by the El Reportero’s wire services
The fathers and mothers of the 43 missing normalist students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, asked this Wednesday to meet with the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as soon as possible, and claimed that after almost nine years of fighting to clarify the case, it has still not been possible to reach the truth or do justice.
In a press conference, the parents expressed their anguish and discomfort because “the president’s word is not being kept”, so it is urgent for them to “have a meeting with him” to ask him not to fail them in this long duel.
The statements by the parents of the normalists come one day after the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) that studied the case released its sixth and last report, in which they denounced that the official investigation into Ayotnizapa is riddled with lies, concealments, obstacles and contradictions by the Mexican Army.
Mission sent by Pope Francis arrives in Peru to investigate sexual and psychological abuse in a congregation
The Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu and the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, will investigate the complaints against Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana for sexual, physical and psychological abuse
The Vatican once again sent its investigative experts to investigate cases of abuse within the Catholic Church in Latin America.
This time to Peru, where the Archbishop of Malta, Charles Scicluna, and the Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu will have to investigate the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana congregation, accused for years of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Peruvian Episcopal Conference welcomed the arrival of Bertomeu and Scicluna, both members of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and experts in crimes of abuse, to “investigate, listen and present a report” on the complaints against the congregation.
A “fair and objective” report
“I think it is excellent that this matter is investigated in depth, that the people involved are listened to and I am sure that the report will be fair and objective for the good of all,” said the president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Miguel Cabrejos.
Cabrejos will meet with the envoys of Pope Francis this Wednesday at the headquarters of the Apostolic Nunciature.
Bertomeu and Scicluna have a long history. In 2023, they visited Paraguay and Bolivia to investigate complaints of pedophilia and sexual abuse against priests from those nations.
“Half monks, half soldiers”
The Sodalicio case broke out in 2015 thanks to the revelations of Peruvian journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz. In their book ‘Half monks, half soldiers’, they collect the testimonies of victims of physical, psychological and sexual abuse allegedly committed by members of that Catholic congregation.
This congregation was founded in 1971 in Peru by the consecrated layman Luis Figari. Over the years it expanded to other countries such as Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, the US, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Italy. It has tens of thousands of followers.
The two journalists frequently denounce that they are victims of monitoring and physical and judicial harassment for having denounced this case. The Church denounced them for defamation. Salinas was sentenced to a suspended year in prison for it.
A facade congregation
In January 2018, the Vatican announced the intervention of the Sodalicio. A month earlier, the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office requested preventive detention for various members and former members of the organization, including Figari.
Sodalicio conducted an internal investigation and identified several attackers, who were removed from the organization. His report concluded that at least 36 people, 19 of them minors, were allegedly victims of sexual abuse between 1975 and 2002 by members of the organization.
The main source of recruitment for the congregation were teenagers from upper-class private schools who were brought to live in the community as ‘soldiers of Christ’.
In the original complaint, the plaintiffs maintain that it was actually a front organization to commit kidnapping and physical and sexual abuse.
