Pope Francis has called upon Archbishop Charles Scicluna to investigate a highly controversial Catholic lay group in Peru which has been embroiled in allegations of physical and sexual abuse as well as links to criminal gangs.
Scicluna, who also serves as Adjunct Secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, headed to the South American country on Monday and is scheduled to begin investigating the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) group on Tuesday.
Malta’s Archbishop is accompanied by Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, who is an official within the dicastery.
The highly influential SCV group, founded by layman Luis Fernando Figari in 1971, attracted many young people over the years but raised eyebrows when allegations of abuse began to surface.
Figari himself is accused of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, including the sexual abuse of children, and the group was allegedly involved with a dangerous gang of organised crime in Peru.
The trip has been described as a “very delicate mission” by sources, who said the investigation will include meetings with victims and the leadership of the group.
Scicluna and Bertomeu will then prepare a report that will be presented to the pope, who will decide on the next course of action following pleas from victims for a proper investigation.
Scicluna would not comment ahead of his mission but sources said the trip could have repercussions similar to his Chile investigation in 2018, following which all of the nation’s bishops submitted their resignation to the pope.
International media are speculating that Scicluna might even recommend the pope shuts down the controversial group altogether.
This mission involves various types of abuse, not just sexual abuse, the sources said, and the group was allegedly involved with criminal gangs akin to the mafia in underhand land deals.
There are also allegations that the group has been supported by senior Catholic figures in Peru, including SCV member Archbishop José Antonio Eguren Anselmi, and that it has embarked on an intimidatory harassment campaign against two Peruvian journalists who have written extensively about the alleged abuses.
The Archdiocese of Malta said yesterday that Scicluna is expected to spend a week in Peru during which he and Bertomeu – who had also accompanied him on his Chile inquiry – will conduct several private meetings.
Scicluna is known to have been Pope Francis’s top man on sexual abuse in the church following a number of high-profile abuse investigations and he serves as president of a board of review for abuse cases for the Holy See.
After the Chile investigation, Pope Francis admitted “grave errors” in his judgement on the allegations of sexual abuse by priests in the Latin American country. After receiving the report from Scicluna he had summoned Chile’s bishops and the abuse victims to the Vatican to beg for their forgiveness.