Vatican investigations into secret society in Peru give victims new hope

CNN
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Like many victims of sexual abuse, it took Santiago years to admit that he had been raped as a teenager.

“You get into a kind of mental confusion, something is wrong, but at this point it’s not clear,” Santiago, who speaks only under a pseudonym to protect his privacy, said in an exclusive interview with CNN.

Four decades later, he is still waiting for his allegations against Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) to be brought to justice. The secretive Roman Catholic community founded in Peru has been mired in scandal since its lay founder Luis Fernando Figari and other senior members were accused of sexually abusing numerous adult and underage recruits.

Santiago says he was sexually abused by Figari at least three times in the 1970s, when he was 17. He remembers Figari taking him into a room and raping him because it was “the only way to properly see his aura.”

He can’t remember other incidents clearly. “It’s difficult to count them because the brain starts to block things. I’ve tried, but some memories are blocked,” he said.

CNN has asked Figari’s legal counsel and SCV for comment. Figari has denied all allegations against him.

Santiago is among dozens of victims eagerly awaiting the Vatican’s findings on the SCV allegations after months of investigation.

The SCV has already acknowledged that sexual, physical and psychological abuse occurred. In 2017, it expelled Figari from the group and released a two-part report by international experts that found that more than a dozen men and three women said they had been sexually abused by SCV members as young adults.

In the foreword to the report, the SCV asked for “forgiveness from any person who has been hurt by a member or former member of Sodalitium” and said the organization was “committed to a process of self-examination and change.”

The case is now in the hands of the Vatican City church authorities, who the victims hope can take serious action, including dissolving the entire organization.

As part of the ongoing investigation, the Vatican sent letters to several SCV members in February giving them 45 days to respond to the abuse allegations, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The Vatican’s top abuse investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, made a surprise visit to Lima in July 2023 and interviewed victims, including Santiago and SCV representatives.

The SCV told CNN by email that the organization received specific instructions from the Vatican office in March to initiate investigations into former members, but that the information was confidential.

It is currently unclear when and in what form the results of the investigation will be available. But in August last year, Pope Francis confirmed to reporters: “We are working on it. We are trying to bring the situation to light.”

SCV was founded in Peru in 1971 and has branches throughout Latin America. In Peru, the lay organization under Figari’s leadership recruited primarily young white boys from elite Catholic schools and upper- and middle-class families with connections in politics or business, journalist and SCV victim Pedro Salinas told CNN. Many of them came from families with divorced or single parents, according to former members.

A controversial 2015 book by journalists Salinas and Paola Ugaz revealed 30 anonymous testimonies from SCV victims, including Santiago. This shocked conservative Peruvian society but only led to failed leadership reforms and an ongoing legal case against the group that has largely fizzled out.

In the book, entitled Half Monks, Half Soldiers, former SCV members described in detail how, once recruits reached the legal age of 18, they were forced to leave their homes and cut off ties with family and friends.

The recruited teenagers were brainwashed “to become a kind of zombie, a robot, a fanatic, in a syncretism that mixed the Catholic religion with fascist ideas – Spanish fascism,” said Salinas, who claims to have been physically and psychologically abused as a teenager in the Sodalitium.

Figari was considered a charismatic personality, but was also described by former and current members as “vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation of SCV members,” according to the 2017 SCV report.

It goes on to say that Figari committed “multiple acts of sodomy on a minor male and a young adult male,” filmed young recruits “in underwear or swimsuits,” and instructed them to perform sexual acts on each other and on himself, all on the grounds that this was part of their spiritual development.

Figari publicly denied all allegations for the first time in 2016. “I am innocent, completely innocent. I came here to tell the truth because the authorities did not allow me to speak,” Figari told reporters in Rome.

CNN has asked Figari’s lawyer for an interview but has not received a response. He is believed to still be living in Italy.

Military training and alleged sexual abuse

When Santiago joined the group as a curious student, he wanted to learn not only about religion but also about mysticism and the power of the mind, he told CNN.

At age 15, Figari told him he had great spiritual powers and offered to teach him ancient techniques, Santiago said. Part of that training involved Santiago wearing only underwear and sitting on Figari’s leg, he said. On another occasion, Figari put Santiago and another minor in the lotus position and asked them to touch each other, including their genitals, Santiago said.

Years later, Santiago first reported the abuse to SCV members and filed a complaint against Figari in the Archdiocesan Court of Lima in 2011. He said he received no official response or further action.

According to the 2017 SCV report, Figari also imposed military training on the young recruits, which he had gleaned from films he had seen: the boys were ordered to swim “in the cold ocean for several hours at a time” late at night or very early in the morning, to walk long distances in adverse weather, and to sleep on the floor or stairs.

Another victim, Oscar Osterling, now 51, told CNN that he and three other recruits aged 18 were forced to line up naked and filmed doing so.

Ten years later, he eventually joined the SCV team as a community leader, but said he regrets possibly being involved in the psychological abuse of other young recruits. “After I made my complaint, I thought, ‘How many people have I affected too?'” he said, adding that he has since “called many people and asked for forgiveness.”

The SCV declined to be interviewed for this article but said it was cooperating fully with the Vatican’s investigation and pointed to a private audience between its Superior General Jose David Correa and Pope Francis on December 1, during which they exchanged “up-to-date information on the organization.”

According to Salinas and other victims, the steps SCV has taken so far are not enough. They want the perpetrators to be officially punished and the organization to be disbanded.

The Peruvian legal system has not yet led to a solution. A criminal case in Peru against Figari and other SCV members was closed by the Peruvian prosecutor’s office in 2017 because none of the alleged victims of sexual abuse came forward and the alleged crimes were not time-barred. A separate case involving allegations of kidnapping, serious psychological injuries and illegal association to commit a crime is still in the legal system.

“After so many years, this legal battle is about justice for the victims and not about money, and that also means there will be no impunity for those who committed these crimes,” Dr. Jose Ugaz, a former ad hoc prosecutor who represents seven of the victims, told CNN.

His clients are demanding that “this organization stop and stop harming new children, teenagers and young people in Peru and in several other countries where it has expanded,” he said. “Sodalitium is still active.”

Salinas, who has written a letter to Pope Francis about the case, is pinning his hopes for justice on the Vatican’s investigation.

The Vatican has the power to dissolve the SCV – a measure that Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto has already called for. Pope Francis could also order comprehensive reforms of the group, including the expulsion of members and special measures to be followed.

And the pope amended the Code of Canon Law in 2021 to hold lay people who hold office in the church accountable for abuse. This appears to apply to Figari, who is not a clergyman. The church’s punishments for him could include fines, removal from all offices and expulsion from the SCV.

For the victims, it is about being heard and recognized after so many years.

“I felt honored and felt like I was being listened to… (with) that phone call,” Santiago told CNN about the time he learned that the Pope’s envoys wanted to meet with him.

CNN Vatican correspondent Chris Lamb contributed to this report.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Anyone experiencing sexual violence can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit online.rainn.org for support via confidential online chat.