Ex-members say women’s branch of Peru group reflects same pattern of abuse

ROME – As scandals surrounding the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), currently under Vatican investigation, continue to unfold, most of the attention has been paid to the men. Now, for the first time since the controversy erupted nearly 10 years ago, former members of the community’s women’s branch are also speaking out, lodging similar complaints of psychological, emotional, and physical abuse as well as abuses of conscience and authority.

Founded in 1991 by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, the Fraternidad Mariana de la Reconciliacion (FMR), which translates as the “Marian Community of Reconciliation” (MCR), is considered part of the broader “Sodalit” spiritual family, consisting of the SCV, the Christian Life Movement, and a community of nuns called the Servants of the Plan of God.

Crux has been in contact with nearly 30 former members of the FMR who say that all four entities exhibit the same dynamics, and that identical abusive attitudes and practices were present within the FMR, which they described as “a sect.”

A pattern of abuse

Many former FMR members spoke on the condition of anonymity, while others were willing to be identified. All described psychological and emotional abuse, invasive psychological testing and evaluation, being spied on by authorities, and being constantly corrected for their appearance, clothing choices and even spiritual reflections that didn’t conform to the “Sodalit style.”

One former member, Fernanda De Andrade Duque, claims she was sexually assaulted by an SCV member. When she went to authorities within the FMR about it, she said it was covered up and she was told to forget about it, leading to a series of health problems later diagnosed as caused by repressed trauma.

Andrea Valdettaro, who belonged to the FMR from 2004-2011, described her two years in formation as “torture,” saying her superior “only wanted to break me so I would have no say, so that I would follow the rules without thinking.”

She said she was called “materialistic” and, supposedly as a way of detaching her from material things, she was forced to let other sisters come into her closet and each take something they wanted. Valdettaro said the superior also used her car without permission, and without a license, until she raised concerns about what would happen if the superior ever got a ticket or got into an accident.

“Conversations at the table were always dirty talk about some sister, under the name of fraternal correction,” she said, describing life inside the FMR as “far from the faith of the church.”

Another former member, designated as “Alison” for purposes of this series, said she was told she was prideful and “it would be good for me to be corrected a lot,” and if she couldn’t cope with the corrections, “it was because I was psychologically fragile.”

“Now I see the way ‘correction’ was overemphasized and done in public was cruel and unhelpful,” she told Crux, saying, “I was expected to feel grateful and loved. I never did. It destroyed me a bit every time.”

As an example, Alison said she was once told her hair was “too shiny” and therefore drew too much inappropriate attention. When she asked if she could dye it, she was told no, and that she also had to avoid wearing certain types of clothing.

A former member referred to as “Bella” said this type of nitpicking was common, and that “it’s one way of control they had over us, because what cults do is destroy your self-esteem, so you are more willing to follow their rules.”

Many former members reported being overworked and pushed to physical extremes with intense exercise regimes in order to be “tough,” saying sisters were constantly sick and many developed serious health conditions that were either ignored or minimized.

“Macarena” said she was pushed to the verge of having a heart attack, but was forced to maintain an intense schedule regardless. Another former member, “Marta,” said she developed an arrhythmia that her superior refused to treat or even to permit diagnostic testing, on the grounds that they could not afford it.

Sisters said depression and anxiety were widespread not just in the FMR, but also in the other communities Figari founded. At least half of the former members Crux spoke to said they were sent to see only internal, SCV or FMR-approved psychologists, and were almost immediately put on medication.

At times, they said, they received an incorrect diagnosis or were given the wrong medications, ultimately complicating their condition or causing further problems. For many, this depression was a prelude to leaving the community.

Valdettaro said she began experiencing severe migraines at age 23, which forced her to see a neurologist and to begin taking medication. She said she fell into depression and thought she was going crazy, initiating a discernment process that ultimately led her to leave the community.

Many members said that when they went for treatment, “there was a line” of Sodalits, Servants, meaning the nuns Figari founded, and other Fraternas, with multiple members saying, “it wasn’t normal.”

