New cleaning at Sodalicio. After the expulsion last August for pedophilia of the Peruvian Luis Figari, founder of the religious congregation Sodalicio para la Vida Cristiana, the Vatican also expelled this Tuesday, through the Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP), a dozen of its members, also accused of “physical abuse and violence.” The Vatican’s decision comes after the special mission ordered by the Pope and composed of Charles Scicluna and Jordi Bertomeu, who investigated the case.
José Antonio Eguren Anselmi was dismissed a few months ago from the Archdiocese of Piura and Tumbes and is now expelled from Sodalicio by the Vatican. Two other priests are expelled with him: Daniel Cardó and Rafael Ísmodes. Also a former superior general: Eduardo Regal Villa, three formators (Miguel Salazar, Humberto del Castillo and Óscar Tokumura Tokumura), two consecrated laymen (Erwin Scheuch Pool and Ricardo Trenemann) and, finally, the Catholic journalist Alejandro Bermúdez, former director of the ACI. Prensa.
Most of those fired today – and others who have not been fired so far – were identified through journalistic investigations. Half monks, half soldiers (Planet, 2015), No news from God (Self-published, 2022) and the testimonial book The invisible cage (Debate, 2021), by former sodalite and whistleblower Martín López de Romaña, who served for the work of the Vatican envoys.
A note published by the Peruvian Episcopal Conference explains that “the scandal produced by the number and seriousness of the abuses reported by the victims was taken into account” when making the decision. And it adds that these are “cases of physical violence, even with sadism and violence; abuse of conscience, with sectarian methods to break the will of subordinates; spiritual abuse (…); abuse of position and authority, with episodes of piracy in communications and harassment in the workplace, as well as the cover-up of crimes committed within this institution; abuse in the administration of ecclesiastical assets; abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism. The note concludes by explaining that “the Pope and the bishops of Peru (…) ask forgiveness from the victims.”
The case came to light in 2000, when journalist José Enrique Escardo pointed the finger at José Antonio Eguren Anselmi, now expelled. Complaints from several victims followed, which were ignored, as well as several other journalistic works. Finally, Pope Francis had the “personal commitment” to investigate the case, for which he commissioned Scicluna and Bertomeu. The work of the two resulted in the expulsion, last August, of Figari, considered the greatest sexual predator in the Church since the Legionary of Christ Marcial Maciel.
The forgetfulnesses
Sources close to the case say that this is a first list, because it contains “glaring omissions.” In this sense, the priest Jaime Baertl, the former vicars general José Ambrozic and Fernando Vidal Castellanos, among others, are mentioned. But this first dozen people expelled, they add, is significant and symbolic. When Figari was dismissed, it was thought that the congregation was in the process of being dissolved, which has not happened so far.
What draws attention among the alleged conducts, as being new, is the one that accuses Alejandro Bermúdez, of the Society of Apostolic Life, of “abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism”, which, according to some sources, should be the first sanction in the history of the Church that attacks the bad practices of journalism from a Catholic point of view.
The Vatican resolution based on the Scicluna and Bertomeu investigation offers a glimpse of justice to those who have been denouncing for so many years – from the point of view of journalism and their status as survivors – that the abuses be punished and recognized, in the face of “so much impunity”, constant and flagrant.
