Pope Francis this week expelled 10 members from a Catholic movement in Peru following a Vatican investigation that reported physical abuse, including “sadism and violence,” cultlike attempts to break the will of subordinates, mishandling of church property and covering-up crimes.
Last month, the Vatican formally expelled Luis Fernando Figari, the founder of the group, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life. Mr. Figari, a layman, stepped down as the leader of Sodalitium in 2010, and was later barred by the Vatican from the group’s community life.
An investigation commissioned by Sodalitium in 2016 concluded that Mr. Figari “used his leadership status to have authoritarian direction and control of most Sodalits,” as the members are known, and enabled him to “abuse some young members and aspirants” of the group.
The abuse, the investigation found, was psychological, verbal, physical and sexual. Mr. Figari appeared “to enjoy observing the younger aspirants and brothers experience pain, discomfort and fear,” the investigation report said. Mr. Figari denied the allegations against him.
To date, none of Sodalitium’s current or former leaders have been charged with any crimes. The allegations of sexual abuse were never investigated by Peruvian prosecutors because of a statute of limitations. Prosecutors did open an investigation into Sodalitium as “a criminal organization” because of allegations of kidnapping and other crimes; that inquiry was shelved this month after nearly eight years.
Founded in 1971, the group thrived in Peru, recruiting members from wealthy families and spreading throughout Latin America.
It received papal recognition in 1997 and there are currently an estimated 140 members worldwide. It has priests and bishops but mostly consists of lay men who take vows of celibacy and obedience and live in communal settings. There is also a female branch.
The pope’s decision to publicly punish the troubled group was announced by the Peruvian Bishops Conference on Wednesday, which posted a statement from the Vatican Embassy on its website.
Several people who have made accusations against the group expressed satisfaction, and some surprise, at the papal pronouncement, which followed a separate investigation that began last summer and was carried out by the Vatican’s top sex crimes investigators.
“I am thrilled, shocked,” said Rocío Figueroa, a former member of Sodalitium’s female branch, who said she had been sexually abused by one of its leaders when she was 15.
“Honestly, I had lost all hope,” she added, speaking from her home in New Zealand, where she teaches theology. “I really thought nothing was going to happen. I didn’t think the church would ever do this.”
“Today is an important day for the victims, a day that has finally given us back a bit of dignity and hope in the church and justice,” she said.
It’s not the first time the Vatican has cracked down on groups with charismatic leaders. In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI forced the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, an influential Roman Catholic religious order, to leave public ministry after accusations emerged that he had sexually abused students and fathered several children.He died in 2008.
Mr. Figari founded Sodalitium with the aim of creating a cadre of “soldiers for God” who would protect Christianity through prayer, good works and community life. The group has been seen as a conservative response to the leftist liberation theology movement that gained sway in the church in Latin America in the 1960s.
The highest-ranking person on the list of expelled members published Wednesday was Bishop Jose Antonio Eguren, the former archbishop of Piura and Tumbes in Peru. A lawyer for the bishop said he had no comment.
Also on the list was Alejandro Bermúdez, the former executive director of the Catholic News Agency. Mr. Bermúdez has maintained his innocence, calling his expulsion unjustified and saying he plans to appeal to the next pope on the issue.
In a YouTube video posted Thursday, he added that he would never leave the group. “I will never stop being a Sodalite,” he said. “I will die a Sodalite.”
The Vatican said it was not able to comment beyond what was in the statement posted by Peru’s bishops.
The first known formal complaint against Sodalitium was filed in May 2011 with an ecclesiastical court in Lima, and was forwarded to the Vatican. Other complaints followed, according to Sodalitium’s internal investigation.
The case burst into view in 2015, with the publication of a book co-written by Pedro Salinas, who is a journalist and said he was abused while a member of Sodalitium, and his colleague Paola Ugaz. Together they detailed accusations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
The 2015 Vatican investigation concluded that Mr. Figari had engaged in sexual activity with young men, at least one of whom was under 16.
The findings prompted the Vatican to tell Mr. Figari not to return to Peru and to live apart from the Sodalitium community in Rome, Vatican documents show, but it did not expel him. The Vatican has monitored the Sodalitium since then.
The investigation commissioned a year later by Sodalitium produced a report that laid out graphic and chilling details of abuse, including that Mr. Figari and other members sexually abused at least 19 minors and 17 adults starting in 1975.
The report described Mr. Figari as “narcissistic, paranoid, demeaning, vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist, and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation of SCV members — especially the aspirants.”
The expulsions this week were seen by critics as a positive, if late, step.
“Finally some justice is being done,” said Oscar Osterling, who said he was abused by Mr. Figari when he was in his 20s.
But he said he was frustrated that it had taken so long, given that the horrific nature of the abuses was known for years.
In 2019, a congressional commission in Peru began an investigation into the sexual abuse of minors in different organizations, including Sodalitium.
“What we found was an organization with sectarian characteristics where the will of its members was annulled, where there were absolutely reprehensible practices of recruiting minors for the organization, where there was an irrational cult of its founding leader and where a whole ecosystem was generated that favored impunity for various types of abuse,” said Alberto de Belaunde, a former lawmaker who chaired the commission.
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