The court really is not qualified to judge on matters pertaining to the Church, such as whether someone is a true monk or not. So legally, the decision is understandable, to some degree, but I'm not sure how the Dimonds got out of the charges of "deceptive trade practices" and "false advertising."
Sigismund asked me why I don't enter a monastery. This is one of the reasons. In a time like this where the Church structures are destroyed, we have seen too many examples of religious communities going belly up. Then you lose all your money. It is spiritually dangerous, first of all, because if you have no money, and your superior decides, like Bp. Vezelis, that he is the only bishop in the U.S., you are then in a position where you have to be homeless or stay and risk your soul. When the Church was in better condition, i.e. when we had a Pope, Bp. Vezelis would not have been able to get away with that junk, and the Church could have stepped in and protected the religious under him, by removing him as superior or whatever else.
I'm not even sure it's right to be taking a vow of poverty at a time like this, when there is little to no ordinary jurisdiction. But that problem is too complex for me to be able to answer. I just know I am not giving up all my money without any semblance of protection. To me this is so clear and so easy to figure out. I understand the strong desire to be a priest or a monk, but that is not always the best decision spiritually. Sometimes the best decision is to stay low.
If anything, this should dissuade someone from being a Feeneyite. You could end up losing all your money if you think that, as Peter says here, "Frankly, this is the only place in terms of religious communities where you will hear the full Catholic truth of our day." This guy believed it; he signed on the dotted line; he lost his entire inheritance. Horrific.