In
a statement released Jan. 20, the movement said the news site,
Infovaticana, "published the news that the Holy Father had dissolved our
society of apostolic life" and that while it was true, its article
"contained several inaccuracies."
According to Infovaticana's
report, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, who was appointed as the
movement's delegate of formation in 2019, announced
the Sodalitium's suppression to its members during the group's General
Assembly in Aparecida, Brazil Jan. 18.
Two Sodalitium members,
the statement said, "admitted to having violated the confidentiality of
the case and, after asking for forgiveness from those present, were
definitively expelled from the Assembly."
"We regret that the
misconduct of these two members may have been used by the press to
generate doubts about whether it was" Ghirlanda who leaked the news, the
movement said.
The pope's alleged decision to
suppress Sodalitium — which was not yet officially confirmed by the
Vatican and Vatican sources to whom OSV News reached out on the matter
did not respond for a request for comment — would be the culmination of a
series of decisions stemming from a 2023 investigation that also saw
the expulsion of dozens of high-ranking members of the group, including
its founder, Luis Fernando Figari, in August.
A month later, the
Vatican announced the expulsion of 10 members, including Peruvian
journalist Alejandro Bermúdez, who allegedly committed "abuse in the
exercise of the apostolate of journalism."
Bermudez served as the
longtime executive director of Catholic News Agency, or CNA, and the
ACI Group, part of the EWTN family, until his retirement Dec. 31, 2022.
Responding
to questions by OSV News Jan. 19, Bermúdez said there was no question
regarding the pope's authority and that "if he decrees that
the Sodalitium must be suppressed due to a lack of genuine charisma,
then it must be suppressed," he said, citing an alleged main reason
for suppression.
"However, I firmly believe that the process
leading to this decision was deeply flawed, marked by a blatant
violation of due process, disregard for the truth, and ideological bias
on the part of Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós," he said.
"It is
deeply saddening, though not entirely surprising, given that the
individual leading this process, Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, seemed intent on
this outcome even before beginning the investigation of the community,"
Bermudez told OSV News.
The Vatican launched an investigation in
July 2023, led by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta — adjunct
secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — and Msgr.
Bertomeu, also a member of that department. During their investigation,
the prelates met with victims and leaders of Sodalitium, as well as
journalists who investigated the organization.
The investigation's findings are believed to have led to the series of expulsions from the group.
Bermúdez
told OSV News that like any other group implicated in abuse, Sodalitium
"warrants serious scrutiny and criticism." However, he also criticized
media coverage, which he said "overlooked" its reform efforts.
"Despite
these publicly accessible reforms, the narrative of 'complete disregard
for the victim' — promoted systematically by Bertomeu — continues to
spread. Detailed information about the Sodalitium's genuine reform
efforts, has always been available," he said.
OSV News reached out to Bertomeu Jan. 19 but he declined to comment.
However,
for Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium
Christianae Vitae who suffered physical and psychological abuse by
Figari, "the Catholic Church took a while" to act since the first
complaints surfaced 25 years ago by former member José Enrique Escardó.
In
a message sent to OSV News Jan. 19, Salinas said that while he welcomed
the unconfirmed reports of the group's end, he was also concerned
whether "the suppression will extend to the other branches which, in my
humble opinion, should also be suppressed, as they carry the DNA of the
abuse."
"I am referring to the Christian Life Movement (CLM),
which is an international association of the faithful and depends on the
Pontifical Council for the Laity; the Marian Community of
Reconciliation, whose members are known as 'Fraternas,' and the Servants
of the Plan of God, also known as 'Siervas,' the latter two depending
on the Archdiocese of Lima," he said.
Bermúdez told OSV News that the alleged suppression only
applies to Sodalitium, which is a "lay society of apostolic life (and)
of pontifical right and thus falls into its own canonical category."
"Both
the Siervas and the Fraternas are similar entities but of diocesan
right, therefore their situation is being decided at a diocesan level,
in this case by the Archdiocese of Lima, their place of foundation," he
explained.