One former member called the community’s actions “criminal,” saying they used “constant and systematic psychological practices to manipulate, weaken and control.”

She said girls being groomed for the community were broken down by “illegally taking psychological tests” as minors, often without the knowledge or consent of their parents, and “turning us against our family by observing all our weak points.”

Ex-members said they were isolated from their families and barred from returning even for major life events such as weddings and funerals. Some said this isolation caused familial tensions that exist to this day.

Many also said that despite being urged to pursue a career, permission to study often wasn’t granted, with smarter and wealthier girls more likely to be allowed to enroll in academic courses. Others were assigned menial tasks such as cooking and cleaning in the house, or, if they did study, their coursework was continually interrupted, resulting in many women leaving the community after decades of service with no degree or work experience.

Former member “Valeria” said she was considered too dull to study, so she was made to do shopping for the community and was called a “tapón,” a derogatory term meaning she was of a lower stature.

Similarly, former member “Gianna” said she was told she had to fundraise the cost of her courses, while other sisters did not. In the end she was transferred shortly after courses began, leaving her without a degree or career when she left in her mid-30s.

“They appropriate the dogmas, the liturgy, the principles of the Gospel … they distort them to their perverse ends and impose them” on others, Macarena said, claiming, “From there, the spiritual abuse begins,” and “that is the central argument for designation as a sect.”

“It is horrible to accept that we were in a sect, but it is liberating,” another ex-member said.

Close ties to the SCV

Scandals surrounding the SCV exploded in public in 2015 with the publication of the book Half Monks, Half Soldiers by journalists Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas, himself a former member of the SCV, detailing decades of abuse allegations against Figari and other top members, including the one-time vicar, German Doig.

Pope Francis last summer sent his top investigating team to Lima to examine the charges. The inquiry has so far resulted in the expulsion of 15 top-ranking members, including Figari himself and a prominent Peruvian archbishop.

A 2017 internal investigatory commission found that Figari, among other things, was “narcissistic, paranoid, demeaning, vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation of SCV members.”

Although some have tried to argue the other entities created by Figari don’t necessarily have the same issues as the SCV, former members of the FMR dispute that claim, pointing out that Figari himself led the FMR as its superior general until 2011.

Speaking to Crux, Rocio Figueroa, a founding member of the FMR and former general coordinator who became a whistleblower on abuse before being ousted from the group, said there were strong ties between the SCV and the FMR from the beginning.

Though Figari initially did not want to establish a women’s branch, Figueroa said she and a handful of other women felt a strong call to live the Sodalit spirituality and were determined to live as a community.

After Figari eventually founded the FMR in 1991, they were given a property owned by the family of former SCV member Father Jaime Baertl, who is among those recently expelled, for their community house.

Figari and Doig were in charge of the group’s formation, during which, ex-members said, they would routinely insult and belittle the women, calling them unintelligent and ugly, and pushing them to extremes in order to be both “sweet” and “tough” like the Virgin Mary.

Figueroa said Doig sexually abused her during yoga exercises, and that he “told us we had joined the Fraternas because we were ugly, and we had no other choice.” She said she spent years of her life believing that, until she was older and began drawing attention from men.

Macarena, among the early members of the FMR, joined in 1994 when she was 20 years old. She said Figari made almost all internal decisions within the FMR until he stepped down in 2011.

There was a general coordinator of the FMR, she said, who managed “routine, daily things,” while Figari made “major decisions.”

“He would name superiors [who controlled] who would move where. Some decisions, like opening a house, was a decision that Luis Fernando made,” she said, saying members even had to ask Figari for permission before traveling.

Gianna said that when she was 19 and had just finished formation, Figari would enter her community house declaring that it “smells of sin” and would “hit” each of the sisters, one by one, with “humiliations of all kinds.”

Figueroa said Figari would routinely call her “nonstop” at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. and would ask why she was sleeping, demanding that she have an “awake voice” and not sound drowsy.

