Pope expels Denver priest and 9 others from Catholic movement in Peru

Pope Francis took the unusual step this week of expelling 10 people, including a priest who led a Denver-area church, from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru with strong ties to Colorado; This decision came after an investigation revealed that the Vatican was “sadistic”. abuse of power, authority and spirituality.

The move against the leadership of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, follows Francis’s remarks last month. expel the founder of the groupLuis Figari after it was revealed that he raped his recruits.

The Peruvian Bishops’ Conference published a statement from the Vatican embassy on its website, attributing the expulsions to a “special” decision taken by Francis.

The statement was surprising because it listed abuses Revealed by Vatican investigation These were rarely canonically punished – such as hacking someone’s communications – and referred to individuals the pope held responsible.

According to the statement, Vatican investigators uncovered physical abuses “including sadism and violence,” cult-like abuses of conscience, spiritual abuse, abuses of power, economic abuses in the management of church money and “abuses in the exercise of the apostolate.” journalism.”

Sodalitium Christianae Vitae is headquartered in Peru but has strong connections to Colorado through the Archdiocese of Denver.

In 2003, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver invited Sodalitium to form its first U.S.-based community. Saint Malo CampA recreation center in Allenspark. In 2010, Chaput tasked Sodalitium with: Holy Name Catholic Parish It’s in Sheridan, where the band is currently based.

“Through the beauty of nature in the Colorado mountains, apostolic initiatives aimed at reconciliation with creation emerged through hikes, camps, retreats, and conferences,” says Sodalitium. website.

That community’s priest, Father Daniel Cardó, was one of 10 people deported by Francis in Wednesday’s landmark decision. The pope deported three more people with Colorado ties.

According to an online source, Cardó was born in Lima and was ordained to the priesthood in 2006. biography. He moved to Denver in 2007 and became a pastor at Saint Malo before being appointed pastor of Holy Name congregation in 2010. Jesus in the CityA Catholic nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the poor.

The specific reasons for his expulsion from Sodalitium were not disclosed.

Cardó, through the Archdiocese of Denver, declined to be interviewed by The Denver Post. In an email to parishioners, he said he was “very saddened and shocked by the news” but that “there are no criminal charges.”

The Archdiocese of Denver said in a statement that it was “shocked and saddened by the news of the deportations” attributed to “decades-old allegations in South America.”

“While the Archdiocese is actively working to understand the full scope of the Vatican’s investigation, we are unable to comment on specifics,” the statement said. “This news is not consistent with our longstanding experience regarding men serving in the Archdiocese of Denver.”

The statement said Cardó “has served Colorado nobly and faithfully for 17 years.”

“During his time here, Fr. The archdiocese said Cardó has not faced a single disciplinary action against him. “He is loved by parishioners and respected in the community.”

Despite the pope’s order, Cardó remains a priest in good standing “even though he was expelled from the community to which he belonged,” the Archdiocese of Denver said in an email to The Post, adding that there were no signs of serious misconduct.

“The Vatican’s decree, which we have fully adopted, has the effect of an internal canonical nature, not with respect to his fitness to serve as a priest, but to his belonging to a religious community,” the archdiocese wrote. “Again, there is no indication of any canonical or civil wrongdoing.”

The other three expelled members have Denver connections:

• Eduardo Regal, executive director of Christ in the City and the “superior” or leader of Sodalitium’s Denver-based community
• José Ambrozic is the former superintendent of the Denver-based community and now lives in Philadelphia
• Alejandro Bermúdez is a journalist and former director general of the Catholic News Agency. His current effort, Tilma Strategies LLC, is located in Englewood, according to LinkedIn. profile.

Regal, Ambrozic and Bermúdez could not be reached for comment.

But Bermúdez The YouTube video was released on ThursdayHe said his expulsion was unjust, saying he planned to appeal to the next pope about the issue.

“I will never stop being a sodalite,” he said. “I will die a Sodalite.”

The Archdiocese of Denver said Regal and Bermúdez “served faithfully and with distinction in the Archdiocese of Denver, and the findings against them are deeply disappointing, to say the least.”

“Narcissistic, paranoid” founder investigated

Figari founded the SCV, as it is known, in 1971 as a lay community to recruit “soldiers for God”; 1960s.

At its peak, the group had approximately 20,000 members in South America and the United States. It was very effective in Peru.

Although victims of Figari’s abuse filed a complaint with the Lima archdiocese in 2011, other allegations against him reportedly date back to 2000. However, neither the local church nor the Vatican took concrete action until one of the victims, Pedro Salinas, wrote a book with journalist Paola. In 2015, Ugaz details Sodalitium’s distorted practices under the title “Half Monk, Half Soldier.”

An external investigation commissioned by Sodalitium later determined that Figari was “narcissistic, paranoid, derogatory, rude, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist, and obsessed with the sexual matters and sexual orientations of Sodalitium members.”

The investigation, published in 2017, found that Figari raped his recruits and forced them to fondle him and each other. The report revealed that he loved to watch them “experience pain, discomfort, and fear” and would humiliate them in front of others to increase his control over them.

Still, the Vatican refused to expel Figari from the movement in 2017, ordering him only to live apart from and cut off all contact with the Sodalitium community in Rome. The Vatican was apparently tied up in canon law that did not provide for such penalties for lay religious community founders. The victims were outraged.

But the violations went beyond Figari, according to the findings of the Vatican’s latest investigation. According to the statement, these included Sodalitium clergy and were harassing and hacking their victims’ communications while also covering up crimes committed as part of their official duties.

“Political, social and economic power”

The investigation was led by the Vatican’s top sex crimes investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, who traveled to Lima last year to take statements from the victims.

The highest-ranking person ordered to be deported was Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren, whom Francis had already appointed. was forced to resign He was appointed bishop of Piura in April after suing Salinas and Ugaz for their reporting.

Journalist Ugaz welcomed the expulsions and said the references to the Sodalitium hack were referring to him: He says his communications were hacked in 2023 after reporting on Sodalitium’s offshore assets and other financial dealings, and is trying to identify the group’s sources.