Church issues warning over Scientology ‘infiltration’

The Church of Cyprus on Friday warned that the foundation for a Drug-Free World was a branch of the Church of Scientology which, it said, was not only one of the most dangerous cults but was also “a disguised financial enterprise”.

In a written statement, the Church’s Synod Committee on cults, citing a document on religious cults, said that the Church of Scientology “works under various facades and with a variety of parent organisations whose names do not cause any suspicion.”

“Under pseudonymous titles and names, it tries to erode all areas of life, including politics and the economy,” the committee said.

It also referred to a branch of the Church of Scientology – the Centre for Applied Philosophy – that was shut down by Greek authorities some years ago.

The multi-page report by the court at the time, according to the announcement, describes “not only a multitude of illegal activities, but also reveals the surveillance of political and ecclesiastical personalities in the country and sending the data to foreign centres abroad in an encrypted fashion.”

Among the people that had been monitored, was the Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, who at the time, was the Bishop of Dimitriada, the Church said.

According to the decisions of the Greek courts, the Synod Committee said, “Scientology is an organisation with totalitarian structures and tendencies that essentially despises man.”

Participation in it “entails a change in personality of the members, behaviour in relation to third parties and especially in relations with their families.”

Furthermore, it said, “it is a disguised commercial enterprise and (…) pursues purposes unrelated to the nature and concept of man as a free being and towards the norms and customs of the Greek people.”

The announcement of the Synod Committee on cults, follows the controversy over data about drug use in schools given to MPs this week by the representative of the Cyprus chapter of Drug-Free World Europe (DFW), which comes under the umbrella of the Church of Scientology.

The representative of the foundation, Stella Constantinou, denied that the programme had any links with the Church of Scientology’s ideology other than funding.