The ultra -conservative wing of the Church wanted to mark the rhythm of the preconclave, trying to present the Francisco era as a failed pontificate that was necessary to straighten, at least, from the doctrinal point of view. Along these same lines, ecclesial sources warned through reason that, in addition to addressing the crisis of sexual abuse in the so -called general congregations, the objective of these nostalgic groups would go through airing the scourge of pedophilia to dynamite the candidate closest to Jorge Mario Bergoglio that departed with more options to be potato.
No sooner said than done. As the conclave approached an alleged case of cover -up by Cardinal Robert Prevost, without margin to be able to verify its veracity and under the maximum of “slander, that something remains.” The goal? Sowing doubt in the cardinals about this alleged stain in their file in order to rule out as a papable one.
“These accusations directed against Prevost have been a simple and pure assembly,” Vatican Fuentes sentenced to the reason on how the bishop of Chiclayo managed a complaint that was finally filed against a Peruvian priest. “It is a closed case, in which his procedure was impeccable, but who wanted to rescue with the sole of sinking him,” adds this authorized voice.
The case that focuses the false Dossier Prevost that has circulated in the days of the predictment refers to a woman who claimed to have suffered touching of a presbyter since 2009, a complaint to which her sisters would later be added.
The alleged abuse was denounced in April 2022 and both civil and canonical road opened. “There was no more evidence than the word against a priest who also enjoyed and enjoys good reputation in his diocese,” they emphasize from the Holy See to this newspaper. Bishop Prevost initiated a first investigation that sent the Dicastery of Doctrine of the Faith in July 2022. Although the denounced priest denounced the facts, separated him from all pastoral service and forbade him the public exercise of the priestly ministry.
In parallel, on April 3, 2023, the Prosecutor’s Office informed the complainants that the case was filed by prescription. On August 10 of the same year, Dicastery communicated the same result, but in this case, due to lack of evidence.
Meanwhile, April 12, 2023, the Prefect Prefect of Dicastery for Bishops was made public. The religious Agustino knew of his designation, that it was a personal effort of Pope Francis who found in today Leo XIV certain resistances since he did not want to abandon his diocese, determined to defend the rights of Peruvian original communities. Thus, with the two exhausted roads for the complainants, it was ratified that Bishop Prevost acted accordingly. However, the main complainant began her particular discredit campaign in social networks. Such was the media echo that made the current bishop of Chiclayo, Guillermo Cornejo, decided to reopen the case to erase any shadow of doubt about the case, as it has happened.
In parallel, Pope Francis launched a special mission to investigate the Sodalicio of Christian life, the platform created by the Peruvian Luis Fernando Figari in 1971 with a presence in 25 countries through its different consecrated and secular, male and female branches. Last April, shortly before death, the Pontiff decreed its dissolution because it is considered an “abusive sectarian”, in addition to corroborating generalized corruption. Previously, before the file prepared by the Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu as commissioned by Francisco, the linkage in this network of the archbishop of the diocese of Piura, José Antonio Eguren, could be verified. Francisco forced him to present his resignation now a year ago, a measure that was executed by the now Cardinal Prefect of the Dicastery of the Bishops, Robert Prevost.
Being the first decision made by the Holy See in reference to the Sodalicio, from the now extinguished movement sought to intimidate the purple. «For this, all media attacks were needed not on the Pope, who received the resignation of Eguren, but in Premost, who would have caused it. With a little luck, it would spread fear and leave the sodalicio in peace, ”they say from the Holy See about a practice that at the time was not successful, but they have tried to resurrect in the pre -election period of the conclave. “For this, a Canonist and former Peruvian Agustino have been used, linked precisely to the sodalicio, trying to reactivate the complaints and maintain the live case so far, by assuming the legal representation of the complainants,” he emphasizes from the Holy See.
In the Vatican they value especially that these days have been precisely the victims of the sodalicio of Christian life who have left in defense of Leo XIV, that “together with the cardinals Pedro Barreto and Carlos Castillo and Bishop Reinhold Nann were the only ones who at the time supported them.” In fact, the Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas, the main roof of the sodalicio, has made public his thanks to Prevost these days for having sustained “with decision and courage to the victims.”