The Pope dissolves the ultra-Catholic group Sodalitium because it acted “like a sect” and was abusive.
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Pope Francis has definitively suppressed the Peruvian-born apostolic group Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana (SVC), founded by layman, accused of being a sexual predator and leader of an organization that acted as a cult. The information was reported by several media outlets, including Rac1, and confirmed by the ultra-Catholic group itself in an official statement accepting the pontiff’s decision and asking for forgiveness from the victims. “With sorrow and obedience, we accept this decision, specifically approved by Pope Francis, which puts an end to our society,” the statement released Monday reads.
“Our gaze also turns to the victims, to whom we reiterate our sincere request for forgiveness for the mistreatment and abuse committed within our community. We also ask forgiveness from the entire Church and society for the pain caused. We trust that the efforts we have made in the reparation process will bear fruit,” the SVC statement adds.
The first public accusations had been known for years thanks to various journalistic investigations that revealed the shadows of this influential Catholic organization, inspired by the European and American far right. Among them was that of Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, who in 2015 revealed the testimony of some of the victims in the book Half monks, half soldiersThree years later, the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office requested preventive detention for the founder, 78-year-old Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, for the alleged crimes of illicit association and sexual abuse, leading the Vatican to intervene in the group.
An internal investigation by Sodalitium then revealed that at least 36 people, 19 of them minors, had been victims of sexual abuse between 1975 and 2002 by various members of the organization’s leadership. However, the Prosecutor’s Office closed the case because the crimes had expired.
However, it was not until 2024 that the Holy See expelled a dozen members of the organization, including the founder, all of them accused of perpetrating physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. The decision came after Pope Francis commissioned an investigation in July 2023 by the Vatican’s two top experts on the subject: the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, and the Catalan priest Jordi Bertomeu, both members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican “ministry” responsible for, among other things.
Content retrieved from: https://en.ara.cat/society/the-pope-dissolves-the-ultra-catholic-group-sodalitium-because-it-acted-like-sect-and-was-abusive_1_5348361.html.
