Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 7, 1994                   TAG: 9412020007
SECTION: NATL/ITNL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MONTREAL                                 LENGTH: Medium

`HE TOLD PEOPLE A GREAT CATASTROPHE WAS COMING'

Luc Jouret was a mysterious and charming man. Perhaps he still is - the greatest mystery about the cult leader is whether he's alive.

Until that question is answered, authorities investigating the deaths of his followers in Switzerland and Canada are limited to the sometimes-sketchy memories of people who crossed paths with the founder of the Order of the Solar Temple, or Order of Solar Tradition.

They tell of a charismatic man of erudition, accomplishment, wealth - and a complex theology including the belief that the world is on the verge of fiery annihilation.

``On his desk I saw a Buddha statuette and a sun. He already had the tendency to complement his work with the paranormal,'' said Joseph Etienne, the town hall secretary in Leglise, Belgium, where Jouret once practiced homeopathic medicine.

Jouret later moved to Canada, where he attracted members to his cult.

``We had heard about him, but not many people seem to know him,'' said Michael Kropveld, executive director of the Montreal-based Info-Cult, which follows religious sects and cults in Canada.

Others say they saw signs that - in retrospect - look like a prelude to horror.

``Jouret pretended to be Christ,'' Rose Marie Klaus Opplinger told the Montreal newspaper La Presse last year. ``He told people that a great catastrophe was coming, and that only the chosen would survive.''

Her husband was a follower of Jouret, and the couple invested up to $500,000 with the group. When they divorced, Klaus Opplinger won a $150,000 judgment against the order for brainwashing.

Montreal law-enforcement officials saw a mixed picture. They prosecuted him on weapons charges in 1993. Yet Jouret and his co-defendants ``looked like businessmen, there was nothing crazy about them,'' prosecutor Jean-Claude Boyers told Canadian Press.

Jouret was born in Belgian colonial Africa in 1947. He received a medical degree in 1974 in Belgium and studied homeopathy, a controversial field based on the theory that diseases can be cured by giving patients small doses of substances that in healthy patients would produce symptoms similar to the disease's.

It's not know when he came to Canada or when his following developed in Switzerland.

Swiss police said they had no reason to investigate Jouret before this week's fires. But others knew him.

Jean-Francois Mayer, a researcher on spiritual movements, said Jouret was well-known for his doomsday predictions.

The most visible aspects of Jouret's movement in Switzerland were the ``Archedia Clubs,'' which set up farms, supposedly for biological research.

People in Belgium said Jouret was loved by his patients but spurned by the traditional medical establishment.

``He was a charming, good boy who was loved and well regarded. A great many people came to his practice,'' said Michel Simon, who rented a house to him in Leglise. Simon tried to convince him to stay. ``I told him, `All these patients who have put their trust in you, you cannot just leave them. And it is such a good business.'

``He replied,'' Simon said, ```Michel, money doesn't matter.'''