2 weeks Ago By Soraya Melguizo
Pope Francis has definitively suppressed the Peruvian-born apostolic group Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana (SVC), founded by layman Luis Fernando Figari, accused of being a sexual predator and leader of an organization that acted as a cult. The information was reported by several media outlets, including Rac1, and confirmed by the ultra-Catholic group itself in an official statement accepting the pontiff's decision and asking for forgiveness from the victims. "With sorrow and obedience, we accept this decision, specifically approved by Pope Francis, which puts an end to our society," the statement released Monday reads.
"Our gaze also turns to the victims, to whom we reiterate our sincere request for forgiveness for the mistreatment and abuse committed within our community. We also ask forgiveness from the entire Church and society for the pain caused. We trust that the efforts we have made in the reparation process will bear fruit," the SVC statement adds.
The first public accusations had been known for years thanks to various journalistic investigations that revealed the shadows of this influential Catholic organization, inspired by the European and American far right. Among them was that of Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, who in 2015 revealed the testimony of some of the victims in the book Three years later, the Peruvian Prosecutor's Office requested preventive detention for the founder, 78-year-old Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, for the alleged crimes of illicit association and sexual abuse, leading the Vatican to intervene in the group. An internal investigation by Sodalitium then revealed that at least 36 people, 19 of them minors, had been victims of sexual abuse between 1975 and 2002 by various members of the organization's leadership.
However, the Prosecutor's Office closed the case because the crimes had expired. However, it was not until 2024 that the Holy See expelled a dozen members of the organization, including the founder, all of them accused of perpetrating physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. The decision came after Pope Francis commissioned an investigation in July 2023 by the Vatican's two top experts on the subject: the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, and the Catalan priest Jordi Bertomeu, both members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican "ministry" responsible for, among other things.
"Arriving late" The Vatican investigators' investigations revealed physical, psychological, and conscience abuse by its leaders, as well as "financial problems." "I feel bad for having arrived so late; I always tell the victims this. In this case, there was troubling news, but the magnitude of it wasn't known to the point where we could think there never was a charisma as the founder and that it couldn't be refounded; it had to be nipped in the bud," Jordi Bertomeu acknowledges in AR.
The Catalan priest explains that the decision to suppress this ultra-Catholic group is based on the lack of "charisma" of its founder and the organization's functioning as an abusive sect. "Figario didn't have a charisma of divine origin, a special charisma that comes from God and is good for everyone," he says, an essential requirement for the Vatican to approve the creation of a Catholic institution. "In reality, it was the personal charisma of a man who was a scoundrel, who was an abuser," he asserts.
But what's innovative about this decision, Bertomeu explains, is that for the first time, "the Church acknowledges some of the advances that have been made in psychosocial sciences regarding mind control exerted by cults." "And here we have seen that we had groups within the Church that functioned like a true cult," he says. During their investigation, Pope Francis's envoys also detected financial irregularities in the organization's accounts, which is suspected of having "laundered" money through various companies.
based in the United States. Information that the Vatican authorities have already made available to the American justice system. Pope Francis' desire to suppress the movement contrasts with the decision taken by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, when in 2010 he opted for the path of renewal of the Legionaries of Christ, the all-powerful conservative religious order founded by the Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, whom the Vatican protected during his time.
The dissolution of the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana puts an end to a movement founded in 1971 as a conservative reaction to the liberation theology that was spreading throughout Latin America at the time, and which in its years of maximum influence had some 20,000 members across the continent..
