In July 2023, Francis sent Monsignor Charles Scicluna and the cleric
Jordi Bertomeu to Peru in July 2023 to investigate allegations of
various kinds of "abuse" against former members of the Sodalitium
Christianae Vitae (SCV).
Giuliana Caccia Arana and Sebastián
Blanco Eguiluz, two members of the Sodalitium, were among those who, at
their own request, presented themselves to Jordi Bertomeu at the
Apostolic Nunciature in Peru.
They were supposedly guaranteed
"total confidentiality", although it's no secret that "confidentiality"
is something that doesn't exist in the Vatican.
As a consequence,
Caccia and Blanco are now accusing Bertomeu of leaking confidential
information about the interview to the oligarchs' media. They have filed
a lawsuit in a secular court for this breach of trust.
As a
countermeasure, Francis in person ("I am the Church") is now threatening
them with "excommunication" in a letter dated 25 September that Caccia
and Blanco published on social media last weekend.
The letter
accuses Giuliana Caccia of having presented herself "in a devious way"
(de maniere taimada) as a "victim of two former sodalists".
However,
Francis believes that the two accused by Caccia are not perpetrators
but "victims" of abuses within the SVC and that they are "constantly
being re-victimised by those who, like Mrs Caccia Arana, have denied
them the status of victims for the last 24 years".
Bergoglio then
mentions that Caccia and Blanco have filed an "unjust and frivolous"
complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office against Jordi Bertomeu for
"breach of professional secrecy", not only against one of the members
of the mission, but also against "all those who may be responsible"
[i.e. Francis himself].
He accuses them of "criminal behaviour" for having publicly incited "hatred against the Apostolic See".
To
avoid excommunication, he wants them to withdraw the complaint to the
Public Prosecutor's Office, to apologise to Francis' envoys, to offer
"the truth" of the facts to the media they have contacted, to provide
documentary evidence to the Nuncio of Peru within 48 hours (!) of
notification of the effective fulfilment of these orders, and to refrain
from making any further public statements in the future.
However,
in a Youtube video, Caccia and Blanco say that this decision was
motivated by people who wanted to silence them: "What is reflected in
the document we received is not the truth."
They criticise that,
as usual, their case has not followed due process and that they have not
been given the opportunity to defend themselves.
They say that
they have never questioned the legitimacy of the Scicluna-Bertomeu
mission and that they have not damaged anyone's good name.
Giuliana Caccia Arana is the director of the Foundation for the Family (FAM).
After
Scicluna's and Bertomeu's investigations, Francis expelled ten former
members of the SCV on the basis of dubious accusations.
Francis's
anger may be partly due to the fact that Blanco has also accused Curia
Cardinal Robert Prevost of having covered up a case of clerical sexual
abuse in his former Peruvian diocese.
Prevost is involved in the Vatican's case against the SCV.
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