(ITALY)
El País [Madrid, Spain]
June 12, 2025
By Íñigo Domínguez, Paola Nagovitch, and Julio Núñez
The case against Prevost first emerged during a confrontation with the powerful ultra-Catholic group Sodalitium, with complicity from elements in Rome: ‘He has suffered greatly during the last year because nobody in the Vatican came out to defend him’
Rome / New York / Madrid – The election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8 brought with it renewed accusations against him of having covered up past cases of sexual abuse. These accusations were not new, having circulated for the past year and a half. Vatican sources told this newspaper that they were unfounded, and that actions taken by then-cardinal Robert Prevost were appropriate. They connected the allegations to an ultra-right media campaign. A month after Prevost became the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church, EL PAÍS has run an analysis that has come to the conclusion that there is no proof that he ever covered up accusations. To the contrary, during the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae scandal in Peru, he was one of the few bishops who took the side of victims. He also supported the journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, who first denounced the religious society in 2015, and who later became targets of an intense campaign involving the media and legal system. Sodalitium was a powerful ultra-conservative organization founded in Peru in 1971 that had sect-like characteristics inspired by the fascist Falange Española political organization. It has been the subject of dozens of abuse and pederasty cases. After years of controversy, the organization wound up being dissolved by Pope Francis in January of this year.
What happened with Sodalitium is central to the accusations against Pope Leo XIV and the strange evolution of an allegation that was born in his then-diocese, Chiclayo. The knowledge Prevost had of the organization and the actions he took were essential to the decision by Francis to appoint him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in the Vatican. From Rome, Prevost played a decisive role in the organization’s dissolution.
But the future pope was also the target of an internal campaign in the Vatican, where he was already seen as a favorite in the next conclave to choose Francis’ successor. “Father Robert has suffered greatly during the last year because nobody in the Vatican came out to defend him. He felt as though he was left on his own,” says an ecclesiastical source in Latin America who is close to the pontiff.
Here is the story of Prevost’s trajectory, and the abuse cases with which he came into contact.
[PHOTO: Cardinal Robert Prevost with Peruvian journalists Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas, whom he supported in their investigation of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops in October 2024, provided by the author.]
1. The accusations in Chiclayo
Prevost, who was bishop of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo beginning in 2014, received a complaint in April 2022 detailing alleged abuse committed by two priests. It had to do with events that had taken place before his appointment. A 25-year-old woman named Ana María Quispe accused Father Ricardo Yesquén of having kissed her on the mouth and inserted his tongue in 2005, when she was nine years old. She also accused Eleuterio Vásquez González, a Eten parish priest known as Father Lute, of embracing her while she slept during a trip in 2007. Later, two young women with connections to Quispe presented similar accusations against Vásquez. The events had taken place between 2005 and 2009, when they were between nine and 13 years old. This publication has attempted to contact Quispe and has not received a response.
What did Prevost do? According to Quispe herself, who on November 16, 2023 first made the case public on social media out of indignation over the priests’ continued presence in the Church: “When we spoke with the then-Monsignor Robert, he told us, ‘I believe you and I thank you for having decided to speak and come to me. I ask you for forgiveness in the name of the Church and encourage you to also file a civil complaint, in which you also have my support. With respect to Father Ricardo, he is in a delicate state [the priest suffered from a degenerative illness], due to which he is no longer in contact with people. With respect to Father Lute, his ability to draw a congregation is far greater than mine; however, the damage he can cause is proportional to the good he does because he has people’s trust. I will contact him and ask him to leave his current parish. I must say that it is very sad, because we were carrying out projects, but I will do everything in my power to ensure that the investigations are carried out with our full support. Do not feel guilty; you have been victims and now you are helping us to clear the name of the church.’”
The Chiclayo diocese would later say in a statement that Prevost had acted appropriately. He invited the victims to file a civil complaint — which they did, although a year later, the case was closed due to the statute of limitations. The bishop ordered that precautionary measures be taken against Father Lute, who denied the allegations, and transferred him to his hometown of Santa Cruz, 93 miles away. Prevost prohibited him from serving as parish priest and hearing confessions, although he was allowed to preside over mass, which was the reason the victims felt hurt.
Then Prevost, again according to the diocese, opened a preliminary investigation that he sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, the Vatican’s disciplinary body, on July 22. 2022. Before receiving a response from Rome, Prevost left Peru in April 2023 to assume his new position at the Vatican as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Four months after his departure, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith closed the case pro nunc, or provisionally.
Quispe began to talk about the case on social media in November 2023, leading to wider media coverage, when Prevost had been in Rome for eight months. The Chiclayo diocese then re-opened the case and once again sent the file to Rome, where it remains open.
One month later, on December 12, 2023, Quispe made her first television appearance to talk about the case on the Canal 9 program Al estilo Juliana. There, she leveled accusations at the two priests, but did not mention Prevost.
2. A controversial canon lawyer enters the scene
Everything changed on April 2, 2024, when Prevost, who was already in Rome as prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, abruptly dismissed a Peruvian bishop and prominent member of Sodalitium, José Antonio Eguren, following a Vatican investigation. It was the first major blow from Rome to the organization, leading the latter to the realization that the Pope was serious about the matter and that its protections in the Vatican were no longer working.
