Mother of God Community - Assessment By The Archdiocese

Assessment By The Archdiocese

From its earliest days the community enjoyed good relations with the Roman Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Washington. By the early 1990s Mother of God Community began looking into the possibility of the Community being recognized as a Catholic "private association of the faithful." Under the guidance of Fr. Theo Rush the Community won provisional recognition from the Archdiocese in 1993. Permanent status required a review of the group's statutes and operations and many Community members volunteered to be on a committee to draft statutes for the governance of the Community.

In 1994, under the instructions of Cardinal James A. Hickey, a self-assessment was begun as well as an outside assessment by one of his advisers, Sister Elizabeth McDonough. For the self-assessment Community leaders designed and gave a 135 question survey to its current members and former members were also invited to participate. For the outside assessment members and former members were invited to speak privately with Sister McDonough. Private meetings with Sister McDonough (which remain anonymous) were apparently not so positive.

At the same time, members of the Community invited persons associated with Cult Awareness Network to begin meeting with current and former members. At the meetings some alleged that Community leaders had engaged in both financial abuses and in "cult-like practices" such as the abuse of authority, groupthink, adulated leadership, elitism, and marginalization of nonconforming members. The financial records were soon sealed, so financial abuse accusations were said to be unfounded (after a $30,000 financial investigation authorized by the Archdiocese of Washington and conducted by the accounting firm of Peat Marwick Mitchell). The accusations that the Community had sociological cult tendencies were understandably harder to prove or disprove, but a number of former members sought professional or other help.

Tensions came to a head when, on the evening of Sunday, May 21, 1995, at a Mother of God prayer meeting, Judith Tydings, Edith Difato's co-founder, stood up and related about her own marginalization within the Community and read sections of a letter written by former Community member, Fr Tom Weinandy, which outlined his thoughts on the positive and negative aspects of the community. She recommended that there be new leadership and that an interim body be appointed.