Pope Francis has expelled 10 people - a bishop, priests and laypeople - from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation led by Maltese archbishop Charles Scicluna uncovered "sadistic" abuses of power, authority and spirituality.

The move against the leadership of Sodalitium of Christian Life, followed the pope's decision last month to expel the group’s founder, Luis Figari, after he was found to have sodomised his recruits.

It was announced by the Peruvian Bishops Conference, which posted a statement from the Vatican embassy on its website that attributed the expulsions to a “special” decision taken by the pope.

According to the statement, the Vatican investigators uncovered physical abuses “including with sadism and violence,” sect-like abuses of conscience, spiritual abuse, abuses of authority, economic abuses in administering church money and the “abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism.”

Archbishop Charles Scicluna withe Pope Francis in Malta. Photo: AFP

An outside investigation ordered by Sodalitium had determined that Figari was “narcissistic, paranoid, demeaning, vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation” of Sodalitium’s members.

The investigation, published in 2017, found that Figari sodomised his recruits and forced them to fondle him and one another. He liked to watch them “experience pain, discomfort and fear,” and humiliated them in front of others to enhance his control over them, the report found.

The investigation was carried out by the Vatican’s top sex crimes investigators, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, who travelled to Lima in July 2023 to take testimony from victims.

The release of such detailed information by the Vatican was highly unusual for an institution that is known more for secrecy, opacity and turning a blind eye to even obvious church crimes.

It is unclear how the expulsions can be enforced or what they will mean in practical terms, especially for the laypeople involved. But at a minimum, the very public announcement would suggest that at least for this particular group, Francis was willing to take an unorthodox approach to interpreting the church’s in-house laws to send a message.