He Pope Francis received this Friday the former archbishop of Piurain northern Peru, Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmiwho resigned in April following allegations of abuse and other irregularities by members of the religious congregation Sodalitium of Christian Life (SVC) to which it belongs.
The hearing took place after it was announced on August 14 that the Vatican expelled the founder of the Sodalitium of Christian Life (SVC), the Peruvian Luis Fernando Figari following investigations that found him guilty of having committed abuses.
Figari (1947) founded the congregation in Peru 53 years ago and has been accused by members belonging to the same and journalistic fiscal investigations of having committed physical, psychological and sexual abuse.
The expulsion came after Pope Francis sent the Archbishop of San Juan to the Andean country in July 2023. Malta, Charles Scicluna and the Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu both members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and experts in crimes of abuse, to “investigate, listen and report” on the case of Sodalicio
Eguren Anselmi had been at the centre of a journalistic investigation in Peru in which he was accused of covering up the abuses of Luis Fernando Figari.
The so-called ‘Sodalicio Case‘ was revealed in 2015 by Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, who published the book ‘Half monks, half soldiers’, which collects the testimonies of victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse allegedly committed by members of the Sodalicio.
In January 2018, the Vatican announced the intervention of the Sodalicioa month after the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office requested preventive detention for several members and former members of the organization, including its founder, Figari.
In response to the complaints, the Sodalicio He said that an internal investigation group determined that the identified attackers were Figarithe now deceased German Doigas well as Virgilio Levaggi y Jeffrey Danielswho were removed from the organization.
That report concluded that at least 36 people, 19 of them minors, were allegedly victims of sexual abuse between 1975 and 2002 by leaders of the organization, although the Prosecutor’s Office filed the complaints for sexual abuse because it has prescribed.