Vatican takes over tainted Peru movement
VATICAN CITY • The Vatican on Wednesday took over a Peru-based Catholic movement whose founder was accused of sexually, physically and psychologically abusing his members, just days before Pope Francis starts a trip to Chile and Peru where the church’s sexual abuse scandal is expected to play out.
A Vatican statement said the congregation for religious orders had issued a decree naming a commissioner to take over the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a conservative movement that has some 20,000 members and chapters throughout South America and the U.S.
The move came just weeks after Peruvian prosecutors announced they were seeking the arrest of Sodalitium’s founder, Luis Figari, who an independent investigation concluded was a paranoid narcissist obsessed with sex and watching his underlings endure pain and humiliation.
Francis is expected to contend with the abuse scandal in his home continent for the first time during the Jan. 15-21 trip, with protests planned and recent revelations in Chile about the growing scandal there. On Wednesday, the online database Bishop-Accountability. org released research showing 78 priests or members of religious orders had been credibly accused or convicted in Chile.
In Peru, a journalist and former member of the society began publicly accusing Figari of abuse in 2010. The case languished in Lima and the Vatican for years until a book was published in 2015 detailing the twisted ways Figari would humiliate his members.
While Figari was never charged, many of the allegations against him were eventually confirmed by a Vatican inquiry. Figari was ordered to cut contact with members of the society last year, and has been living in Rome ever since.
He has never provided concrete responses to the accusations, though the society has said they were likely true. His Peru-based lawyer, Armando Lengua, has said he hasn’t been in contact with Figari, saying he is unreachable in the Sodalitium prayer and retreat house in Rome.
Some of Sodalitium’s victims had denounced the Vatican’s handling of the case, saying in 2017 that the years-long delay in taking any action, and subsequently decision to allow Figari to live in comfortable retirement in Rome, was anything but satisfactory.
In the statement, the Vatican said Francis had followed the Sodalitium saga for years, had asked that the congregation pay particular attention to it and was “particularly concerned about the seriousness of information about the internal regime, the training and financial management.”