Like many victims of sexual abuse, it took years for Santiago to acknowledge that he was raped as a teenager. <\/p>\n
Four decades on, he is still waiting for a measure of justice to address his claims against Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a\u00a0secretive\u00a0Roman Catholic society founded in Peru that has been mired in scandal since its layman founder Luis Fernando Figari and other senior members were accused of sexually abusing numerous adult and minor recruits. <\/p>\n
Santiago\u00a0says\u00a0that he was sexually abused by Figari at least three times in the 1970s, when he turned 17. He recalled Figari leading him to a room and raping him, saying it was \u201cthe only way to correctly see his aura.\u201d <\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t\u00a0clearly\u00a0remember other incidents. \u201cIt is difficult to count because your brain starts to block things, I have tried, but there are some memories that are blocked,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Santiago is among the dozens of reported\u00a0victims\u00a0who have been waiting eagerly for the Vatican to reveal its findings about the SCV allegations, after a months-long investigation. <\/p>\n
SCV has already admitted that sexual, physical and\u00a0psychological\u00a0abuse took place. In 2017, it removed Figari\u00a0from the group and published a\u00a0two-part report\u00a0by international experts that found that more than a dozen men and three women alleged being sexually\u00a0abused\u00a0by SCV members\u00a0when they were young adults. <\/p>\n
In the report\u2019s preface, SCV asked for \u201cforgiveness from each person that has been hurt by a member or a former member of the\u00a0Sodalitium,\u201d and\u00a0said the organization was \u201ccommitted to a process of self-examination and of change.\u201d <\/p>\n
Now the case has moved into the hands of church authorities in Vatican City, whom victims hope will be able to take serious measures including disbanding the entire organization. <\/p>\n
As part of the ongoing investigation, the Vatican sent letters to several SCV members in February giving them 45 days to respond to allegations of abuse, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Vatican top abuse investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu,\u00a0made a\u00a0surprise\u00a0visit to Lima in July 2023, interviewing\u00a0victims including\u00a0Santiago and SCV representatives, among others. <\/p>\n
For now, it is unclear when the investigation results will be delivered, or in what form. But in August last year, Pope Francis confirmed to\u00a0reporters,\u00a0\u201cWe\u00a0are working on this. We are trying to bring the situation to light.\u201d <\/p>\n
An explosive 2015 book by journalists Salinas and Paola Ugaz revealed 30 anonymous testimonies from SCV victims\u00a0including Santiago\u2019s, shocking conservative Peruvian society but only resulting in\u00a0failed leadership reforms and an ongoing court case against the group that has largely gone nowhere. <\/p>\n
In the book, titled \u201cHalf Monks, Half Soldiers,\u201d former SCV\u00a0members detailed that once the recruits reached the legal age, 18, they were encouraged to leave home and cut ties with family\u00a0and friends. <\/p>\n
Teenagers who were recruited were\u00a0brainwashed \u201cto become a kind of zombie, a robot, a fanatic, where there is a syncretism that mixes the Catholic religion with fascist ideas \u2013 Spanish fascism,\u201d according to Salinas, who says he himself was physically and psychologically abused at the Sodalitium when he was a teenager. <\/p>\n
Figari was seen as a charismatic figure, but he was also\u00a0described by former and current members as\u00a0\u201cvulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist,\u00a0and obsessed with\u00a0sexual issues and the sexual orientation of SCV members,\u201d the 2017 SCV report found. <\/p>\n
It added that Figari committed \u201cmultiple acts of sodomy of a minor male and a young adult male,\u201d\u00a0filmed young recruits \u201cin their underwear or bathing suits,\u201d and\u00a0directed them to perform sex acts on each other and himself, all under the justification of it being part of their spiritual formation. <\/p>\n
Figari denied\u00a0all\u00a0the\u00a0allegations publicly for the first time in 2016. \u201cI\u2019m innocent, totally innocent. I come here to tell the truth because the authorities have not allowed me to speak,\u201d\u00a0Figari told reporters in Rome. <\/p>\n
At the age of 15, Figari told him he had great mental powers and offered to train him in ancient techniques, Santiago said.\u00a0Part of this training involved Santiago only\u00a0wearing underwear and sitting on Figari\u2019s leg, he said. On another occasion, Figari made Santiago and another minor sit in the lotus position and asked them to touch each other, including their genitals, Santiago said. <\/p>\n
Years later, Santiago first reported his abuse to SCV members and filed a complaint against Figari at Lima\u2019s Archdiocesan Tribunal in 2011.\u00a0He did not get an official response or follow up,\u00a0he said. <\/p>\n
According to the 2017 SCV report, Figari also\u00a0imposed military training, gleaned from movies he watched, on the young recruits: Young boys were ordered to swim \u201cin cold ocean waters for several hours at a time\u201d\u00a0late at night or very early in the morning,\u00a0run long distances in severe weather and sleep on floors or stairs. <\/p>\n
He eventually joined SCV\u2019s team as community leader\u00a010\u00a0years later but said he\u00a0regrets potentially playing a part in the psychological abuse of other young recruits. \u201cAfter making my complaint I thought: \u201cHow many people I have also affected?,\u201d he said, adding that he has since \u201ccalled many people to ask for forgiveness.\u201d <\/p>\n
SCV declined to be interviewed for this article, saying they are fully cooperating with the Vatican\u2019s inquiry and highlighted\u00a0a private audience between its General Superior Jose David Correa and Pope Francis on\u00a0December\u00a01, when they shared \u201cupdated information about the organization.\u201d <\/p>\n
According to Salinas and other victims, the steps toward accountability taken by SCV so far are not enough. They want to see the perpetrators formally punished and the organization dissolved. <\/p>\n
The Peruvian legal system so far has not led to any\u00a0resolution. A criminal case in Peru against Figari and other SCV members was dropped by Peru\u2019s prosecutor\u2019s office in 2017, with prosecutors\u00a0saying\u00a0none of the alleged sexual abuse\u00a0victims\u00a0had come forward and\u00a0that\u00a0the alleged crimes fell outside the statute of limitations.\u00a0A\u00a0separate case on allegations of kidnapping, serious psychological injuries, and illicit association to commit a crime, is still working its way through the justice system. <\/p>\n
His clients demand\u00a0\u201cthis organization to stop\u00a0and (that)\u00a0harm does not continue to be caused to new children, teenagers or young people in Peru and in other several countries where it has expanded,\u201d he said. \u201cSodalitium is still active.\u201d <\/p>\n
Salinas, who has written to Pope Francis about the case, is pinning his hopes for justice on the Vatican\u2019s investigation. <\/p>\n
The Vatican has the power to dissolve SCV \u2013 a measure that Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto has already called for. Pope Francis could also order sweeping reforms of the group, including the expulsion of members and special measures that must be followed. <\/p>\n
And the Pope recently changed the church\u2019s Code of Canon Law in 2021 to make lay people who hold an office in the church accountable for abuse, which would appear to\u00a0apply to Figari,\u00a0who is not a cleric. Church penalties for him could include fines, removal from all offices and expulsion from SCV. <\/p>\n
For the victims,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0about being heard and recognized after so many years. <\/p>\n
EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0Anyone affected by sexual violence can reach out to the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit\u00a0online.rainn.org\u00a0to receive support via confidential online chat.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n Like many victims of sexual abuse, it took years for Santiago to acknowledge that he was raped as a teenager. Four decades on, he is still waiting for a measure of justice to address his claims against Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a\u00a0secretive\u00a0Roman Catholic society founded in Peru that has been mired in scandal since its <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19788,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}