How Scientology Volunteer Ministers across the globe worked with other houses of worship to ensure the safety of their congregations

Operation: Do Something About It, the feature-length film that premiered on the Scientology Network this week, documents the work of Scientology Volunteer Ministers across the globe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. One of their highest priorities was to help congregations of diverse faiths, ordered closed in the early days of the pandemic, reopen safely to serve their congregations. 

With casualties mounting, people needed the solace and help of their church, mosque or temple. But even when restrictions were relaxed or lifted, many did not return for fear of contracting the illness. As the purpose of the Scientology Volunteer Minister is to restore spiritual values no matter the faith or denomination, Volunteer Ministers worked with religious leaders to make their houses of worship safe.

From Mexico to Rome and from the UK to Aruba and South Africa, Scientology Volunteer Ministers, trained on the world’s most effective sanitization procedures and equipment, mobilized to help houses of worship and their parishioners.

In Mexico, where almost 90 percent of the population is Christian, Volunteer Ministers sanitized houses of worship of diverse denominations from Methodist to Presbyterian and Roman Catholic to Evangelical. They made it possible for one of the world’s most important pilgrimage sites to reopen—the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. They also trained church staff and provided equipment and supplies to ensure the basilica’s continued safe operation.

The secretary to the Archbishop of Mexico City thanked the Church of Scientology for working “for the good of the people,” making it possible for them to return to church in safety. “I think this work must be known,” he said. “We do great work when we work together for the good of the community.”

In Birmingham, England, where 20 percent of the population is Muslim, Scientology Volunteer Ministers sanitized mosques throughout the city and trained mosque staff to continue to do so. They also helped Hindu temples, Sikh gurdwaras, and a Greek Orthodox church, sanitizing more than 1.5 million square feet of houses of worship, making it safe for them to welcome parishioners back.

The administrator of one of the mosques described the volunteers as “the unsung heroes.” The imam of another spoke of the team’s passion to help. “Forget about the backgrounds, forget about the color, forget about the ethnicities,” said another imam. “It’s just for love, for peace, bringing people together. You are a role model… It’s humanity serving humanity.”

In Italy, Scientology Volunteer Ministers responded to a request from the Great Mosque of Rome—the largest mosque in the Western World. Volunteer Ministers sanitized more than 300,000 square feet of the facility.

“I saw cars arriving from all over Italy,” said the imam. “It was an enormous joy to see how many volunteers the Church of Scientology mobilized.” He described how this inspired “a society of love, a fraternal society, a society living in joy where everyone can benefit from collaboration.”

In establishing the Scientology Volunteer Ministers movement in the mid-1970s, Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard defined religion as “a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggles with the ultimate problems of human life. The quality of being religious implies two things: first, a belief that evil, pain, bewilderment and injustice are fundamental facts of existence; second, a set of practices and related sanctified beliefs that express a conviction that man can ultimately be saved from those facts.

“Thus, a Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.

“A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.”

Discover the passion, skill and commitment of Scientology Volunteer Ministers who reached out with help through the darkest of times. Watch Operation: Do Something About It on DIRECTV Channel 320, DIRECTV STREAM, AT&T U-verse and streaming at Scientology.tv, on mobile apps and via the Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV platforms.

Since launching with an introduction by Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige in March 2018, the Scientology Network has been viewed in 237 countries and territories in 17 languages.

Satisfying the curiosity of people about Scientology and Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the network takes viewers across six continents, spotlighting the everyday lives of Scientologists, showing the Church as a global organization, and presenting its social betterment programs that have touched the lives of millions worldwide.