Controversial religious group seeks to buy Christ the King

An international religious group accused in lawsuits of cult-like practices has offered $3.8 million to buy the campus of the former Christ the King Seminary in Aurora.

Last week, the Buffalo diocese asked a federal bankruptcy court judge to approve a bidding and auction process that would allow the campus to be sold, with the proceeds set aside to fund a settlement with child sex abuse plaintiffs.

The World Mission Society Church of God, which submitted a $3.8 million purchase offer to the diocese in June, agreed to act as the “reference bidder” in a competitive bidding process, according to court documents.

The World Mission Society presents itself as the only church on earth founded by God to save humanity. Its members believe in Jesus Christ and in a messianic second coming of Ahnsahnghong, who lived from 1918 to 1985 and founded the church in South Korea in 1964.

Unlike most Christians, World Mission Society members reject images of the cross as idolatry and do not celebrate Christmas because they believe it has nothing to do with Jesus’ birthday. World Mission Society members also observe Passover, a traditional Jewish holiday, keep the Sabbath on Saturday, and have embraced apocalyptic end-time scenarios.

According to its website, the organization has 3.2 million members at 7,500 locations in 175 countries, including the United States.

Its headquarters for the U.S. Northeast region is in New Windsor, Orange County, New York. Voicemails and an email seeking comment went unanswered Friday.

The purchase agreement with the diocese was signed by Joo Cheol Kim, president and general pastor of the World Mission Society Church of God.

Kim is named as a defendant alongside the church in a 2014 federal lawsuit filed by Michelle Ramirez, who accused the church of misrepresenting itself to lure an unsuspecting stranger into a “highly structured environment of coercive persuasion.”

Ramirez accused the organization of threatening to harm her and her family, depriving her of sleep, forcing her to work long hours without pay, alienating her from family and friends, and brainwashing her into having an abortion because members were not allowed to have children.

The church has denied Ramirez’s allegations in court documents.

A church attorney requested this week that a settlement conference scheduled for Monday be adjourned until at least mid-September, according to court documents.

In lawsuits filed in New Jersey state court, other former members of the church accused the organization of being a cult and of defrauding its members for the benefit of its leaders. The church countersued the former members for defamation.

Diocese spokesman Joseph Martone said diocesan officials were unaware of the allegations in the lawsuits until they were informed by a reporter.

If there are issues with a buyer, a diocesan canonist will likely have to review them to determine whether they violate covenant restrictions attached to a property, he said.

Martone said other buyers were also interested.

“There will be outside bidding, and we have at least three to four additional parties interested in the property who will be bidding at the time of the auction,” he said.

Representatives from the World Mission Society Church of God told diocesan real estate agents that the organization would use the property as a seminary and retreat center.

Bankruptcy courts will sometimes require a debtor to use a stalking horse auction process when selling properties in order to maximize the value of the estate while attempting to settle creditor claims.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2020 amid a wave of hundreds of lawsuits under the Child Sexual Abuse Victims Act by priests and other employees. It now faces about 900 claims in bankruptcy court.

In November, an auction process was used in the sale of an Olean property that had long been home to Archbishop Walsh Academy. Buffalo developer Carl Paladino’s limited liability company won the auction with a bid of $200,000. Walsh Huskies, a real estate company, had signed a purchase agreement for $50,000 and agreed to be the lead bidder in the auction.

Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York will hear the diocese’s request for sale of the seminary property on Aug. 15.

If Bucki approves and the diocese receives at least one qualified bid in addition to the World Mission Society’s $3.8 million offer, the auction will be held to determine the buyer. A qualified bid must be at least $100,000 higher than the agreed-upon price.

With 117 acres and 18 buildings, including a gymnasium, auditorium, commercial kitchen and dining hall, and six dormitories, the seminary campus is one of the most valuable properties in the diocese.

The seminary closed in 2020, and three potential buyers emerged shortly afterward. One was the Masonic Care Community, which was willing to make a cash offer, according to a trustee. But the diocese ended up postponing plans to sell at that time because of the requirements of the Chapter 11 process.

Future priests of the diocese now study at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and St. Bernard’s School of Theology in Rochester.

Hanna Commercial Real Estate began marketing the property in the fall, with an asking price of $5.3 million.