Couple excommunicated for religious criticism

BELMAR, N.J. — A woman who along with her husband has questioned the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of their daughter’s allegations of sex abuse said the couple has been excommunicated from the denomination.

“They’ve just made it official now,” Barbara Pandelo said May 10 in an interview with the Associated Press.

She and her husband, Carl Pandelo, spoke out against the denomination’s handling of their daughter’s charges of sex abuse by another member.

On May 6, a church judicial committee held a meeting to consider their ouster. An elder of the Pandelo’s congregation could not be reached immediately by the wire service for comment.

The couple is among four Jehovah’s Witnesses who have questioned the denomination’s handling of child molestation cases and were recently threatened with what the denomination calls “disfellowshipping.”