VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
CNN [Atlanta GA]
August 8, 2023
By Claudia Rebaza, Antonia Mortensen and Tara John, CNN
Vatican investigators looking into sexual abuse allegations at a Roman Catholic society in Peru have completed the first stage of their audit and will issue a report in the coming months, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told CNN Friday.
“The first stage, gathering information, was concluded last Saturday. Now they will be working on the documentation they have, in order to present a report in the coming months,” Bruni said.
Asked last Wednesday about the investigation, Pope Francis said: “We are working on this. We are trying to bring the situation to light.”
Pope Francis’s special envoys, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, arrived in Peru’s capital Lima at the end of July to investigate sexual abuse allegations at Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, or Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV). The visit was announced by Peru’s Episcopal Conference on July 22.
SCV said its members, who were summoned by the Vatican’s envoys, have “collaborated diligently” and reiterated its commitment to working with the Vatican. It added that the society has provided updated documentation on a reparation process for the victims.
SCV, which has chapters across Latin America, has been mired in scandal since allegations emerged that its founder, the layman Luis Fernando Figari, had sexually abused several young male recruits.
In 2016, Figari denied the allegations publicly for the first time. “I’m innocent, totally innocent. I come here to tell the truth because the authorities have not allowed me to speak,” Figari told reporters in Rome. He also claimed SCV authorities banned him from speaking and traveling to Lima.
A few months later, in 2017, a criminal case against him and other SCV members – for sexual abuse, kidnapping, serious psychological injuries, and illicit association to commit a crime – was dropped by Peru’s prosecutor’s office.
Peruvian prosecutors said in the case of sexual abuse, none of the alleged victims came forward and the crime fell under the statute of limitations.
A criminal case against Figari and other SCV members, alleging kidnapping, serious psychological injuries, and illicit association to commit a crime, is still ongoing.