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Seeing a recent photo of Catholics United for Life’s current leader at a youth conference spurred three biological sisters to go public with their stories.
Earlier this month, reports emerged in a California news outlet about alleged sexual abuse that purportedly took place at a commune run by a Catholic pro-life organization, Catholics United for Life.
The allegations come from three biological sisters who say they were abused at various points by men within the organization, which was founded as a Third Order Dominican Catholic community and eventually settled in rural California in the 1970s.
“I know what a cult is, and it was definitely a cult,” Margo, the oldest sister, told NBC Bay Area.
The sisters, who are identified only by their first names in media reports, said the commune where they grew up, which at least at one point housed “dozens,” was dedicated to families wishing to home-school their children and travel from city to city to engage in pro-life activism.
The commune was founded by what the sisters describe as a “group of hippies” in the small town of Coarsegold, California, about 40 minutes from the south entrance of Yosemite National Park.
The town is located within the Diocese of Fresno; the diocese declined CNA’s request for comment on whether the group is or has been affiliated with the Church.
Two of the three sisters filed lawsuits in 2022 alleging they were sexually molested or assaulted by different men in the community, including “past and present leaders.” CNA reached out to one of the alleged victims seeking copies of the lawsuits but did not receive a reply.
Allegations brought by the sisters in the lawsuits allegedly include “forced relationships with older men, separation from their families outside of the commune, being stripped of personal control, and enduring physical and sexual abuse,” the NBC report stated. The sisters also claimed to have witnessed leaders “beating gay men in front of us” in what they described as a form of “conversion therapy.”
The lawsuits name as an alleged abuser the group’s longtime former leader, Hal Barton. Barton died in 2011 and his wife declined to comment when asked by NBC.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Earlier this month, reports emerged in a California news outlet about alleged sexual abuse that purportedly took place at a commune run by a Catholic pro-life organization, Catholics United for Life.
The allegations come from three biological sisters who say they were abused at various points by men within the organization, which was founded as a Third Order Dominican Catholic community and eventually settled in rural California in the 1970s.
“I know what a cult is, and it was definitely a cult,” Margo, the oldest sister, told NBC Bay Area.
The sisters, who are identified only by their first names in media reports, said the commune where they grew up, which at least at one point housed “dozens,” was dedicated to families wishing to home-school their children and travel from city to city to engage in pro-life activism.
The commune was founded by what the sisters describe as a “group of hippies” in the small town of Coarsegold, California, about 40 minutes from the south entrance of Yosemite National Park.
The town is located within the Diocese of Fresno; the diocese declined CNA’s request for comment on whether the group is or has been affiliated with the Church.
Two of the three sisters filed lawsuits in 2022 alleging they were sexually molested or assaulted by different men in the community, including “past and present leaders.” CNA reached out to one of the alleged victims seeking copies of the lawsuits but did not receive a reply.
Allegations brought by the sisters in the lawsuits allegedly include “forced relationships with older men, separation from their families outside of the commune, being stripped of personal control, and enduring physical and sexual abuse,” the NBC report stated. The sisters also claimed to have witnessed leaders “beating gay men in front of us” in what they described as a form of “conversion therapy.”
The lawsuits name as an alleged abuser the group’s longtime former leader, Hal Barton. Barton died in 2011 and his wife declined to comment when asked by NBC.
Continued below.
Catholic ‘Cult’ in California: What Do We Know?
Seeing a recent photo of Catholics United for Life’s current leader at a youth conference spurred three biological sisters to go public with their stories.
