, parents names, any documentation received with the child.
They instructed outside family members to not assist the child (now an adult) financially or house them in any way under threat of excommunication.
Anyone found assisting the individual such as providing food or lodging, finding work or filing papers were threatened with excommunication.
They sabotaged any form of work attempted by the individual to support themselves by threatening anyone who purchased food or items from them with excommunication.

 

Responses to concerns raised regarding accountability

 
The community has been contacted several times to discuss the accountability of Senior Management - Sis. Monsie and Fr. Odon de Castro for these abuses. They have declined to meet in person and have responded along the lines of ‘these children need to learn to forgive as we have already punished the sisters who abused them’.

However, pursuing the individuals who committed these abuses is not enough. Senior Management needs to be held accountable for criminal negligence as they knew about these reports of abuse and yet continued to leave the abusers in positions of power to continue that abuse for years.

Not only did they not investigate these reports, they actively pursued those who had reported them by hounding them to recant their affidavits. The affidavit written by Jose Mari Lorenz Miranda in 2004 clearly outlined the details of the child abuse that was ongoing. They did they not take his report seriously, and furthermore asked him to recant, threatening him with never seeing his mother again until her funeral. The 12-year-old girl died from abuse 2 years later in 2006. A death which could have been avoided if the reports were investigated and treated seriously.

The community was contacted by a parent in 2011 regarding the past abuses and about a child refusing to return to the community. The following was their response.

 

Hi, ____!
So sorry about past experiences of (unnamed) and (unnamed)here in the community with some sisters who were quite lacking in those virtues needed in handling children. We have had our sisters corrected for these for years, and some of those incidents have even brought the community to bad light by those who went out and have had similar experiences.

Though we do not excuse those sisters, yet, being here in the community gives us the only hope to surmount those undesirable experiences by the virtue of a forgiving heart which is hard to attain in the world. For in the world such things happen, too, but there is hardly anyone who would teach the golden rule of forgiving as we would want to be forgiven.

I'm sure, though, that those sisters have realized their mistakes of the past. And we have learned that God extracts greater good from past mistakes or He wouldn't be allowing evil to happen in the world.
So it will indeed be a better thing for __ to come, for this is the only way for her to overcome this fear she has about Magalang!

Deo gratias,
Sis.Monsie

 

 Current Situation

The majority of the children collected by the community have grown up inside and are now adults. A few have managed to escape and these are the ones who have written affidavits. The rest remain inside even though many have requested to leave several times.

The community continues to harass those who manage to leave or escape by cutting them off from their families, threatening with excommunication anyone who tries to help them, and ensuring that these people will have to struggle to survive.

They refuse to acknowledge or be accountable for all the harm and distress they have caused and continue to state that it is the abused children who should be forgiving them.

 

 

Information in this report is sourced from the signed affidavits of the victims. For more information and access to the affidavits please contact Bishop Lavarias of Pampanga or Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli 

Links to published first hand accounts:

 

Josephine Valero 

Jose Mari Lorenz Miranda

Orbeta Family