She said at one point, FMR authorities were criticized for having a formation that was “too bland” and were told to be “tougher.” Former SCV member Oscar Tokumura, who is also among those recently expelled, was charged with helping FMR higher-ups develop a stricter, harsher method of formation.

Several former members recounted being made to go without shoes for a month at a time and being forced to go without sleep. Gianna, who left in 2018, said that once after accidentally sleeping in, her superior punished her with sleeping just two to three hours a night for a month.

“It broke me,” she said, saying the FMR’s goal was to “break the will, break the conscience, break the person. It is impossible for you to continue being yourself in a context like that.”

Macarena said members could only confess to SCV priests, and that they were obsessed with how the sisters dressed, wanting to ensure their standard wardrobe of a blouse and skirt wasn’t too tight, and consisted of the “Sodalit” colors.

Another former member, “Bella,” said the SCV basically controlled formation.

“The abuse in many cases was directly from the SCV towards us, not just by Luis Fernando,” she said, saying she wants compensation from both the SCV and the FMR.

Macarena said sisters were asked to spy on each other. Once, she said, the general coordinator came to visit a house where Macarena was serving as superior, borrowing the laptop of a sister and reading through her files. She found materials for a conference the sister was preparing in which the word “sex” appeared, and told Macarena to chastise the sister while also reprimanding Macarena for not knowing about it.

“Her idea was that as a superior I should be checking the laptops of the people living in my community and snooping around. I never did,” she said.

In 2022, the FMR formally severed ties with the SCV and drafted new governing constitutions. Nevertheless, many ex-members doubt the group can escape the imprint of Figari and the system of control he created.

One former sister described her experience as “a monstrosity of a Machiavellian system, in which even your own ‘sisters’ reported what you did or said if it was not in accordance with the format, and everything reached the ears” of Figari and FMR authorities.

In a statement to Crux, the FMR insisted that they have no institutional ties with the SCV and that they have maintained independent leadership since 2011.

“We have gradually and painfully become aware of the sectarian and unhealthy institutional culture that we received from Luis Fernando Figari and, assisted by external professionals and many members of the Church, we have undertaken a path of renewal,” they said.

To this end, they noted that in 2020, they asked the Archdiocese of Lima for an apostolic visitor to assist them in drafting new constitutions, and in disassociating themselves with the SCV.

“It is important to note that the individual and institutional distancing from what we have lived in our history is a journey that takes time and that is still ongoing,” they said, but insisted that this does not exempt them from “assuming responsibility for what happened in our community.”

Figari’s other foundations

In addition to the SCV and FMR, the other entities Figari founded also have been shrouded in scandal.

For the past three years, similar allegations of abuse and mistreatment have emerged from the community of nuns Figari founded in 1998, the Servants of the Plan of God, with a swath of former members denouncing what they describe as widespread abuses of power and conscience.

Last year, the Archdiocese of Lima, led by soon-to-be Cardinal Carlos Castillo, appointed temporary leadership of the “Servants” as they seek to pursue internal reforms.

Former members of the FMR who spoke to Crux said many of the young women who entered, and many of the young men who joined the SCV, first met the communities as teenagers through the Christian Life Movement, which Figari founded in Peru in 1985.

One former member said that “in the CLM, we were indoctrinated to make the path easy for the consecrated members who wanted to recruit us.”

A former member referred to as “Samantha” said she joined the FMR after first taking part in youth activities in the CLM in Colombia. Since there were initially no Fraternas there, the projects were led by members of the SCV, she said.

“They told us how we had to dress, we couldn’t have the shirt outside, it had to be tucked, with a belt, loose pants, a loose blouse, we couldn’t have sleeves that showed our shoulder,” she said, saying they were also forbidden from smoking and were asked probing questions about their private lives.

As teenagers, “among the men they asked each other if they masturbated,” she said. If they failed to fulfill a commitment, SCV members “slapped them or hit them with a belt, and everyone laughed.”

Samantha said teens were tested for toughness by having hot wax from a candle thrown on their skin. If they failed to conduct a task they had been assigned, they were forced to drink a glass of saltwater or oil.

“We were mini Fraternas and mini Sodalites. That’s what we were,” she said.

