(PERU)
Crux [Denver CO]
October 6, 2025
By Elise Ann Allen
Rome – Pope Leo XIV met Monday with Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, a conservative lightning rod whose participation in pre-conclave meetings earlier this year became a source of global scandal over allegations of sexual abuse.
Charges that Cipriani, now 81, had sexually abused a minor in the confessional in the 1980s broke in January, along with news that Pope Francis had restricted his ministry and placed limits on his travel in the wake of the accusation.
During the papal transition period, between Pope Francis’s passing and Leo XIV’s election, a global spotlight was shed on the case given Cipriani’s decision to participate in pre-conclave general congregation meetings while wearing his cardinal’s attire, despite the limits Francis had imposed.
Cipriani was long one of the most prominent and influential prelates for the Catholic right in Peru and throughout Latin America, especially during his two decades as archbishop of Lima, where he served from 1999-2019.
Even in retirement, he has remained a hero for ecclesial and political conservatives in Peru and beyond, holding close ties to Lima Major Rafael Lopez Aliaga, who is also close to the now-suppressed Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a conservative ecclesial group whose leadership and other top members have been accused of various abuses and financial crimes.
In what has been described as an unprecedented move, Lopez Aliaga at the last minute was denied front-row tickets to the pope’s Sept. 17 general audience, and the handshake and photo-op that came with it.
Sources with knowledge of the situation said Lopez Aliaga had originally asked for a private meeting with Pope Leo for himself and Cipriani’s brother, Javier Cipriani, but that request was denied and they were instead given baciamano tickets to the general audience, which would have allowed Lopez Aliaga and Javier Cipriani to greet the pope personally and have their picture taken with him.
Once news of Lopez Aliaga and Javier Cipriani’s intention to greet the pope became public, it caused widespread backlash among victims of clerical abuse and survivor associations given Lopez Aliaga and Cardinal Cipriani’s close association with the SCV. Peruvian political observers also argued the encounter was inappropriate given that Aliaga is a candidate in this year’s presidential elections.
Ultimately, the status of Aliaga’s tickets was changed just before the audience. Instead of getting the baciamano tickets, he received reparto speciale, which is still on the main platform but not in the front row, and therefore he would not meet the pope.
In the end, Lopez Aliaga did not participate in the audience.
Though rumors had circulated for years, in January it was revealed publicly in the Spanish newspaper El Pais that Cipriani had been accused of sexually abusing an adolescent boy and was sanctioned by Pope Francis in 2019, with restrictions on participation in a conclave and on donning cardinal attire.
An individual who chose to remain anonymous claimed that in 1983, when he was between 16-17 years old, he was sexually assaulted by Cipriani in the confessional and remained silent for years before finally deciding to make a complaint to the pope in 2018.
A previous complaint against Cipriani to the Vatican in 2002 apparently came to nothing, while the 2018 accusation resulted in Cipriani’s prompt retirement in January 2019, shortly after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, as well as restrictions on his ministry.
These restrictions apparently barred him from wearing his red cardinal robes and other insignia associated with the cardinalate and episcopacy typically worn during liturgical celebrations and other public occasions, as well as from returning to Peru without permission and from participating in a future conclave.
However, Cipriani repeatedly disregarded those restrictions, traveling to Lima in January to receive a prestigious award from Lopez Aliaga, and issuing several public statements throughout the spring denying the allegations against him, accusing Pope Francis of imposing an unjust process, and demanding that the Peruvian bishops amend statements confirming the restrictions on his ministry.
Cipriani has also disobeyed the order not to use his cardinal insignia and symbols, showing up to pay respects to Pope Francis on April 24 while the pontiff was lying in state, and at an April 27 Vespers service for the pope in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where Francis is buried, dressed in his red cardinal robes.
Cipriani also is believed to have attended Pope Francis’s funeral, considered by many as an insult to the Argentinian pontiff who restricted his ministry. He also participated in Pope Leo XIV’s May 9 Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel the day after his election, and his May 18 inauguration Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
He was also seen coming in and out of the pre-conclave general congregation meetings dressed in his cardinal’s vestments, causing a public outcry and making several of the other cardinals participating in those meetings, who spoke on background, uncomfortable.
When asked for clarification, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the constitution governing conclave rules, Universi Dominici Gregis, stipulated that all cardinals without impediments such as illness were summoned to participate in the meetings.
Cipriani’s repeated participation in pre-conclave events and in liturgies for the beginning of Leo XIV’s pontificate have been a source of scandal for many observers, and have been condemned by Cipriani’s accuser as revictimizing.
In the meantime, amid widespread public backlash, individuals and media outlets with ties to Cipriani and to Lopez Aliaga have criticized the alleged victim and attempted to discredit him, with one media outlet leaking the person’s identity.
Repeated requests for a penal precept against Cipriani in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) to be published have gone unanswered, and Cipriani’s status after his disregard for the measures imposed by Pope Francis remains unclear.
The lack of clarity about his standing, and the Vatican’s inaction during the conclave on his case, remains a source of scandal for survivors and advocates, especially in Peru.
For Pope Leo, who spent over 20 years as a missionary in Peru before being brought to the Vatican, the Cipriani case, as well as the cardinal’s ties to Lopez Aliaga and the SCV, are well known. Then-Bishop Robert Prevost was among those who investigated the SCV case.
What action the pope will take regarding Cipriani, if any, in the wake of this spring’s events and in light of Monday’s private meeting, remains to be seen.
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen