Arkeon

Arkeon is a controversial Italian personal growth movement founded by Vito Carlo Moccia. Arkeon gained some international popularity for alleged links with the Preacher to the Papal Household, Franciscan Capuchin Raniero Cantalamessa.

Contents

In an interview [Caldara, 2006] , Vito Carlo Moccia described the method as a path to "individual development and self-knowledge". Some of Arkeon's key values are the "feeling of belonging", the spirit of fatherhood, the rites of passage, the devotion to ancestors, the strength which comes from courage and from being authentic. According to Moccia, these values are those of the civilization of farmers, which, he believes, are being lost in modern society.

Arkeon is not a cult or a new religious movement. Most of its members are Roman Catholic. Informal membership is estimated at a few hundreds, mostly Italian.

Main facts

Arkeon was founded in 2000 by Vito Carlo Moccia and others, based on their experience in teaching Reiki. Moccia, described as the first Italian Reiki Master [Holm, 2003] , initiated by Phyllis Furumoto, seems to have expanded the original teaching in different directions. Apparently, his method had become too different from Furumoto's and a different designation was needed.

In 2004, after the appearance of an article on a Roman Catholic catechism magazine [De Simone, 2004] , Rev. Father Raniero Cantalamessa interviewed Vito Carlo Moccia for the TV show run by the Capuchin friar on the national Italian television (Rai). The topic was the father-son relationship.

In October 2007, after a series of extremely critical TV shows, with accounts of purported victims, and calls for police action by an Italian Anti-cult movement organization, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Bari, Italy, started an investigation on Moccia and five other members of the movement. Arkeon seminars were suspended. At the beginning of April 2008, the investigation was still pending. Several forms of abuse are being alleged. Arkeon members deny any criminal wrongdoing.

After his contacts with Arkeon were exposed, Rev. Father Raniero Cantalamessa, in an interview, said that "he had not participated to any meeting", but also called the media campaign on Arkeon a "witch-hunt".

In 2008, the Italian psychologist and theologian Raffaella Di Marzio, a leading Italian cult expert, began a research study on the movement. After collecting some interviews and participating in a meeting with members, she was accused by Italian police of joining a criminal conspiracy and attempting to continue Moccia's abuses as the new leader of Arkeon. Colleagues and observers reacted with disbelief [Introvigne, 2008] [Martinez, 2008] . Her website on cults and psychology of religion [http://www.dimarzio.it Sette, religioni e spiritualità] was also shut down by the Prosecutor's office, for undisclosed reasons.

References

Angelo De Simone. Arkeon un percorso di crescita nel nome del Padre (Arkeon, a to personal growth in the name of the Father). Via Verità e Vita. Anno LIV n.202 March-April 2004 (in Italian)

Massimo Introvigne. Twenty Years of Studies of New Religious Movements: Autohagiography or Post-Mortem?. 16 April 2008. Paper presented at the 2008 CESNUR International Conference, London, UK. Available at: [http://www.cesnur.org/2008/london_introvigne.htm]

Giovanna Caldara. Migliorare le relazioni con l'Arkeon (Improving relationships with Arkeon). Psychologies. 2006 (in Italian)

Miguel Martínez. Solidarietà per Raffaella Di Marzio. April 2008. Available at: [http://kelebek.splinder.com/] (in Italian)

Rolf Holm. Alla ricerca del padre (In search of the father). Reiki Magazine Italia. April-May 2003 (in Italian)

Resources

Further discussion on the group occurs, in Italian, in the Google Group [http://groups.google.it/group/parliamo-di-arkeon parliamo di Arkeon]