Until the last century, it was believed that Luis Fernando Figari Rodrigo had supernatural powers and a direct connection with God. He was a consecrated layman who in 1971 had founded an ultraconservative religious group in Peru called Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, which prided itself on straightening out adolescents with behavioural problems and crises of faith. But since 2000, when a former member of the congregation, José Enrique Escardó Steck, denounced the hell that was being experienced in the retreat centres, the pedestal that Figari and his leadership had built began to crack.
It was then revealed that, using an ideology in which members owed full obedience to their superiors, Figari committed dozens of sexual, psychological and physical abuses. He punished the youngest with a whip with a metal tip, ordered them to hold their palms over the fire for seconds long enough to get blisters, and forced them to strip and beat each other. On some others, the most vulnerable, he performed a supposed ritual to restore their purity that, in reality, consisted of having sex.
At the end of July 2023, following a series of journalistic revelations and a request for preventive detention against Figari—who has been living in exile in Rome since 2015—the Holy See sent a papal mission to Lima to verify the validity of the multiple accusations. For a week, the archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, and the Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu met with a dozen victims and complainants at the Apostolic Nunciature of Peru, in the district of Jesús María. Scicluna and Bertomeu were preceded by having investigated the abuses of the Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, in addition to other cases of sexual violence within the Church. After evaluating the report of that visit, the Vatican has decided to expel from the Sodalitium its top leader and founder, Luis Fernando Figari Rodrigo, 77 years old.
Mission detects “unacceptable causes” in the Church
The Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life of the Holy See stressed in a statement that the decision was taken “in order to restore justice damaged by Mr. Figari’s behavior over many years, and also to protect the individual good of the faithful and of the Church in the future.” Although they did not go into details, the letter stressed that the papal commission noted “incompatible and therefore unacceptable causes in a member of an institution of the Church, as well as the cause of scandal and serious damage to the good of the Church and of each of its faithful.”
Since 2010, Luis Fernando Figari Rodrigo has lived away from public life and since 2015 he has been in Rome. By order of the Holy See, he is prevented from returning to Peru, having any kind of contact with members of the Sodalit community and giving interviews. In one of his last statements, Figari disclaimed any blame. “If there are victims, I am not aware of it. I am here on a retreat. So I do not know the reality of all the people, but if there are victims it causes me deep pain and I believe that they should be helped to improve themselves from whatever situation they may be in,” he said in 2016.
The journalist José Enrique Escardó Steck, the first to denounce the Sodalitium, has welcomed the Vatican’s decision, but has also taken it with a grain of salt. After more than two decades of struggle, he believes that it is essential that Figari and his leaders be judged by the law of men. “It is a good sign, but it is of no use if Figari and his followers are not subjected to civil justice. The Church would continue to cover them up. He is not the only one. There are many other abusers who must follow the same path,” he says. As we remember, the vicar general of the Sodalitium, Germán Doig, who died in 2001, was on the verge of being beatified, but his process was interrupted when it became known that he had sexually abused minors and adults.
Vatican recognition a “boost” for the prosecution
Escardó Steck, president of the Peruvian Survivors Network, a civil association that brings together victims of ecclesiastical abuse, adds: “The Vatican’s recognition of Figari’s crimes must be the final push that the Attorney General’s Office needs to denounce the abusers once and for all and put them in jail. It must also order comprehensive and dignified reparation for the victims. The State must implement efficient policies for access to justice, avoiding re-victimization and stigmatization.” In this search for the truth, the contribution of the press has been vital, with thoughtful investigations contained in the books No news from God (2022) by Pedro Salinas and Half monks, half soldiers (2015), by Salinas in co-authorship with Paola Ugaz.
In a statement, the Sodalitium issued a statement regarding the expulsion of Figari Rodrigo to mark its distance. “He is the historical founder, but he is not a spiritual reference for our community or for the Sodalit family,” says the letter signed by the superior general, José David Correa González. “This measure is a gesture of pastoral charity, justice and reconciliation within our community and with all those people who have been affected. We thank it with filial adhesion as part of the path of renewal that our community has been following for several years,” it says. The Sodalitium of Christian Life has more than 20,000 followers in 25 countries.
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