The Vatican on Wednesday expelled the founder of an influential Peruvian religious movement, the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, after the Catholic hierarchy spent more than a decade downplaying allegations of sexual and psychological abuse and financial corruption against him and his community.
The decree against Luis Fernando Figari came after Pope Francis last year ordered an investigation into the Sodalitium by the Vatican’s top sex abuse experts to get to the bottom of the scandal. Previous commissions and investigations had failed to fully address the group’s problems.
According to the decree by the Vatican’s department for religious orders, which was posted on the website of the Peruvian bishops conference, Francis gave his explicit authorisation to expel Figari from the movement, even though canon law didn’t precisely cover his alleged misconduct.