CONCHO, Ariz. (AP) — The village of Concho in the Arizona high desert is home to about 50 people — barely a dot in a sprawling, dusty landscape speckled with clumps of grass, scrub oak and juniper. Concho, about 200 miles northeast of Phoenix, has one restaurant, a Dollar General and a gas station that closes at 7 p.m.

But this remote hamlet is now at the center of a Catholic Church controversy.

Over the last six months, several members of this tight-knit community have been speaking up in support of a lay group of young Catholics who call themselves the League of the Blessed Sacrament. They say the group has revitalized this ignored, poverty-stricken region.

However, leaders at the New Mexico-based Diocese of Gallup, which oversees the region, contend that group members misrepresented themselves as a religious order and engaged in activity not sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Bishop James S. Wall ordered the group to leave parish housing and stop leading liturgy and teaching in the region’s Catholic school.

Group members — Giovanni Vizcarra, Edward Seeley, Eric Faris, Anthony Ribaya and Lisa Hezmalhalch — maintain they have represented themselves truthfully and followed the diocese’s orders. They believe the diocese, the poorest in the nation, asked them to leave because leaders are worried about potential liability stemming from the group taking three boys, victims of alleged domestic abuse, into their care.

Diocese spokesperson Suzanne Hammons said Wall and the diocese are “not afraid of liability” and are accustomed to dealing with sensitive situations in their parishes and schools. The diocese has a duty to properly investigate all allegations and go through official channels to ensure everyone’s safety, she said.

Why the group came to Concho

The men arrived in Concho about four years ago from the Canons Regular of Immaculate Conception, an Augustinian community in Santa Paula, California, after accusing their superior of abuse and inappropriate behavior. They were dismissed a month later, after an investigation by the order’s leaders in Rome concluded there was no evidence supporting those allegations.

Vizcarra said a sympathetic priest bought them plane tickets to Arizona, suggesting they take time to ponder their future. Concho was different from Los Angeles, where hundreds attended Mass on Sundays. They initially found the small community’s intimacy uncomfortable.

“People would ask you what your favorite color is or what your favorite cake is,” Vizcarra said. The ladies would call him “mijo,” a Spanish term of endearment that means “my son.”

Gradually, the sense of community became a healing salve and they learned to embrace it, he said.

Group revitalized struggling parish and community

More than two dozen residents from Concho and surrounding towns spoke passionately in support of the League of the Blessed Sacrament, saying the newcomers revitalized the community and parish. They’ve distributed food to the needy, hosted birthday parties for children whose families had nothing, breathed life into the village church with holy music and liturgy, and revived Concho’s historic Christmas fiesta that had recently floundered.

Angela Murphy, a longtime resident and local historian, said the men prayed at the church seven times a day.

“It was because of them that we heard church bells in Concho once again,” she said.

After they were dismissed from their religious community, the group stopped wearing their habits and requested community members not address them as “brothers” or “sister.” But people still would out of reverence, Murphy said.

Group members now wear black outfits, including sweatshirts bearing the logo of their organization, which Vizcarra said they founded years ago as seminarians in California.

In their four years in Concho, they started an animal farm, a thrift store, a Catholic bookstore, a farmer’s market and a coffee shop. The stores and a radio station, which the group purchased rights to, are in the heart of Concho. Vizcarra said they paid for projects with their teaching salaries, fundraising and donations from family members.

The group’s work with children

They taught at St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Show Low, a nearby town, until the diocese fired them in February.

Vizcarra taught religion, Spanish and robotics; Seeley, math and religion; Faris, art; Ribaya, music. Hezmalhalch taught first grade. They all taught catechism as well.

Several families shared stories of troubled or academically struggling children flourishing under their tutelage. Students who showed no interest in religion wanted to be baptized and confirmed after attending catechism, they said.