LIMA, Peru — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a prominent Peruvian bishop who faced criticism for failing to adequately address the reported abuses linked to a conservative Catholic organization recently dissolved by the Vatican.
The Bishops Conference of Peru announced that Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos, formerly from the diocese of Trujillo, would be succeeded by Jesuit Bishop Gilberto Vizcarra. The Vatican did not provide a specific reason for the Pope’s decision regarding Cabrejos’ resignation.
At 76 years old, Cabrejos had served as the president of Peru’s Bishops Conference for 12 years until January of this year. Last year, in a public statement, he mentioned that he had submitted his resignation to the Vatican in accordance with church regulations, which recommend that bishops prepare for retirement upon reaching the age of 75.
While leading the bishops’ conference, Cabrejos was under scrutiny as the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a conservative Catholic movement based in Peru, faced serious allegations, including sexual abuse of recruits, intimidation of journalists, and attempts to dispossess local farmers of their land in northern Peru. Victims have claimed that Cabrejos ignored these alarming issues.
Pedro Salinas, a journalist and former SCV member, criticized Cabrejos for his indifference towards the victims, stating that his lack of action contributed to the ongoing suffering inflicted by the group. Salinas authored a book detailing the abuses committed by SCV, which sparked multiple investigations into this organization.
SCV, founded in the early 1970s, was disbanded by Pope Francis in January. A 2017 report commissioned by the group’s leaders revealed that its founder, Luis Figari, had perpetrated acts of sexual abuse against members and employed psychological manipulation. In light of this, Pope Francis dispatched two trusted investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, to investigate the abuses linked to the SCV. Their findings documented severe abuses of power reminiscent of cult-like behavior, misappropriation of church finances, and harassment of critics.
The investigation spearheaded by Scicluna and Bertomeu in 2023 led to the expulsion of Figari and ten other senior members, including an archbishop who sought legal action against Salinas and another journalist, Paola Ugaz, but ultimately had to retire early due to the fallout.
In an interview with the newspaper La Republica, Cabrejos stated that since 2015, the Bishops Conference had been alerting the Vatican about the abuses perpetrated by the SCV. He suggested that the investigators sent from the Vatican relied on information that had already been compiled by local church authorities for years.
Initially established in 1971, SCV emerged as a reactionary movement within the Catholic Church to counter the liberation theology trends gaining traction in Latin America during the 1960s. The organization once boasted hundreds of members not only in South America but also within the United States, where it held significant influence in Peru and operated a base in Denver.