Just one month later, canon lawyer Ricardo Coronado entered the picture in Chiclayo, hired by the three victims. Coronado is a former Peruvian Agustinian friar who left the order in 2001 and knows Prevost well; the two have had differences in the past due to disparate ideological leanings, according to U.S. Catholic website Crux. He also has many ties and friends in Sodalitium, and served as judicial vicar from 2006 to 2022 in Colorado Springs, an hour’s drive from the Peruvian organization’s first U.S. parish in Denver.
Coronado was also a controversial priest. He had to return to Peru in 2022 after the arrival in Colorado Springs of a new bishop, James Golka, who had similar ideological leanings as Pope Francis. The diocese announced in 2023 that it had been made aware of accusations against Coronado, and a document signed by Golka and dated May 31, 2024, to which this newspaper has had access, confirms that Coronado was already “under canonical investigation” at the time, and therefore could not practice as an ecclesiastical lawyer. The bishop did not consider him “fit for the welfare of the faithful” and moreover claimed, “He is trying to intimidate me by filing baseless and frivolous civil lawsuits.” As a result, Coronado was banned from residing in the diocese, celebrating mass and hearing confessions. Coronado would eventually be expelled from the priesthood by the Vatican in December 2024 for sexual offenses.
Fuel for the theory that there was a campaign against Prevost that wielded the Chiclayo accusation as a weapon is provided by the fact that Coronado appeared on the scene, causing the case to take on new prominence in the media, one month after the future pope dismissed Eguren, the Sodalitium bishop. When contacted by this newspaper, Coronado denied this interpretation, and claimed that it is he who has been the victim of a targeted campaign. “I want you to emphasize that this has been a coordinated attack by the Peruvian Episcopal Conference and Rome,” he said, insisting that it was the three women who contacted him, and not the other way around.
Coronado told this newspaper that during his years in Colorado, he only saw members of Sodalitium “two times” and after his return to Lima, barely had contact with them. Nonetheless, former members of the organization queried by this publication say that Coronado has maintained friendly relations with high-ranking officials in the organization since the 1980s.
This newspaper has also obtained access to a photo taken in August 2023, when Prevost sent a special mission to Lima to investigate Sodalitium, months before Coronado took on the Chiclayo victims’ defense. In it, the lawyer appears at a dinner with two influential Sodalitium members: the organization’s high ranking priest Gonzalo Len, and Guillermo Ackermann, a Peruvian media executive and public relations and organizational campaign expert. When asked about the occasion, Coronado explains that it was a coincidence and that he hadn’t seen the men for “many decades”.
[PHOTO: From left, Sodalitium member Guillermo Ackermann, the organization’s high-ranking priest Gonzalo Len and the canon lawyer who represented the Chiclayo abuse victims Ricardo Coronado, in an image from August 2023, provided by an anonymous individual.]
Sodalitium’s media influence is notable, and Denver resident Alejandro Bermúdez has played a special role in establishing it. Bermúdez directed the religious news agency ACI Prensa and worked at the large U.S. Catholic TV channel EWTN, as did Ackermann. He was one of the members of Sodalitium leadership expelled from the church by Pope Francis in 2024, along with Bishop Eguren. The Vatican accused Bermúdez of “abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism.”
In one example of the tactics employed by Sodalitium, in September 2024, the organization’s inner circle went so far as to file a formal complaint against Spain’s Jordi Bertomeu, one of the two priests who had been sent to Peru by the Pope on the special mission to investigate the organization’s case, on the grounds that he had revealed secrets. The smear campaign was covered in the media, but Francis dismissed the charges, threatening to excommunicate those responsible for the campaign.
The Chiclayo case suddenly resurfaced in May 2024, this time directed towards making an international impact, and focusing on accusations of a cover-up involving Prevost. Coronado, in fact, wrote to EL PAÍS on May 31, 2024 regarding the case, and sent subsequent messages. In the following months, this newspaper inquired into the allegations of a cover-up with sources at the Vatican, who replied that they were unfounded and that a smear campaign was underway.
But the matter was covered by ultra-conservative digital media with links to Sodalitium in Spain, Italy and the United States. Quispe made her second television appearance on the Peruvian program Cuarto Poder in September 2024, now with a different focus: accusing Prevost of having covered up the case, with details that were disavowed by the diocese the next day.
In addition, she said that Coronado had been prevented from defending the victims, because the Peruvian Episcopal Conference had warned him that he was under investigation and as such, was not allowed to practice. The definitive decision in the matter was handed down on December 19, 2024, when the Vatican expelled Coronado from the priesthood with a severe ruling, to which this newspaper has had access, that mentions criminal behavior as determined by sections one and three of canon 1395 of the Code of Canon Law. These sections refer to clergy who “by force, threats or abuse of his authority commits an offence against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue or forces someone to perform or submit to sexual acts.”