A man referred to as “David,” who had three daughters involved in communities founded by Figari – one in the FMR, one in the Servants, and one in the CLM – described the entire spiritual family as the “Sodalit sect.”

He said his oldest daughter demonstrated “a very strong change in her habits and behaviors” when she got involved with the CLM and distanced herself from the family.

David said that after a few years, his second daughter joined the FMR, a choice he and his wife were against, but they let her make her own decision.

“Shortly after her entry, we began to realize that the Fraternas were trying to separate us from her, that is, to divide our family,” he said.

“They were also subjected to various dynamics, such as spending one or two days eating only bread and water or walking barefoot for days on end,” he said, saying his daughter left the FMR with various physical ailments. The family has had to pay for specialist care for her recovery, which is ongoing.

The FMR “never worried about these expenses,” he said, saying doctors have attributed most of his daughter’s physical problems to high levels of stress and the psychological and emotional abuse she endured.

He said his third daughter, who joined the Servants, also suffered “much harm” and, like the FMR, no one “bothered to find out about her and her health.”

“As a father who wants the best for my daughters, I accepted their entry because I thought they were giving their lives to God,” David said. “I never thought I was actually giving them to a sect.”

The future

As the Vatican’s investigation into the SCV moves forward and rumors of its possible dissolution grow, the question has arisen as to what fate awaits the other entities founded by Figari. The Archdiocese of Lima has recently opened a listening channel for former members of the FMR who wish to lodge complaints, and many said the have already sent their testimonies to the archdiocese, and to the Vatican.

Former members of the FMR who spoke to Crux called for the suppression not just of the SCV, but all of Figari’s communities.

A former member of the FMR referred to as “Carmen” said of the CLM that “the system of depravation, the system of abuses…this must disappear. It’s a corrupt system that perpetuates criminals on a large scale.”

Despite separating from the SCV and drafting new constitutions, and despite the good intentions that might exist, Bella said “there’s really the same root, so from a bad seed there cannot be a good tree…you cannot make real change from inside. They are not aware of all the things that are harmful.”

Macarena and Samantha agreed, with Macarena saying of the possible dissolution, “Not soon enough! It should have happened ten years ago.”

Samantha said she believes all of the communities founded by Figari ought to be suppressed, because “it’s the same.”

“I was a victim of the movement, and of the Fraternas. I was there practically from the age of 13 until I was 33,” she said. “It was 20 years of anguish that I didn’t have to live through.”

In their statement, the FMR expressed “deep sorrow and compassion” with the women who have “suffered abuse in their experience in our community” and in the broader SCV family, and for the impact of the abuse on their families.

They said they reject all forms of abuse and offered assurances that “we want to seek the truth and we are convinced that the truth sets free; this applies to all those involved, whether former or current members.”

They referred to an internal channel for receiving complaints, managed by external professionals, and that of the Archdiocese of Lima, inviting those who wish to make recourse to them.

“We will assume our responsibility for the wounds of so many, caused by the unhealthy institutional culture which has been present in the Marian Community of Reconciliation, offering reparation for what may be mended,” they said.

One former member who left only recently gave the FMR credit for efforts to change, saying they even consulted with Monica Applewhite, a specialist in abuse prevention, in a bid to “clean house” and identify problematic behaviors.

By 2015, this ex-sister said, “our knowledge of the situation was already that we were a cult,” and that higher-ups traveled to Rome to deliver a dossier on the problematic internal culture of the SCV. They met with the then-secretary for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Religious, Spanish Archbishop José Rodríguez Carballo, but there was never any follow up, she said.

Good intentions by present leadership aside, the ex-sister said she believes dissolution is the best option.

“We never said that we have a charism. We were open to the option that the community was not viable. We talked about that many times,” she said, adding that she personally is in favor of the dissolution of the FMR, and that at least some current members feel the same way.

“My commitment was never with the community. It was with Jesus. The only thing that matters is him,” she said.

Elise Ann Allen is a former member of the Marian Community of Reconciliation.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen