ROME – A Peruvian priest recently expelled from a scandal-plagued lay group, in part over charges of financial irregularities, has sent a registered letter to the papal embassy in Peru demanding a series of corrections to its Oct. 23 announcement of his ouster, calling its contents “false and defamatory.”
Crux has also learned that the priest in question, Father Jaime Baertl, has business ties with an individual who helped launch a criminal complaint in Peru against of the Vatican officials leading an investigation into the group, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).
Last July, Pope Francis sent his top investigating team – Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, an adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), and Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the dicastery – to Lima to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the allegations against the sodalitium.
This past week, the papal embassy in Peru, known as the “nunciature,” announced that the pope had expelled four members of the SCV: Jose Ambrozic, a former vicar general of the SCV and former superior of the Denver house; Luis Antonio Ferroggiaro, accused of abusing a minor; Baertl, accused of sexual misconduct and financial corruption; and Juan Carlos Len, also accused of financial corruption.
This move comes after the pope expelled the founder of the SCV, Luis Fernando Figari, in August, as well as 10 other top-ranking members last month, making the total number of those expelled 15.
The announcement of Baertl and Len’s expulsion said the decision was made on the basis of “the severity of the sexual abuse committed by one of the accused, as well as the personal responsibility of these two consecrated persons in numerous irregular and illicit actions by organizations of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.”
It said some of their economic management and investments within the SCV “constitute sinful actions that betray the Gospel.”
One day later, Baertl and Len sent a notarized letter to the nunciature arguing that the measures taken were unjust and the allegations in the communique were false and, therefore, “defamatory.” They said those allegations “have nothing to do with the truth and are defamatory” as defined by the Code of Canon Law.
Baertl and Len requested an “immediate rectification” of various points, including the communique’s implication that either man had committed sexual abuse, which they said is “absolutely false.” They said a canonical inquiry made no reference to this allegation, and that an accusation of sexual abuse “constitutes a grave damage to the good name to which each person has a right, including ourselves.”
Baertl and Len also denied having any responsibility for irregular or illicit activities by companies affiliated with the SCV, and said that while this charge was included in the communique, it was not part of their decrees of expulsion, and as such, amounts to “false and gravely defamatory” allegations.
They took issue with the communique’s description of “sinful” economic management and investments, saying that too was not included in the decree of expulsion, and that likewise an allegation of illicit use of assets that should have gone to charity was not in the official decree of expulsion.
They called all these allegations “unsubstantiated” and said they “could end up constituting a civil and canonical crime of defamation,” suggesting they could pursue legal action against the nunciature, and called for a public “rectification.”
Neither Baertl nor the papal ambassador in Peru, Archbishop Paolo Rocco Gualtieri, immediately responded to a Crux request for comment. Baertl did, however, demand that Crux tell him who had provided the letter, which Crux declined to do on the grounds of journalistic ethics regarding the protection of sources.
Baertl, who has long been seen as the SCV’s financial czar and the architect of their financial empire, also holds ties to two individuals who have launched a criminal complaint against Bertomeu for an alleged breach of professional secrecy.
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Those individuals are Peruvian laywoman Giuliana Caccia Arana and layman Sebastian Blanco, who last year requested to be interviewed by Scicluna and Bertomeu. They were given an appointment and, since Scicluna had missed his flight, were interviewed by Bertomeu. When details of their conversation became public, Caccia and Blanco filed a criminal complaint against Bertomeu, presuming he must have disclosed the information.
(Under Peruvian law, a private citizen can file a criminal complaint without prior review by a prosecutor or district attorney.)
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 charges, 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.
Suspicions that both the Caccia and Blanco complaint and the Baertl and Len letter are part of a coordinated effort to discredit the Vatican investigation have been reinforced by business and personal ties among the various parties.
Blanco, for example, is the brother of Ignacio Blanco, Figari’s longtime personal secretary, who left the SCV in 2018, and who is also currently in a relationship with Caccia, a cultural and political activist who has spoken before the Peruvian parliament on family issues.
Caccia and the Blanco brothers are also jointly involved in the “Person, Life, Family” association founded by Caccia in 2019, and where, as of 2020, Caccia served as president, Sebastian as secretary, and Ignacio as treasurer. According to a profile sheet available on the National Superintendency of Public Records in Peru (SUNARP), a lawyer named Gonzalo Agustin Flores Santana serves as an attorney for the group.
Crux has learned that Flores Santana is also a member of the SCV’s “Foundation Santa Rosa,” which is based in Denver and is believed to be a recipient of funds from Peru-based SCV companies.
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According to a profile page listed on CauseIQ, the secretary of the Foundation Santa Rosa is Jose Ambrozic, who was also expelled this week for alleged financial impropriety, and its vice president is Juan Carlos Len, who was expelled alongside Baertl.
According to SUNARP, Sebastian Blanco also serves as secretary of the “Asociación San Lucas Civil San Lucas” in Peru, where Baertl serves as treasurer and Father Javier Len, brother of Carlos Len, who was expelled this week alongside Baertl, serves as president.
Asked whether she had disclosed her relationship with Ignacio Blanco, and her personal and business relationships with both Blanco brothers, in her testimony to Bertomeu last year, Caccia told Crux that the meeting was confidential, and “I do not violate the confidentiality of what was agreed.”
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Asked whether he had made similar disclosures, Sebastian Blanco denied having any business ties at all with either Baertl or Javier Len.
“I have no type of business with Fr. Jaime Baertl nor with Fr. Javier Len,” he told Crux, saying the only place where “we coincide” is as members of the board of directors for the San Lucas association, which he said is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting priests, religious, youth, and poor people in remote mountainous areas of Peru.
Even though several SCV and now former SCV members are on the board of San Lucas, he said, it “has no institutional link of any kind” with the SCV.
Regarding his meeting with Bertomeu last year, Blanco said the meeting was confidential and, “I do respect that confidentiality.”
Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen
