ROME – Two private citizens who filed a criminal complaint against a Vatican official investigating a scandal-plagued Peruvian lay group announced this week that the case has reached a new phase, one in which legal experts say it will likely be tossed out on grounds of diplomatic immunity.
In a video published on YouTube Oct. 28 and titled, “They want to silence us,” Peruvian laywoman Giuliana Caccia Arana and Peruvian layman Sebastian Blanco said they were “surprised” to hear from their lawyer on Thursday, Oct. 24, that there had been a development in the criminal complaint they had lodged against Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith who is frequently entrusted by Pope Francis with investigating abuse cases.
Caccia and Blanco made the complaint on the grounds that Bertomeu had allegedly leaked confidential details of testimony they had given as part of an investigation of the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).
The new development, the pair said, was an Oct. 16 decision from a provincial prosecutor overseeing the case, Sandro Ruiz Herrera, who had initially opened an investigation into their complaint, stating that he had recused himself and referred the case to the Peruvian Attorney General’s office on the grounds that Bertomeu, as a Vatican official and an envoy of the pope, holds diplomatic privileges.
Bertomeu and Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, adjunct secretary for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, were tapped by Pope Francis last year to lead a Special Mission investigating the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).
The pair, widely considered to be the Vatican’s top investigators, have held diplomatic passports for the Holy See since 2018, when Pope Francis sent them on a similar special mission to investigate clerical abuse scandals in Chile.
Speaking to Crux, Peruvian lawyer Jose Ugaz affirmed Bertomeu’s diplomatic status as an official representative of the pope, saying, “Bertomeu has a diplomatic passport from the Vatican government…he is a representative of the state.”
“He also has a document authorizing him as a member of the diplomatic mission,” Ugaz said, saying, “he is completely covered by diplomatic immunity that the Vienna Treaty and other international instruments recognize for foreign officials,” which include the 1980 concordat governing relations between Peru and the Holy See.
Ugaz said that in this case, Ruiz Herrera “did well to forward the complaint because he considers that, in fact, having diplomatic immunity does not make it appropriate to open an investigation.”
It is now up to the Attorney General to decide whether, “since it is a foreign official who has immunity, to make arrangements with the Vatican to start an investigation at the highest level or, failing that, to simply close the case because he cannot be prosecuted in Peru.”
“I think it is a closed case,” Ugaz said, saying it might take a few days to wrap up some formalities, but the arguments for archiving it “are compelling.”
Founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in 1971, the SCV for the past decade has been shrouded in scandal due to allegations of various forms of abuse and financial corruption, with victims arguing that various reform efforts have failed. Scicluna and Bertomeu traveled to Lima in July 2023 to conduct various interviews as part of the Special Mission, which reports directly to the pope.
Both Caccia and Blanco requested to be interviewed by Scicluna and Bertomeu and were given an appointment. Since Scicluna had missed his flight, they were interviewed by Bertomeu. When details of their conversation became public, they filed a criminal complaint against Bertomeu “and those who are responsible,” presuming he must have disclosed the information.
RELATED: Peruvians filing criminal charge against Vatican investigator defy excommunication threat
However, participants in the process have said that the identities of Caccia and Blanco were discovered by photographers outside the nunciature, and that the contents of their statements, but not their names, were relayed to other witnesses in the investigation by Scicluna and Bertomeu in order to assess their veracity. As a result, these participants say, the information in question did not have to come from Bertomeu.
In their video, Caccia and Blanco said Ruiz Herrera, in explaining his decision to pass the case to the Attorney General, cited a decree from 1982 which recognizes categories of diplomatic immunity as including heads of mission with the rank of nuncio, and diplomatic agents with the rank of minister.
Caccia and Blanco disputed the decision, arguing that Bertomeu never held the rank of a minister and thus was never in Peru as a diplomatic agent.
The pair, who were threatened by the pope with excommunication if they did not retract their complaint, also published an article Oct. 28 in Peru’s El Comercio newspaper describing their version of events and accusing press members critical of their position on the case of defamation.
Ugaz voiced his belief that, based on the comments in their video, in which they also claim to be victims of a campaign of defamation, Caccia and Blanco “are confusing an internal norm with what clearly corresponds to Bertomeu’s diplomatic status and therefore, to the immunity that the Peruvian State guarantees him.”
According to article one of the concordat, “The Catholic Church in Peru enjoys full independence and autonomy,” meaning, according to Ugaz, it is guaranteed the ability to handle internal affairs, such as the complaint against Bertomeu, within its own legislation and ecclesiastical courts.
“The impression I get is that the complainants had no idea of Bertomeu’s diplomatic status,” he said, saying, “it is not necessary to have the category of nuncio or minister of state to be able to enjoy diplomatic immunity.”
As an example, Ugaz noted that officials working for multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations enjoy immunity “in Peru and in all countries where they work, and there do not need to be ministers to be legally protected.”
The Special Mission that Scicluna and Bertomeu led, he said, is considered an internal investigation of the Catholic Church covered under the church-state concordat, meaning the pair enjoy diplomatic privileges. As such, a complaint against Bertomeu is an affair that only the church can manage with its own legislation and courts, as outlined in the concordat.
Speaking to Crux, Peruvian lawyer Carlos Rivera said the fact that the complaint was made against Bertomeu “seems a bit mind-blowing to me.”
“That is an absolutely unusual circumstance. Absolutely unusual. That is to say, strange, odd,” he said, voicing his conviction that neither Scicluna nor Bertomeu “committed any irregular act, any illegal act, and much less was it a crime.”
“They were fulfilling a mission entrusted by none other than the pope,” he said, saying the investigation itself “was very reserved, and that is why I tell you that this complaint seems to me to be an absolutely unusual fact.”
Rivera voiced his conviction that, based on the information available, “there is no evidence that they committed a crime, and therefore what would be appropriate in this case is that the Attorney General of the Nations archives the complaint.”
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen
