Canisteo Valley News: Local Monastery Ends Up In CNN Story

Local Monastery Ends Up In CNN Story
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Glen Lee on December 20, 2010 03:23:00

Jane Valez Mitchell Takes On Most Holy Family Monastery

Most Holy Family Monastery was part of a recent CNN tv story.  CNN "Issues" host
Jane Valez Mitchell did a segment on how a Amanda, a California man who had a
sex-change operation and became a woman, went into a California Department of
Motor Vehicles office to change her driver's license.  Amanda told CNN that
after she visited the motor vehicles office, a DMV worker sent her a nasty
letter at home, a letter which condemned homosexuality as a sin that cried out
for vengeance.  "Well, initially I was shocked that someone would send me that
hateful of a message to my house, after all I had done was go to the DMV, and I
was really scared," Amanda told CNN’s Jane Valquez Mitchell.  Amanda also told
CNN that the same day, she recieved a package in the mail with a dvd about hell,
that was made by Most Holy Family Monastery in Fillmore, NY (Allegany County).
Brother Michael Dimond, the religious superior at Most Holy Family Monastery,
denies the allegations, and says that the video did not cover the topic of
homosexuality.  Brother Michael also says the DMV worker sent the video all on
his own, not on Most Holy Family Monastery's orders.  "He sent this video
himself because he wanted to help out this lady, we had nothing to do with
directing him to send the video out there, he choose to do that of his own
volition."
Dimond also claims that the Monastery has recieved an email with a threat of
violence, since CNN did a story on tv about the hell video.  Below is a copy of
the email, which was posted on the Most Holy Family Monastery's webpage:
"Death and the Journey into Hell" was sent by a DMV lunatic to a transgender
driver in Calif., and one of their cretins is threatening him/her with this
video. Just so you understand, you ignorant creeps are the lowest form of filth
on earth, and in fact you are the ones who will burn in hell forever. Are you
just stupid, genetically inferior (like all peasant Catholics) or just pure
evil? You should be VERY WORRIED about the chatter going on in blogs tonight
that fight for tolerance: some splinter groups are zeroing in on your address
and discussing some very bloody and destructive plans for your kind. I hope they
do really painful damage to you all: you deserve it."
CNN's Jane Valez Mitchell did not mention "Most Holy Family Monastery" by name
in her segment, though she did say the title of the DVD about hell that Most
Holy Family Monastery produced.