ROME (ITALY)
Crux
August 18, 2018
ByElise Harris
Pedro Salinas, author of the 2015 blockbuster book Half Monks, Half Soldiers, detailing years of allegations of physical, sexual and psychological abuse by members of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), is being sued by an archbishop that belongs to the group, who is charging the journalist with defamation.
Archbishop José Antonio Eguren Anselmi of Piura, was the subject of a Jan. 20 article on the website La Mula by Salinas titled “the Peruvian Juan Barros,” in which Salinas notes that Eguren Anselmi was a member of the “foundational generation” of the SCV, whose founder, Luis Fernando Figari, has been accused of abuses of power, conscience and sexuality.
Barros was the bishop of the Chilean Diocese of Osorno until June 11, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation following an investigation by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna into clerical abuse in Chile, where Barros was accused of covering up the sexual abuse of Chilean priest Father Fernando Karadima.
In his January article, Salinas, himself a former member of the SCV, compares Eguren Anselmi to Barros, saying the archbishop was a close disciple of Figari, and as a member of the “foundational generation” – which included German Doig, who died in 2001 and was found guilty of sexual abuse – “knew everything” about their founder and what he did.
Salinas asserts that the first accusation against the SCV was made in the year 2000 by a journalist named Jose Enrique Escardo, and that the complaint was directed at Eguren Anselmi.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.