The American cardinal, ex-investigator, praises the Vatican’s action against the scandal-plagued Peruvian group

ROME: an important American cardinal and former researcher of the Peruvian Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV) has praised the work of a new Vatican investigation into the group, expressing its belief that the important steps being taken are for the best.

Speaking during an Oct. 11 press conference during the Synod of Bishops on the ongoing synodality, US Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark said he has been involved with the SCV “in one way or another since 2016,” before receiving the pope’s red hat. in November 2017.

“I think the Holy Father asked me because I speak Spanish, and I know something about religious life,” he said, referring to his time as superior general of the Redemptorists from 1997 to 2009.

Tobin also served as secretary of the Vatican’s now Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life between 2010 and 2012, when the first allegations of sexual abuse against the founder of the SCV were sent to the department, the Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari.

“I believe that the Holy Father sincerely wants to do the best for the church, the church in Peru, the church around the world and for the people who have been affected in one way or another by the issues that are now well known regarding the Sodalitium Christiane Vitae“, he said.

He expressed confidence that the steps being taken by a new investigative team, including the expulsion of Figari in August and 10 key members last month, “are for the good of all the stakeholders I have mentioned.” .

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Scandals surrounding the SCV, including extensive allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, as well as abuse of power, conscience and sexuality, against Figari and other prominent members of the SCV erupted in 2015 when journalists Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz published their bestselling book. Half monks, half soldierswhich contains testimonials from a range of former members.

In 2016, the pope appointed Tobin as the Vatican’s delegate to oversee the reform of the SCV. Two years later, the Vatican asked Colombian Bishop Noel Londoño de Jerico to act as “commissioner” of the SCV, assuming leadership amid its internal reform process, while Tobin had oversight of the SCV’s finances .

In May 2019, another team was appointed to help the SCV through its reform efforts: Mexican Franciscan Father Guillermo Rodríguez was tasked with helping the SCV implement reforms, and now-Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda , a Jesuit canonist who is a close papal confidante, was appointed. to renew the group formation process.

However, amid ongoing allegations of financial abuse and corruption, in July 2023 the pope sent his top investigative team, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, assistant secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) of the Vatican, and priest Jordi Bertomeu. an official of the department, in Lima to investigate.

RELATED: Top Vatican abuse investigators begin probe into scandal-plagued Peruvian group

Asked what steps he took to investigate the SCV given the various and complex allegations against it, including abuse, cover-up and financial corruption, Tobin said that although he was not aware of it at the time, he initiated his own research “in synodal fashion”.

“We approached this by listening. I heard from many of the victims and members of the sodaliteI listened to any of the bishops in the country who would talk to me, and I also listened, after a year or so, to some real experts in child protection,” he said.

In the years since, the saga of the SCV “has taken a different direction, I wouldn’t say completely different, but the Holy Father, I think, needed additional information to be able to discern the will of God.”

“So, I quite humbly offered what I could, and now I’m glad that other co-workers were able to offer even a few things that I couldn’t,” he said.

Tobin, a member of the Council for the Economy and also a member of the ordinary council of the Vatican office of the Synod of Bishops, also spoke of an audience on Oct. 10 that he and fellow American cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago and Robert McElroy of San Diego had with Pope Francis.

In earlier comments, Tobin had said the meeting focused on addressing certain “challenges” in the American church.

However, observers noted that names missing from that meeting included Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington and Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop emeritus of Boston, both also members of the synod but not present at the meeting with Pope Francis

Asked what topics they discussed in their meeting with the pope, Tobin refrained from offering specifics, but said he himself had requested the meeting “because I think the church is always looking for ways to do better what we believe we are called to do.

“Personally, I have found much hope in this emphasis on a way of being church that is described as synodality. It is something that Pope Francis has thought a lot about and that he has practiced,” he said.

He called the Jesuits’ commitment to discernment a “difficult act” that involves evaluating reality in light of Scripture and listening, “and trying to discover what God is saying to the church and the churches of “today?”

“That’s what we wanted to talk about,” he said, saying only he, Cupich and McElroy attended the meeting because those are “the things we talk about.”

“Just as I think you have some colleagues that you’re probably very close with and bounce some ideas off of, we do,” he said, calling the conversation “very enriching.”

Attendees at Friday’s press conference also addressed LGBTQ+ issues, specifically the tensions that arose during last year’s synod meeting over how best to welcome these people into the church.

In his remarks, Tobin noted that the issue has largely been removed from this year’s discussion, saying it “isn’t as dramatic as some would like it to be, but that doesn’t mean people don’t talk about it”.

“People are aware of a number of things, they are aware of the particular challenges and obligations that a response to the LGBT community demands of us,” he said, but added that there is also an understanding of how the issue is viewed different around the world

Similarly, Bishop Anthony MacKinlay of Sandhurst, Australia, said that LGBTQ+ issues are being addressed and that after last year’s discussion, participants “are familiar with each other and how issues like this land in our different cultures.”

“It’s not that surprising that in Western cultures, LGBTQ issues (are) important and prominent to some people. Equally, I think we in the West are not that surprised that it lands differently and has a different priority in some other parts of the world,” he said.

Pointing to last year’s publication of the statement Supplicans Trust from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), which authorized non-liturgical blessings of individuals in same-sex unions, MacKinlay called it “a significant step forward and, in some ways, a response apart from the discussion that took place last year.”

“As in many of the things that Pope Francis has done in the last year, he has not waited for the final document, he has already acted on things that were present in the discussions and in the synthesis report last year” , he said .

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