Lima
CNN
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As a Peruvian missionary and bishop, the future Pope Leo faced one of the most serious and widespread scandals in Latin American churches.
For years, allegations of abuse were filed in Sodalithium Christian Vitae (SCV), a highly influential Catholic society that had deep connections with the powerful and wealthy of Peru.
The scandal came to mind in 2015, the year after Leo, then known as Robert Previst, was appointed bishop in the northern city of Chiclayo. A book written by one of the victims, Pedro Salinas, says that journalist Paola Ugaz, “half monks, half soldiers,” and that he fired the country from 30 anonymous victims on suspicion of beat-beat hit, humiliation and sexual assault.
Several survivors from Peru, Ugaz and Vatican sources told CNN that after a crucial meeting in 2019 and a critical promotion in Rome, Leo’s final intervention, they would eventually have the church take dramatic action.
Former Sodalithium recruit opens up about his experience with the program
When Oscar Osterling officially joined the SCV in 1992, he was instructed not to talk to his parents about his loyalty. He spent more than 20 years with SCV, erupting in his mid-30s when the first allegations began to surface.
Founded in Peru as the Ray Group in 1971, Sordartium was politically driven as a battle against the rise of Latin American liberation theology, which focused on supporting the poor. Society ruled several communities and ran religious schools in the southern part of the country. Its members and students were drawn primarily from the country’s elite.
At one point, SCV had 20,000 members in South America and parts of the United States, continuing to build strong connections between Denver and Colorado, including connections with conservative Catholic media.
The victims appealed to the Archdiocese of Lima, the founder, in 2011 and perhaps earlier, to the Archdiocese of Lima, the capital of Peru. Figari has always been innocent by telling CNN in January that Figari had not been found guilty of the court’s allegations.
However, after hearing the explanations of others, Osterling says he realized the strangeness of his experience. He claims Figari will film him and the other young young people standing in their pants in the middle of the night in a spiritual hideaway.
“In my case, it didn’t escalate to a complete sexual assault,” he says. He now believes he and his cohort are being groomed.
Another victim told CNN that he was raped by Figari at least three times when he turned 17 in the 1970s. It was “the only way to see his aura correctly,” he recalled an older man who told him.
Dozens of young Peruvians claim they were victimized or bullied by Figari and other senior members of the SVC, but the topic remains an Ultra Catholic Peruvian taboo and only a few have chosen to publish details of their allegations.
Prevost, who lived as a missionary in Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, had heard about these accounts, particularly as bishop of Chiclayo since 2014, following the publication of the Bombshell Books of Ugaz and Salinas.
Ugaz and Salinas also denounced Jose Antonio Egren, the archbishop of the coastal parish of Piura.
Eglenn fought back in an ambush lawsuit claiming this was not true, damaging his honor and reputation, but he later dropped the lawsuit.
She received messages of solidarity from Prevast and two other bishops during this period, according to Ugaz, who is facing a long campaign of legal action and death threats regarding her report on the Sordartium incident.
In 2017, an investigation ordered by the SCV revealed a surprising allegation. The group, already initiating a series of internal disciplinary actions, discovers that Figari will sodomy his recruits and make them love him and each other. He likes to see them “experience pain, discomfort, fear,” and humiliated them in front of others to enhance his control over them, the report claimed.
The following year, more than 12 SCV casualties from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica held five high ranking prerates and meetings at Peru’s Anglican Conference in Lima. Prevost was one of the organizers of the conference. According to Ugaz, he acted as a “bridge” between the victims and the SCV, helping to secure a financial settlement.
Another suspect, Renzo Orbegozo, another suspect who is allegedly a victim of the SCV, had been trying to meet with church officials for several weeks but found little traction before Prevost, he told CNN. In an attempt to overcome the impasse, Orbegozo began sending emails to Prevost and another official, the Vatican Peruvian representative.
