Peru’s Catholic Church holds a symbolic ceremony in apology for Indigenous land dispossession
LIMA, Peru (AP) — After years of allegations of a land grab now-defunct Catholic groupOn Saturday, the Andean nation’s highest religious authorities held a symbolic compensation ceremony for Indigenous people whose lands were taken away.
based in Peru Sodalityum Christianae Vitae It was dissolved by the late Pope Francis in 2025 after years of reform attempts and a Vatican investigation that revealed sexual abuses by its founder, financial mismanagement by its leaders and spiritual abuses by its senior members.
The ceremony in Peru took place in front of the Tallan indigenous people in the northern Catacaos.
“We are here to ask your forgiveness on behalf of the Church,” said Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, apostolic commissioner. Sodalitium dissolution processhe said in front of a packed church. “We are late. We should have come 20 years ago, we are really sorry.”
Sodalitium was founded in 1971 as one of several Catholic communities that emerged as a conservative reaction against the left-leaning liberation theology movement that swept Latin America in the 1960s. At its peak, the group had approximately 20,000 members in South America and the United States and was highly influential in Peru.
In 2011, former members complained to the archdiocese in Peru’s capital, Lima, about the founder’s abuses. Luis Figari. But neither the local church nor the Vatican took concrete action until one of the victims and a journalist wrote a book in 2015.
Following an attempt at reform, Francis sent his two most trusted investigators, Bertomeu and Archbishop Charles Scicluna, to investigate the incident. Sodalitium abuse allegations. Their reports revealed “sadistic” cult-like abuses of power and spirituality, financial abuses in the management of church funds, and even harassment of critics.
During Saturday’s ceremony, Bertomeu recalled a message Francis sent to the community in 2024, telling them: “Fight for your land, I am with you.”
Land disputes date back at least a decade, when Sodalitium-linked companies took legal action to evict people from thousands of hectares in the Catacaos following several unrecognized property transfers by farmers. During clashes arising from evacuation efforts, dozens of farmers were prosecuted for alleged “extortion” and two community leaders were shot dead.
The religious ceremony took place months after the Peruvian Episcopal Conference announced a possible agreement. Visit of Pope Leo XIV to the South American country at the end of the year.
Describing Catacaos as a “fearful and broken” community, Bertomeu said: “Forgive us, offer your forgiveness, because we need it too.”
Tania Pariona, secretary of Peru’s National Human Rights Commission, said the ceremony was a “historic gesture” in which the church “led the state in failing to protect rural communities.”
