ROME – Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani has denied a report that alleges he sexually abused a minor in the 1980s, calling the accusations false, but acknowledged that restrictions were placed on his ministry.
On Saturday, Jan. 25, the influential Spanish newspaper El Pais published an article titled, “The first cardinal of Opus Dei, archbishop of Lima, was removed by the pope in 2019 after accusations of pedophilia.”
The article contains allegations from an individual who chose to remain anonymous who claims that in 1983, between 16-17 years of age, he was sexually assaulted by Cipriani in the confessional and remained silent for years before finally deciding to make a complaint to the pope in 2018.
It also states that a previous complaint made against Cipriani to the Vatican in 2002 apparently came to nothing, while the 2018 complaint resulted in Cipriani’s prompt retirement in January 2019, shortly after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75, and restrictions on his ministry.
These restrictions apparently barred him wearing his red cardinal robes and other symbols associated with the cardinalate, from returning to Peru without permission, and from participating in a future conclave. He is now 81, over the age limit for cardinals to participate in a conclave.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed the restrictions on Cipriani’s ministry to media Sunday, saying that after the accusations were made, and after the acceptance of his resignation as archbishop of Lima in 2019, “the cardinal was imposed a penal precept with some disciplinary measures.”
These measures, Bruni said, were “related to his public activity, place of residence and use of insignia,” and were “signed and accepted” by Cipriani.
Bruni clarified that on certain occasions permission was given to “accommodate requests due to the cardinal’s age and family situation,” however, the restrictions at this time “appear to still be in force.”
Cipriani, for decades one of the most prominent and influential prelates for the Catholic right in Peru and throughout Latin America during his two decades as archbishop of Lima, where he served from 1999-2019, has denied the allegations.
In a Jan. 25 statement, Cipriani said the acts described in the El Pais article “are completely false. I never committed any crime, nor did I sexually abuse anyone in 1983, nor before, and nor after.”
According to the article, the alleged victim, who is now 58, wrote in his 2018 letter to Pope Francis that he was an orphan having problems at school in 1983, and so his mother sent him to an Opus Dei pastoral center to get help with his studies.
It was there that Cipriani became his confessor, he said, saying their confessions took place face to face and gradually took longer, lasting around 45 minutes.
The man said Cipriani would harshly reprimand him for his failures, and then give him long hugs to comfort him, eventually putting his hand under the man’s shirt and rubbing his back. He said Cipriani also on several occassions put his hand down his pants and grabbed his buttocks.
Later, the man said Cipriani began kissing him on the face, and would hug him tightly, and that one day when Cipriani began kissing him near he mouth, he pulled away and there were no more confessions after that day.
According to the alleged victim, he brought the allegations to authorities in Opus Dei that day after speaking with a friend, who questioned why his confession had taken so long and, when he answered, said that behavior wasn’t normal.
The man said he received a call two days later from Opus Dei authorities, and was summoned to a meeting with the then-vicar general and three other priests, who asked that he not discuss the situation and said Cipriani had denied the allegations, saying the boy had family and psychological problems and was misinterpreting his paternal affections.
From that point, nothing apparently happened, as Cipriani continued to be promoted, until 2018, when the alleged victim decided to write to Pope Francis after watching the massive clerical abuse scandals unfold in Chile earlier that year.
He said he wrote to Chilean abuse survivor Juan Carlos Cruz, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and asked him to bring the letter to Pope Francis. Cruz confirmed this information to El Pais.
Cipriani in his statement Saturday said that he was informed in August 2018 that a complaint had been made against him.
He said that “without having been heard, without knowing more and without opening a process,” the then-nuncio to Peru, Archbishop Nicola Girasoli, verbally informed him that the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had imposed a series of penal limitations on his priestly ministry and asked that he reside outside of Peru.
Cipriani said he was also asked to maintain silence, “which I have done until now.”
He said that he had a private audience with Pope Francis Feb. 4, 2020, a year after his resignation, in which the pope allowed him to resume pastoral duties.
Since 2018, he said, he has lived outside of Peru, for the most part in Rome, dedicating himself to his work as a member of the Dicastery for Saints Causes until he reached the age of 80, when he retired from his duties in the Roman curia and moved to Madrid.
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a cardinal is falsely accused,” he said, making an apparent reference to the allegations of sexual abuse against the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, which initially landed him in prison before he was acquitted by the High Court.
Cipriani expressed his “total rejection and repulsion” of the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people and voiced his commitment to eradicating “this scourge.”
“Despite the pain that all this causes me, I do not hold a grudge against the accuser, I pray for him and for all those who have suffered abuse on the part of a Catholic priest, but I reiterate my complete innocence,” he said.
In addition to the two allegations of sexual abuse against him, Cipriani has also faced questions about his handling of the scandals involving the Peru-based Sodalitium Christiane Vitae (SCV), and allegations against its founder, Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari.
Formerly one of the most powerful and influential ecclesial groups in Latin America, the SCV was recently suppressed by Pope Francis over ongoing allegations of various forms of abuse and financial corruption.
Cipriani maintains a close relationship with Rafael López Aliaga, a Peruvian businessman and politician who has served as mayor of Lima since 2023 and who also has close ties to the SCV.
On Jan 7, Cipriani received the Order of Merit in the degree of the Grand Cross, the highest recognition of Lima’s city council, from Aliaga, who has had various business dealings with the SCV, many of which involve property.
Over the summer Peruvian media reported that the SCV-owned Saint John the Baptist Civil Association had transferred 36 of its properties in trust to Acres Sociedad Titulizadora, a company founded by Aliaga.
Among the properties transferred to Aliaga’s company were nine “Park of Remembrance” cemeteries that the SCV is accused of using to dodge taxes under the concordat governing church-state relations in Peru by structuring them as mission territory, allowing them to line their own pockets at the expense of the Peruvian state. The Saint John the Baptist Civil Association has denied any wrongdoing.
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