The Clergy’s Hate Campaign

However, the Catholic clergy immediately began scheming to discredit the Witnesses. Backed by the concordat that Trujillo had signed with the Vatican, the clergy intensified their efforts to influence the government to eliminate the Witnesses. Catholic priest Oscar Robles Toledano sent a memorandum to the State Secretary of the Interior, Virgilio Álvarez Pina, asking the government to support him in his effort to “awaken the conscience of the Dominican people to the extreme dangers posed by the sect ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’.”

Toledano explained that his primary objective was “to make ineffective the proselytizing campaign of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Toledano’s memorandum also recommended that our publications not be allowed into the country, “especially the book ‘The Truth Shall Make You Free’ and the Watchtower magazine.”