Sodalitium confirms its suppression after news leaks about it, for which there is no confirmation from the Vatican

(OSV News) – The controversial lay movement Sodalitium Christianae Vitae was forced to confirm the news that it was suppressed by Pope Francis after two of its members leaked the news to a Catholic news outlet.

In a statement released on January 20, the movement said that the news site Infovaticana “published the news that the Holy Father had dissolved our Society of Apostolic Life” and that while this was true, its article “contained several inaccuracies.” .

According to Infovaticana’s report, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, who was appointed the movement’s training delegate in 2019, announced the suppression of sodalitium to his members during the group’s general assembly on January 18 in Aparecida, Brazil.

Two Sodalitium members, the statement said, “admitted to violating the confidentiality of the case and, after asking for forgiveness from those present, were permanently expelled from the meeting.”

“We regret that the misconduct of these two members may have been used by the press to cast doubt on it,” Cardinal Ghirlanda, who leaked the news, said the movement.

Exclusion of high-ranking members

The pope’s alleged decision to suppress sodalitium – which has not yet been officially confirmed by the Vatican and Vatican sources contacted by OSV News on the matter did not respond for comment – would be the culmination of a series of decisions a The 2023 investigation also led to the expulsion of dozens of senior members of the group in August, including its founder Luis Fernando Figari.

A month later, the Vatican announced the expulsion of 10 members, including Peruvian journalist Alejandro Bermúdez, for allegedly committing “abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism.”

Bermudez was a long-time executive director of the Catholic News Agency (CNA) and ACI Group, part of the EWTN family, until his retirement on December 31, 2022.

Responding to questions from OSV News on January 19, Bermúdez said there was no doubt about the pope’s authority and that “if he orders that sodalitium must be suppressed because of a lack of real charisma, then it must be suppressed,” he said . citing an alleged main reason for the suppression.

“I am firmly convinced, however, that the process that led to this decision was deeply flawed and 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 sad, although not entirely surprising, considering that the person who led this process, Msgr. Jordi Bertomeu, seemed intent on this outcome even before he began investigating the community,” Bermudez said told OSV News.

The Vatican opened an investigation in July 2023 led by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta – assistant secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – and Msgr. Bertomeu, also a member of this department. During their investigation, the prelates met with victims and leaders of Sodalitium, as well as journalists researching the organization.

The results of the investigation are believed to have led to a number of expulsions from the group.

Criticized media reporting

Bermúdez told OSV News that Sodalitium, like any other group involved in abuse, “warrants serious scrutiny and criticism.” However, he also criticized media coverage that “overlooked” their reform efforts.

“Despite these publicly available reforms, the narrative of ‘total disregard for the victim’ – systematically promoted by (Msgr.) Bertomeu – continues to spread. Detailed information about the genuine reform efforts of the Sodalitium was always available,” he said.

OSV News reached out to Msgr. Bertomeu on January 19, but he declined to comment.

However, for Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas, a former member of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae who was physically and psychologically abused by Figari, “it has taken the Catholic Church a while” to act since former member José’s first complaints 25 years ago Enrique Escardó showed up.

In a message to OSV News on Jan. 19, Salinas said that while he welcomed the unconfirmed reports of the group’s demise, he was also concerned whether “the repression will extend to the other branches, which in my humble opinion are also repressed because they carry the DNA of abuse.”

“I am referring to the Christian Life Movement (CLM), an international association of believers dependent on the Pontifical Council for the Laity. the Marian Community of Reconciliation, whose members are known as “Fraternas,” and the Servants of God’s Plan, also known as “Siervas,” the latter two being dependent on the Archdiocese of Lima,” he said.

Bermúdez told OSV News that the alleged suppression applies only to Sodalitium, which is a “lay society with apostolic life (and) pontifical law and thus falls into its own canonical category.”

“Both the Siervas and the Fraternas are similar entities but have diocesan law, so their situation is decided at the diocesan level, in this case by the Archdiocese of Lima, their place of founding,” he explained.

