“Figari was a fan of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, of Hitler, of Primo de Rivera, he made them sing the Facing the Sun to his followers, and spoke of being “half monk, half soldier.” Peruvian journalist Paola Ugaz speaks precisely, without omitting details. He studied in depth Luis Fernando Figari (Lima, July 8, 1947), founder of the Sodalicio, now expelled from the Catholic Church. The investigation he conducted with Pedro Salinas revealed a hell of pedophilia and abuse of all kinds that scandalized the Vatican to the point that the Pope sent people of his greatest confidence to investigate this powerful religious group with followers in 25 countries.
In a conversation with elDiario.es, Ugaz reviews the keys to power, domination and submission that have allowed the leaders of this ultra group to be recognized and protected for years by the Vatican. In addition, he reveals the persecutions suffered during the investigation and that have reached Bergoglio’s own envoys.
What does the expulsion of Figari from Sodalicio mean?
This is of paramount importance for us, the investigators of this case, for the survivors and for Peru, the country where this organization was founded in 1971 and where it maintains great political, economic, social and also judicial power despite the fact that the complaints in Son against date back 20 years. Sodalicio operated with impunity in Peruvian society, and it was only thanks to Pope Francis that the Vatican intervened. This shows that, on a global scale, other organizations that have used the name of the Catholic Church to gain power and abuse their members must rest.
How was the work of the Vatican researchers carried out?
This was fundamental. Without Charles Scicluna and Jordi Bertomeu, nothing would have happened. They came to Peru with great humility and empathy to sit down and listen to all the survivors, the peasants of Piura from whom the Sodalicio had taken their lands in the north, everyone, collecting a lot of information that led to this moment of expulsion.
Scicluna and Bertomeu had to endure very strong pressure, both in Peru and in the Vatican Curia. They, envoys of the Pope, were accused and attacked, which amounts to attacking the Pope. And brutality is also part of Sodalicio, who hit rock bottom by accusing the mission appointed by the Pope himself. And we must thank his work, and that of Pope Francis, for the empathy he had for a simple journalist who was investigating clerical pedophilia.
He had the opportunity to speak to the Pope about this scandal…
Yes, I am the first journalist to meet the Pope to talk about these issues, to talk about the victims. In November 2022, I asked Francisco to do something, and from there the investigation entrusted to Scicluna and Bertomeu was born. I spoke to the Pope about the victims: José Enrique Escardo, the first whistleblower of Sodalicio; about Renzo Orbegoso, about Rodrigo Labour, about so many people who suffered so much… And thanks to this listening, he sent the investigators and finally it was decided to expel Figari.
What decisions were taken based on the investigation conducted by the Vatican envoys?
It was a meticulous job. They came to interview all the victims and gave them another image of what the Catholic Church is after nothing had been done for years. From the beginning, they showed that they wanted to do justice, to change things, in a country where the powers that be generate impunity for Sodalicio. Alongside them, we must highlight the work of the Archbishop of Lima, Carlos Castillo, Cardinal Pedro Barreto and Archbishop Reinaldo Nann, who are exceptions, because the rest of the bishops of Peru did not listen to the victims for years.
Figari founded the organization at the age of 24, at the time of the birth of liberation theology, as an ideological response from the right. Many religious authorities viewed this “armed wing” born in Peru favorably and opened the doors of the Vatican to it.
First they arrived, they saw and then, back in Rome, they made decisions: they got Bishop Rodríguez Carballo out. [actual arzobispo de Mérida-Badajoz]who was secretary of the dicastery on which the Sodalicio depended and who had done absolutely nothing; They also sent home the Archbishop of Piura, José Antonio Eguren, who had left aside the peasants whose lands had been confiscated by the Sodalicio. The Vatican is now capable of doing something. It is a symbolic justification for all the victims.
For years, Figari was protected, not only in Peru, but also in the Vatican…
Figari founded the organization at the age of 24 in Peru, when liberation theology was born from the hands of the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez. It was an ideological response from the right to a theology that spoke of the poor. Figari was a fan of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Hitler, Primo de Rivera, he made them sing the Facing the Sun to his followers, and called himself “half monk, half soldier.” And many religious authorities looked favorably on this “armed wing” born in Peru. And they opened the doors of the Vatican to him. When Ratzinger arrived in Peru in 1986, the group that welcomed him was the Sodalicio.
Luis Fernando Figari was the darling of the Vatican. John Paul II appointed him consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Laity and conferred pontifical rank on the movement in 1994. They moved around Rome like Peter in his house: Figari was sure that nothing would happen to him because he had powerful friends in the Vatican. The fact that she fell because of a document signed by the Pope himself gives a dimension to the decision that was taken.
Who is Figari for you?
For me, Luis Fernando Figari is a Peruvian product of abuse, of impunity, an example of how someone who accumulates so much power can do so much harm. Figari is not the lone wolf, he is not the monster who came to do evil. He is a leader who knew how to create this fiction of the charisma of Sodalitium, having already abused some people before, looking for a safe space to continue abusing and to be recognized in the public sphere, to have power, luxury … while in his inner life he continued to be a tyrant, an aggressor who turns his followers into slaves. He loved action movies, but those nights were a horror for the slaves who lived with him. In addition, he was a misogynist: for him, women were the worst of the worst, inferior beings.
For now Figari continues in Italy. Do you think he will be judged in Peru?
Figari will only be tried in Peru if a prosecutor dares to investigate ex officio, or if the prosecutor who requested his preventive detention in 2017 requests his indictment again. So far, absolutely nothing has happened to him in the Peruvian judicial system, and the Vatican’s decision only confirms that the solution had to come from outside the country, because within the Sodalicio it is still a very powerful movement.
And now what? Can Sodalicio survive its founder? What measures should be taken?
The Sodalicio cannot survive the founder because it was not a monster brought from outside, it was part of the same organization, created with its charisma, and which had many aggressors within it. And the impunity with which the physical, psychological and sexual aggressors acted is part of their DNA. Also, the desire to take revenge on those who denounced them. Its members have become robots ready to destroy each other simply because the founder said so, because “he who obeys is never wrong”, as they said.
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