My name is Luca Vitali, I am 23, Italian/American, and live in Italy. I was born, raised, and still am in The Family International. A few people have asked me to write something up here because we are getting so much negative coverage that we have to stand up and defend ourselves.

What I want to say to all those journalists, former members, and people that don’t like us is: GET A LIFE! Why can’t you just leave us alone to live the life we like? Come see for yourselves! Do we look miserable? Do we look unhappy? Do we look like we don’t want to be here? No one is forced to be in The Family, to the contrary, there have been countless publications saying that if you don’t like it, it would be better if you leave and go and live a “normal life” like everyone else.

And what is a “normal life”? What is a “normal way of growing up”? I have a friend (now a former member of The Family), and while talking to her the other day about the recent events she said “You don’t know what the real life is like, you’ve never tried it”. Want to know what I told her? I said “Yes, I grew up in the Family all my life and haven’t had a “normal life”, but take a look at the “normal life” you had before joining The Family. You were abused sexually, beaten at school, left to yourself all day every day, you took drugs and smoked from when you were 12, you couldn’t adjust to any school or job…Would I want a taste of your “normal life”? No way!”. And what about some of those kids that grow up in the slums of some metropolis? Abused, underfed, beaten, having to work when they are 5, and living a life of violence, gangs and drugs? Should and do they all become killers? Have any kids grown up in The Family ever killed anyone before? No, they haven’t! Most kids that leave The Family become normal members of society and go on to live happy lives. It is not rare though to find that a young person who leaves The Family really excels in their career and/or studies. There are numerous stories of youngsters who left The Family and became the manager of their company within months of getting a job.

My friend then went on to say how she thought it was sad that growing up in The Family had created in Ricky so much hate that he became a killer. She said there was definitely something wrong with The Family if kids turned out like that. That is a load of ********!! Ricky became a killer because he was pumped full of hate by people that wanted to use him as a tool for their own purposes. Disgruntled ex-members and enemies of The Family took this boy and filled him with all THEIR lies and THEIR hate to the point that he made them HIS lies and HIS hate, when he had nothing to do with it. They convinced him the he had been abused and denied the life of a normal human being and made him feel like a victim. Poor Ricky, he thought he was so cool and so tough, but what he didn’t realize is that he was just being used. Dear Ricky, don’t you know that there are people out there (James Penn to mention one) who are smirking at the thought that they got you to do all the dirty work that they didn’t have the courage to do? Does it feel nice to give your life for someone else’s lie?

Who are the real abusers here? Who are the ones that should be taken to court for brainwashing? I never met Ricky, but I’ve talked to quite a few people that knew him and they all say what a sweet young man he was before he started hanging out with disgruntled former members. I don’t think that after 25 years in The Family he just woke up one day and decided to hate his mother. Recently, me and a few others were shown a picture taken from the video he made before his death, and the person standing next to me, which had met him 3 years ago said “I can hardly recognize him, I wouldn’t have ever guessed that that was the same person I met a few years ago”. That is what a bunch of lies and hate can do to you.

I want to tell you a little story and ask you what you think. My father, from the age of 2 to the age of 15, went to church a few times a week; on Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and whenever his grandmother could manage to get off work for a service during the week. At the age of 15 he ran away from home, started taking every existing drug, selling drugs, stealing, and a lot of other things I won’t mention here. Let me ask you, would any of you ever consider suing the Catholic Church for abusing this young man and causing him to live a life that was obviously negative? I don’t think so, and if anyone ever did they would probably be laughed at from Rome to Hong Kong.

Let me tell you another story. At the age of 22, my father, after being in the hospital for 3 months with Hepatitis, caused by sharing needles with other druggy buddies, came to know The Family (then known as the Children Of God) and that changed his life. He stopped all the smoking, drugs, and reckless life he lived, and found joy in devoting his life to preaching the gospel and the love of Jesus to the world. He got married to a sweet American girl and had 8 children which are all still in The Family and devote their lives to the same mission as their parents.

What were we saying was negative about The Family? Would you have the courage to say that his life would have been better if he wouldn’t have joined the “sect”?

I only have one thing to say: Come see for yourself! I offer a 10 day stay in my home to anyone who wants to come see what The Family is all about.

Luca Vitali is a second-generation member of The Family International