As an international lay movement, the CLM is not a
religious institute, but an association of the faithful, and thus
dependent on a different dicastery (the Dicastery for the Laity, the
Family and Life)," Bermúdez added.
Nevertheless, Salinas warned
that should those branch groups continue to exist, "the Hydra's head
will resurface in the offshoots of the so-called 'Sodalite family.'"
Salinas
and fellow journalist Paola Ugaz co-wrote a book titled, "Mitad Monjes,
Mitad Soldados" ("Half Monks, Half Soldiers"), which detailed the
psychological and sexual abuse, as well as corporal punishment and
extreme exercises that young members of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae
were forced to endure.
Since then, both were targets of threats
as well as persistent litigation from persons associated with Sodalitium
and its members, including retired Archbishop Jose Eguren Anselmi of
Piura, who launched multiple lawsuits against them in 2018. Facing
pressure from the country's bishops, and the Vatican, the archbishop
withdrew his lawsuits against both journalists.
Following the
investigation by Scicluna and Bertomeu, the Vatican announced Eguren's
resignation in April. At 67, the archbishop was eight years shy of the
age canon law requires bishops to hand in their resignation. Francis
expelled him from Sodalitium in September.
Salinas told OSV News that Francis gave Sodalitium "every opportunity to act correctly."
"But
it did not because their sectarian blinders and arrogant attitude made
them believe that, once again, by applying the 'Peruvian solution' (i.e.
intimidating 'enemies' with judicial threats and smear campaigns), they
could turn the tables," he said.
Salinas said the group's
alleged attempts at intimidation were thwarted thanks to the mission
undertaken by Scicluna and Bertomeu, as well as "the final and decisive
intervention of" Sister Simona Brambilla, who was appointed Jan. 6 by
Pope Francis as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated
Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
"The truth, for a change, prevailed," Salinas told OSV News. "It took time to assert itself, yes, but it finally came to light."
For
Ugaz, the decision to suppress Sodalitium, if confirmed by the Vatican,
"lays bare the responsibility of members of the Peruvian Catholic
Church, who, since the complaints against the group began in 2000, chose
to look the other way."
"The Sodalitium did not grow on its own;
it needed the support of a Peruvian political, financial, and media
elite that accompanied and elevated it, thanks to the deals made by
Father Jaime Baertl, taking advantage of the Concordat signed between
Peru and the Vatican."
Expelled from Sodalitium in October,
Baertl, a former spiritual assistant, was accused of sexual misconduct
and involved "in numerous irregularities and illicit acts committed by
companies linked to the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae."
Recalling
the various lawsuits made against her by members and associates
of Sodalitium, Ugaz said she and Salinas "experienced unprecedented
persecution that tested our resolve, our peace of mind, that of our
families, and our freedom."
"Thanks to the support of the
international community, notably Pope Francis — whom I met with twice — I
did not end up in prison," she said.
Ugaz also said the pope's
decision to appoint Bertomeu to oversee the process was "a decision that
will hit the Sodalitium hard."
"Bertomeu has simultaneously
demonstrated closeness to the victims through his commitment to truth
and justice, and has also endured direct attacks from Sodalitium,
through figures like Giuliana Caccia, Sebastián Blanco and Alejandro
Bermúdez," she told OSV News.
"The suppression makes it clear
that both the Catholic Church and the state have fallen short," Ugaz
said. "But unlike the state's debts, the Peruvian Catholic Church will
be tested. Pope Francis and his team are watching them, and in this
case, the emperor has been naked ever since the first complaint was made
25 years ago."
The scandal-plagued society of apostolic life was
founded in Peru in 1971. Once a powerful Catholic institution that
gathered members of the Peruvian elite, the Sodalitium saw itself hit by
dozens of denouncements of sexual and psychological abuse, physical
violence, misappropriation of funds, and other crimes by former members
and journalists.
The Vatican's September document mentioned among reasons for the expulsions physical abuse "including sadism and violence," deploying tactics to "break the will of subordinates," spiritual abuse, abuse of authority including the cover-up of crimes, and abuse in the administration of church goods, and also "abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism."