The organisation, which originates from Peru, has a much stronger presence there than in Europe.
With around 20,000 male members, who, whether priests or not, live celibate lives and take vows, the "sodalicio" is one of the medium-sized specialised communities in the Catholic Church.
It is larger than most classical religious communities, but smaller and less widespread than Opus Dei or the Neocatechumenals, for example.
Exclusion has more symbolic value than practical effects
The fact that the founder Luis Fernando Figari has now been formally expelled from the community he founded by a legal act of the Vatican Dicastery for Religious Orders has more symbolic value than practical consequences. This is because the community itself had already de facto expelled him in 2014 and declared him "persona non grata" in its institutions in 2016.
The Holy See had already banned Figari from contact with the community in a decree in 2016 and then again in 2017 after several serious cases of sexual misconduct, including one involving a minor in 1974, had been proven.
Many more cases of Figari abuse have since been documented, but this does little to change the legal situation.
In the 2016 decree, the prefect of the religious authority, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, stated that the possibilities for sanctions against Figari under canon law are limited: As a layman, he can neither be removed from the priesthood nor otherwise demoted.
Nevertheless, Figari used every means at his disposal to defend himself against the expulsion, so that further investigations were necessary to provide evidence.
The Vatican's "chief investigator" in matters of abuse, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, was also involved in this process.
The fact that, even after these investigations, in the end only the expulsion from the "Sodalitium" community was formalised once again and declared irrevocable illustrates how limited the possibilities of the Church's criminal law are with regard to lay people.
While deacons, priests and bishops can be severely penalised with removal from the clergy, the only possible punishment against lay people is excommunication.
However, as this is a purely penal punishment that the Vatican would have to revoke after the offender has repented and repented, it did not seem appropriate in the Figari case.
As in the case of the former Jesuit priest and mosaic artist Marko Rupnik, canon law in its current form is proving to be an inadequate tool for punishing perpetrators of abuse.
Decree authorised by the Pope
It is remarkable that the current Vatican decree was only signed by the number two in the dicastery for religious orders, Sister Simona Brambilla.
However, it also bears the signature of the Pope himself, with the note "authorised in a specific form".
After the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, the priest Marcial Maciel Degollado (1920-2008), the layman Figari is the second founder of a formerly influential order-like community from Latin America to be found guilty of serious sexual misconduct, including with minors.
It was also Scicluna who carried out the final investigation into Maciel on behalf of the Pope.
Similar to the Legionaries, the community turned its back on its founder after his misconduct was officially recognised by the Church; internal reforms and consistent action against abuse have since been part of its self-description.
Nevertheless, the public image has been severely damaged.
The Superior General in office since 2019, Colombian business economist Jose David Correa (55), faces the Herculean task of not only improving the community's reputation, but also reforming it from the ground up.