As an international lay movement, the CLM is not a religious institute, but an association of believers and therefore dependent on another dicastery (the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life),” Bermúdez added.

“Offshoot of the so-called sodalite family”

Still, Salinas warned that if these branch groups continue to exist, “the head of the Hydra will reemerge in the offshoots of the so-called ‘Sodalite family.’

Salinas and fellow journalist Paola Ugaz co-wrote a book called “Mitad Monjes, Mitad Soldados” (“Half Monks, Half Soldiers”), which details the psychological and sexual abuse, as well as physical punishment and extreme exercises, to which young members are subjected are described in detail Sodalitium Christianae Vitae had to endure.

Since then, both have been the target of threats and ongoing litigation from people associated with Sodalitium and its members, including retired Archbishop Jose Eguren Anselmi of Piura, who filed several lawsuits against them in 2018. They were under pressure from the country’s bishops and the Vatican, and the archbishop withdrew his complaints against both journalists.

Following the investigation by Archbishop Scicluna and Monsignor Bertomeu, the Vatican announced the resignation of Archbishop Eguren in April. At 67, the archbishop was eight years below the retirement age required of bishops under canon law. Pope Francis expelled him from Sodalitium in September.

Salinas told OSV News that Pope Francis gave Sodalitium “every opportunity to do right.”

“But this was not the case, because their sectarian blinders and arrogant attitude led them to believe that by applying the ‘Peruvian solution’ (ie intimidating ‘enemies’ with legal threats and smear campaigns) they could turn the tables,” he said.

Salinas said the group’s alleged intimidation attempts were thwarted thanks to the mission of Archbishop Scicluna and Msgr. Bertomeu, as well as “the final and decisive intervention” of Sister Simona Brambilla, appointed by Pope Francis on January 6 as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

“For once the truth prevailed”

“For once, the truth has prevailed,” Salinas told OSV News. “It took some time to sink in, but eventually it came to light.”

For Ugaz, the decision to suppress Sodalitium, if confirmed by the Vatican, “exposes the responsibility of members of the Peruvian Catholic Church who have chosen to look the other way since complaints against the group began in 2000.”

“The sodalite didn’t grow on its own; It needed the support of a Peruvian political, financial and media elite that accompanied and promoted it, thanks to the agreements of Father Jaime Baertl, taking advantage of the Concordat signed between Peru and the Vatican.”

Father Baertl, a former spiritual assistant, was expelled from Sodalitium in October. He was accused of sexual misconduct and was “involved in numerous irregularities and illegal acts committed by companies affiliated with Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.”

Recalling the various lawsuits filed against her by members and associates of Sodalitium, Ugaz said she and Salinas had “experienced unprecedented persecution that tested our resolve, our peace of mind, that of our families and our freedom. “

Support of the international community

“Thanks to the support of the international community, especially Pope Francis – whom I met twice – I did not end up in prison,” she said.

Ugaz also said the pope’s decision to appoint Msgr. Giving Bertomeu oversight of the process is “a decision that will hit Sodalitium hard.”

“(Msgr.) Bertomeu, through his commitment to truth and justice, has simultaneously demonstrated his closeness to the victims and also endured direct attacks from Sodalitium by figures such as Giuliana Caccia, Sebastián Blanco and Alejandro Bermúdez,” she told OSV News.

“The repression makes it clear that both the Catholic Church and the state have fallen short,” said Ugaz. “But unlike the national debt, the Peruvian Catholic Church is being tested. Pope Francis and his team are watching them, and in this case the emperor has been naked since the first complaint 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 Peru’s elite, the Sodalitium has faced dozens of complaints of sexual and psychological abuse, physical violence, embezzlement of funds, and other crimes by former members and journalists.

The Vatican’s September document cited physical abuse “including sadism and violence,” the use of 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 property as reasons for the expulsions and “abuse in the exercise of the journalistic apostolate.”

Junno Arocho Esteves writes for OSV News from Malmö, Sweden.