Priest in scandal-plagued Peru group urges justice for victims

ROME – In a letter sent to various members and former members of a scandal-ridden Peruvian lay group, a priest belonging to the community apologized to victims and urged internal authorities to make reparations.

The apologetic letter, signed by Father Márcio Paulo de Souza, a member of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) who lives in a community house in Arequipa, strikes a much different tone than that taken by other members of the group who have been expelled in recent weeks.

In his letter, de Souza said he has held conversations with several victims of the SCV, and has shared “with deep pain their suffering, their wounds, and the tremendous consequences that the various abuses suffered in our institution have left them.”

CARTA DE PERDÓN A LAS VÍCTIMAS DEL SCV P. MÁRCIO PAULO

Founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in 1971, the SCV for the past decade has been a source of widespread scandal due to allegations of various forms of abuse, including the sexual abuse of minors, and financial corruption on the part of Figari himself and other top members.

Last summer Pope Francis sent his top investigators to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the group which so far has resulted in the expulsion of Figari, and 14 other high-ranking members accused of various crimes.

Some of those expelled have denied the allegations against them and have pushed back against the Vatican’s investigators, as well as the papal nunciature in Peru.

One of them, Father Jaime Baertl, said a victim who accused him of sexual abuse was “confused” and sent a registered letter to the papal embassy in Lima demanding corrections to its announcement of his expulsion, calling it “false and defamatory.”

De Souza in his letter, however, asked for forgiveness from all those who have suffered spiritual, sexual, psychological and physical abuse, as well as abuse of conscience and authority, on the part of members of the SCV.

“I share their sufferings and I promise to continue praying for each one of these victims and for their entire families,” he said.

He pledged to do everything in his power to “improve the care that we have been giving to the victims,” and voiced hope that “a dignified, integral and fair process of reparation will be carried out.”

Since scandals surrounding the SCV broke publicly in 2015, the group has established two separate commissions to receive and evaluate complaints, and to make recommendations for compensation.
Some former members say that while they have received modest sums by way of reparation, it is not enough to cover ongoing psychological treatment and medical costs for conditions developed in or cause by their time in community, and others say they have so far received nothing.

De Souza in the letter also asked victims for forgiveness “for our insufficient and slow reaction, as well as for the omissions in the process of reparation and accompaniment that we have offered them, often causing them to be re-victimized and suffer more.”

“I ask forgiveness from the church and from people who have been scandalized by the situation” involving the SCV and by the SCV’s “insufficient attention to the victims who have been abused and mistreated in our communities,” he said.

He stressed his own personal commitment to making amends and offering prayers for the healing and “just reparation” of the SCV’s victims.

Notably, de Souza also spoke directly to the SCV’s authorities, asking that they “promptly establish renewed, adequate, safe and efficient measures and instances for listening to and caring for the victims.”

The victims, he said, “continue to cry out for fair and complete reparation, accepting with filial docility the decisions of the Holy Father” and other church entities.

De Souza closed invoking Jesus as a “victim of reconciliation” and asking that God would help to heal, console and strengthen the SCV’s victims who have suffered spiritual, sexual, psychological, physical and conscience-related abuses, as well as abuses of power within the community.

He asked that Jesus help members of the SCV “become aware of the enormous harm we have caused to these victims, who are our brothers, and, repentant, let us make the resolution to amend and to undertake with them a renewed path of reparation that is dignified, integral and just.”

Both Christian charity and “our mission as ‘artisans of reconciliation’” demand this, he said.

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