When the meeting was finally held, Orbegozo said, “Prevost recognized me immediately. “You’re the email guy!” he told me. “He wanted to know everything about our communications…and showed real empathy,” Orbegozo said.
Osterling and Ugaz recall that the bishops they met agree to write to the Vatican, investigate suspicious crimes and seek personal involvement of Pope Francis at the time. However, church officials refused to move the case forward.
“I remember that encounter very well,” Orbegozo, who now lives in Texas, told CNN. “At the time, we felt none of us were listening to us.”
Ugaz, who first met Prevost in 2018 and stayed in touch with him, added that the deadlock of the meeting was “his character doesn’t burn the house. He accepted what happened and revealed his frustration,” but said his character caused “great frustration.”
Although that meeting initially seemed to lead to Little, Orbegozo and Osterling believe it is the first crack in the wall that is doomed to collapse.
“(Prevost) knew – he knew a lot, but he couldn’t act because there was someone above him.
In early 2023, everything seemed to be accelerating in early 2023 after being appointed as the bishop’s influential director of DiCastelly.
This work gave him an important role in the appointment and oversight of the bishop, and held regular meetings with fellow Cardinals and Pope Francis to discuss the appointment of the Anglican Church.
It’s hard to say exactly what happened in the Vatican hall after Prevost moved to Rome. However, the following year, two top investigators from the Vatican were eventually sent to Lima to establish what happened in the SCV.
Archbishop Eglen resigned in April 2024 at the age of 67 (a few years before his usual retirement age) without specifying a reason.
A source close to the Vatican investigation told CNN that future Pope Leo played a key role in removing Egren. “As Governor of Diecaster, (Prevost) was extremely efficient at assessing the evidence and obtaining the resignation of Archbishop Eglen,” a source close to the investigation explained to CNN.
Eguren denied Prevost’s involvement in his resignation, emphasizing that he had offered his resignation directly to Pope Francis. After resigning, the Archbishop rejected Ugaz and Salinas’ allegations, saying in a statement he “sought to fulfill the mission that was entrusted to me with justice, integrity and faithfulness in the teachings of the Church.”
Another exiled member is Alejandro Bermudes, founder of the Denver-based Catholic News Agency, who has been founded by Vatican investigations to have committed “abuse in the exercise of the apostles of journalism.”
Bermudes, known for his fighting style on social media, refuted that he was kicked out to simply “tell the truth.” Most recently, he worked as a contractor for the “Catholic Voting,” an organization that sought to strengthen President Donald Trump’s support in the 2024 election. (President Brian Burch of the group is the choice to become President Trump’s Holy Sea’s next US ambassador.
Sordarthium still held strong supporters. Following news of the exile, the Archdiocese of Denver said he was “shocked and saddened” while the adviser to the former Archbishop of Denver wrote “Rome’s latest SCV (Sodaltium)” and “something is deeply wrong.”
Nevertheless, in early 2025, Pope Francis went further and took the extremely rare step of oppressing society completely.
The move was officially ordered on April 14, just a week before Francis died. The SCV then issued a statement asking about “forgiveness from the church and society as a whole for the pain caused” and “forgiveness of abuse and abuse committed within our community.”
Prevost has been accused of mistreating allegations of abuse in two other cases in Chicago and Peru, Chiclayo. However, in the case of SCV, Ugaz says he is confident that Prevost has “taken action” to ensure that sodaltium dissolves. She and Salinas meet him at the Vatican in October 2024 and say they arranged a meeting with Pope Francis two months later.
After hearing about the long-standing battle, Osterling says he never lost his Catholic faith, but Francis’ ultimate crackdown reinvigorated it.
“What we’re talking about here is the latest chapter. There’s hope now because of what happened in the last two years. If I had this conversation two years ago, I said there’s no hope in the church. Now that’s not true,” he told CNN.
As Francis’ successor, Pope Leo appears to have left little doubt about his attitude at the end of the SCV. A few days after his election, Leo was photographed greeted by Ugaz with a broad smile.
