Mr W Kamm . 27 September 1999. I shall do all I can to conclude this doctrinal investigation expeditiously. However, concurrently there have been other developments in the organisation you supervise that have drawn my attention. On 6 May 1999 you issued a press statement claiming that the Order of St Charbel had received ecclesiastical approbatio n, a claim you repeated to me by fax on 2 June 1999. This claim was based on the actions of a Bartholome w Schneider - designated a bishop by you on 2 June 1999- who lives in Germany. You had already written to Archbishop Nesti, the Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life in Rome, on 7 May 1999, making the same claim of approval. Archbishop Nesti reaffirmed the Congregation's view that an y recognition would have to be given by your diocesan bishop.
The opening of our investigation here does not constitute such an approval. Since those dates, I have made enquiries about Bartholomew Schneider in Germany and Spain. Both enquiries make it clear that Bartholomew Schneider is an imposter who holds no office in the Church. This is affirmed in the correspondence of the Vicar General of Cologne diocese to the Nuncio in Germany and to the Congregation in Rome. A warning about his illegal activities was published in the L'Osservatore Romano on 19 September 1995. The Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Toledo, in a letter of 7 July 1999, denied that Bartholomew Schneider had any recognition from that diocese. You also claimed recently (20 September 1999) that the Archbishop of Manila had "endorsed" the organisation known as the Order of St Charbel. Cardinal Sin denied this in a letter to me on 17 September 1999 in which he stated that your claim "is a blatant abuse of the intent of the said communication". Therefore, I ask you to: 1 Refrain from making public statements that your organisation has been recognised by ecclesiastical authority. 2 Inform the members of your organisation of this fact, and of the invalidity of their vows. 3 Instruct those members who have supposedly taken vows in your institution, not to wear any semblance of a religious habit in public or to claim that they belong to an approved Catholic institute of consecrated life. Stop this work, to give up all association with Bartholomew Schneider and to close the so-called Order of St Charbel for the good of souls. I have informed the Holy See of these developments and I will publish the results of this investigation soon. Yours sincerely