At that point, the victims discontinued their relationship with the lawyer, and disappeared from the public eye. All signs indicate that their split with Coronado was not amicable. He told this publication that they have not paid him and as such, he has declined to give them back documentation related to their case. Currently, the three women are being assisted by the bishop of Chiclayo.
Journalist Paola Ugaz says that “they wanted to instrumentalize these women’s statements.” “To me, the involvement of Sodalitium is apparent, based on dates and the implicated individuals of which we have knowledge. The worst part is that the victims have not been prioritized, what they cared about was sullying Prevost’s reputation. In the end, the victims wound up in the background,” she says. Pedro Salinas thinks that Coronado “presented himself as the victims’ lawyer, knowing that he could not represent them, but he did it anyway to later be able to victimize himself using the case.”
The victims may have retired from media appearances, but their case had taken on its own life. And then came the conclave.
3. Chicago accusations emerge
In the months prior to the conclave, accusations against Prevost emerged linked to his time in the United States when he was prior of the Augustinian province of Chicago from 1999 to 2001, and to other cases that fell under his responsibility when he was prior general of the entire order from 2001 to 2013.
The first of these cases took place in 2000, when Prevost was directing the Chicago province. He is accused of allowing the archdiocese to send a priest accused of pedophilia, James Ray, to a house of the order, St. John Store Priory in Chicago, without taking into account that there was a school next door. In the two years that Ray was there, there were no incidents and he had an on-site monitor. The 680-page case file shows that the archdiocese had known about Ray’s abuse since 1990 and one of its documents erroneously states that “there are no schools in the immediate area” of the monastery. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests accuses Prevost of having put “children’s safety in danger” by accepting the transfer.
A second case in Chicago dates back to when Prevost was the order’s prior general between 2001 and 2013 and has to do with the Augustinian Richard McGrath. The case was brought to light in 2017, by which time Prevost had left for Peru, but SNAP says that he was made aware of the abuses, which took place between 2006 and 2010, in a letter from the students’ parents, and Prevost failed action on the case. The complaint, they say, “describes complaints against McGrath for giving massages to students, for watching boys change in the locker rooms, and threatens to sue.” The civil case was settled in 2023. The Church agreed to pay one victim $2 million without admitting to any wrongdoing, and McGrath has denied the accusations.
SNAP has also shed light on cases brought against other Augustinians accused of abuse, John Murphy and Michael Hogan, in which it claims that Prevost did not act appropriately. In addition, advocates say that the cardinal, when he was prefect of the bishops, was made aware of the cases of at least 78 bishops accused of abuse in which, they say, he has not taken action. Vatican sources say that as the head of the dicastery, Prevost could only remove those accused from their positions once they were found guilty.
4. Prevost’s ordeal in the Vatican
When the media campaign began against Prevost in the spring of 2024, he had been at the Vatican for one year. The accusations seriously affected his reputation, and as the head of one of the main dicasteries, the cardinal expected that the Holy See would come to his defense, according to a Latin American church source who is very close to the Pope. However, in a year of controversy, up until his appointment as the new Pope, the only responses to the accusations against Prevost were statements from the diocese of Chiclayo. “Prevost suffered greatly during that period. He felt that the Vatican was not defending him and was not denying anything. He watched the months go by and there was no reaction. It has been a year of silence. They let it simmer, perhaps because he was already an obvious candidate for the conclave,” said the source.
Issuing a denial statement depends on the Holy See Press Office, which is under the authority of the Secretariat of State headed by Pietro Parolin, who was then the leading candidate for the conclave to elect a new pope. But no such order was given. Furthermore, accusations against Coronado had been known in the Vatican since long before he became involved in the Chiclayo case, and yet the Dicastery for the Clergy waited until December 2024 to announce his expulsion. Sodalitium also has allies in the Vatican and despite the organization’s dissolution, Rome has not made public the details of its accusations and crimes committed. There is a clear lack of transparency in the case.
Within the Vatican, Prevost was seen as the clear favorite to be the next pope, but his rise to the papacy was quiet. He appeared in public accounts as a front-runner shortly before the conclave, at which point the same media machine kicked into gear once again. Several articles appeared and four days before the conclave was to begin, an ultra-conservative Spanish website published an 18-page dossier on the cardinal in a last-ditch effort to thwart his election.
Once again, Prevost was under attack. And once again, there was no official statement denying the accusations. Someone in the Vatican even allowed journalists access to the area where cardinals were meeting, which is completely off-limits to the press, so that they could approach him.
After the appointment of Leo XIV, the majority of the press mentioned the campaign against him, focusing on the Chiclayo case. Even the Peruvian program Cuarto Poder publicly admitted that it had been used. Its host spoke to viewers about the victims: “Unfortunately, it seems that some people have taken advantage of these women’s drama with ulterior motives, and they should be ashamed. These women have suffered enough, too much. It must have been very difficult from them to file a complaint like this. And with what has happened in the last few days, they have been revictimized.”
It remains to be seen what will happen now that Leo XIV is in command, with the knowledge that part of the Curia is aligned against him. But most importantly, it remains to be seen what stand he will take in the fight against sexual abuse, which has met with great internal opposition among bishops from all countries, and from the Vatican itself.