BLANCO, Texas, July 26 (UPI) -- Federal and state agents have raided a controversial monastery in Texas and charged four of its brothers with sexually assaulting children.
Christ of the Hills Monastery, an Eastern Orthodox foundation in Blanco, Texas, was founded in 1981 by Samuel Greene Jr., who took the name of Father Benedict. In his previous life, Greene had been a real estate developer in San Antonio who called himself "Sam the Land Man" in commercials.
Investigators say that the monastery was not only a haven for sexual abusers but a fraud which used a supposed weeping icon of the Virgin Mary to extort contributions, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
"We're taking the icon into custody as we speak, as a criminal instrument, as part of the fraud that we're investigating for grand jury presentation," Blanco County District Attorney Sam Oatman told the newspaper.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060726-044643-6096r
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