Lawyers predict the withdrawal of criminal charges in Peru against the Vatican investigator

ROME – Two private citizens who filed a criminal complaint against a Vatican official investigating a scandal-plagued Peruvian lay group announced this week that the case had reached a new phase in which legal experts said it would likely be dismissed on diplomatic immunity grounds. .

In a video posted on YouTube on Oct. 28 titled “They want to silence us,” Peruvian laywoman Juliana Caccia Arana and Peruvian layman Sebastian Blanco said they were “surprised” to hear from their lawyer on Thursday, Oct. 24, that there was the development of the criminal complaint they filed against the Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican’s Catechism Dicastery, who Pope Francis often commissions investigations into cases of violence.

Caccia and Blanco filed the complaint on the grounds that Bertomeu allegedly disclosed confidential details of testimony they gave as part of an investigation into the Peruvian company. Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).

The new development, the couple said, was an Oct. 16 decision by the provincial prosecutor overseeing the case, Sandro Ruiz Herrera, who initially opened an investigation into their complaint, saying he had recused himself and turned the case over to Peru’s prosecutor. General Chancellery on the grounds that Bertomeu, as a Vatican official and envoy of the Pope, has diplomatic privileges.

Bertomeu and Maltese Archbishop Charles Sciclun, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, were chosen by Pope Francis last year to lead a special mission to investigate the incident in Peru. Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV).

The couple, believed to be the Vatican’s top investigators, have held diplomatic passports from the Holy See since 2018, when Pope Francis sent them on a similar special mission to investigate clerical abuse scandals in Chile.

Talking to essencePeruvian lawyer José Ugas confirmed Bertomeu’s diplomatic status as an official representative of the Pope, saying: “Bertomeu has a diplomatic passport from the Vatican government…he is a representative of the state.”

“He also has a document authorizing him as a member of a diplomatic mission,” Ugaz said, adding that “he is fully covered by the diplomatic immunity that the Treaty of Vienna and other international instruments recognize for foreign officials,” including a 1980 concordat governing relations between Peru and the Holy See.

Ugaz said that in this case, Ruiz Herrera “did well to forward the complaint because he believes that actually having diplomatic immunity does not mean opening an investigation.”

The attorney general is now deciding whether, “since this is a foreign official with immunity, to negotiate with the Vatican to open an investigation at the highest level or, failing that, to simply close the case because he cannot be prosecuted in Peru.”

“I think it’s a closed case,” Ugaz said, saying it may take a few days to complete some formalities, but the case for archiving “is compelling.”

Founded by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari in 1971, the SCV has been mired in scandal over the past decade over allegations of various forms of abuse and financial corruption, with victims claiming that various reform efforts have failed. Scicluna and Bertomeu traveled to Lima in July 2023 to conduct various interviews as part of a special mission reporting directly to the Pope.

Both Caccia and Blanco asked to be interviewed by Scicluna and Bertomeu, and were given an appointment. Since Scicluna missed his flight, Bertomeu gave them an interview. When details of their conversation became public, they filed criminal charges against Bertomeu “and those responsible,” suggesting he should have disclosed the information.

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However, the litigants said that the identities of Caccia and Blanco were identified by photographers outside the nunciature and that the contents of their statements, but not their names, were given to other witnesses in the Scicluna and Bertomeu investigations to assess their veracity. As a result, these participants say, the information in question should not have come from Bertomeu.

In their video, Caccia and Blanco said Ruiz Herrera, in explaining his decision to refer the case to the attorney general, cited a 1982 decree that recognizes categories of diplomatic immunity, including heads of missions with the rank of nuncio and diplomatic agents with the rank of nuncio. the rank of minister.

Caccia and Blanco contested the decision, arguing that Bertomeu had never held the rank of minister and therefore had never been to Peru as a diplomatic agent.

The couple, who were threatened with excommunication by the Pope if they did not withdraw their complaint, also published an article on October 28 in a Peruvian magazine. El Comercio a newspaper that describes its version of events and accuses members of the press who criticize their position in the case of defamation.

Ugaz expressed his belief that, based on the comments of their videoin which they also claim to be the victims of a smear campaign, Caccia and Blanco “confuse a domestic norm with what clearly corresponds to Bertomeu’s diplomatic status, and therefore the immunity guaranteed to him by the Peruvian state.”

According to article one of the concordat, “the Catholic Church in Peru enjoys complete independence and autonomy,” meaning, according to Ugaz, it is guaranteed the ability to resolve internal matters, such as the Bertomeu complaint, within its own legislation and ecclesiastical courts.

“My impression was that the complainants had no idea of ​​Bertomeu’s diplomatic status,” he said, adding that “you don’t have to be a nuncio or a minister of state to be able to use diplomatic immunity.”

As an example, Ugaz noted that officials working in multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations enjoy immunity “in Peru and in all countries where they work, and for legal protection it is not necessary to be ministers.”

The special mission led by Scicluna and Bertomeu, he said, is considered an internal investigation of the Catholic Church and is subject to a church-state concordat, which means the pair enjoy diplomatic privileges. Thus, the complaint against Bertomeu is a matter that can only be resolved by the church through its own legislation and courts, as stated in the concordat.

Talking to essencePeruvian lawyer Carlos Rivera said the fact that a complaint had been filed against Bertomeu “seems a little overwhelming to me.”

“This is an absolutely unusual circumstance. Absolutely unusual. That is, strange, strange,” he said, expressing his belief that neither Scicluna nor Bertomeu “committed any illegal actions, any illegal actions, and even more so it was not a crime.”

“They were carrying out a mission commissioned by none other than the Pope,” he said, noting that the investigation itself “was very discreet, and that’s why I tell you that this complaint seems to me to be a completely unusual fact.”

Rivera expressed his belief that, based on the available information, “there is no evidence that they have committed a crime, and therefore in this case it would be appropriate for the Attorney General of the nations to archive the complaint.”

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen