The Fellowship of Communion and Liberation in the United States has come to answer the accusations against Christopher Bacich, former national leader of the movement in the country. Bacich was accused of “sexual abuse, sexual misconduct, psychological abuse and boundary violations committed against certain young adults and minors in our communities over a long period of time.” Some abuses that prove they were committed between 1997 and 2018 with adults and minors as victims. After being reported in 2028, prisoner organizations with the help of a law firm launched an investigation after they “considered that the allegations of abuse are based on reliable evidence,” the evidence was sent to civil authorities.
In their statement they also reported that in March 2019 they transferred the information to those responsible for the communities in the United States and the accused was removed from the activities. “Subsequently, Mr. Bacich resigned from the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation and Memores Domini” despite declaring himself innocent because he did not admit to “having committed any crime.” “Since then, two other complaints of the same nature have been filed,” they confirmed in the text signed by the new manager Michael Carvill and the president of the entity Human Adventure Corporation, Steve Brown.
New complaints
Because of the new complaints, they reported that Bacich did not want to participate in the new investigations. They also pointed out that in 2022 the national leader together with the world president, Davide Prosperi, met with the victims. “As a result of these conversations and the completion of the investigations carried out, we believe that the time has come for a public account for a situation that has deeply hurt some of our communities,” they said.
“We sincerely apologize to the victims, families and community members who were harmed by these heinous acts. “We are truly grateful to the victims, families and community members who had the courage to bring these events to light,” they said in their letter. From Communion and Liberation they criticized that “it is very disturbing that these alleged acts were carried out by an adult who has responsibility for the education of the movement in North America. These facts fill us with pain and remind us that none of us is immune of the effects of sin. We are also saddened that, sometimes, those informed of concerns are slow to believe and respond to the stories presented to them,” they said.
“We sincerely hope that by acknowledging that abuse really happened and caused great harm, we can provide comfort to the victims and help them find healing. We also hope to dispel any doubt, ambiguity or fear that may remain in our communities by informing them of the measures which we adopted to provide support to the victims, be more careful and prevent this from happening again in the future,” they added. Finally, they showed their “responsibility to help and support the injured” by using in the procedures they implemented within the fraternity.
