In it Christian Life Society everything revolves around the founder of the religious organization, Luis Figari Rodrigofrom the mandate to its members to submit blindly and to blows, to the million-dollar investments aimed at increasing its economic power. This was stated by a key witness in the tax investigation, the former sodalite FNP, who belonged to the congregation for 16 years.
FNP – whose identity is kept confidential for security reasons – said that his family handed him over to the Sodalicio to be trained under the teachings of Christianity, but the opposite turned out to be the case. They urged him to denigrate his family and deify Figari.“(In the Sodalitium there is a) sick fervor that was lived in the Sodalitium. Figari became a kind of god, more than Jesus Christ himself. At that stage of my life I would have been willing—and these are no small words—to give my life for Figari. ‘(El Sodalicio) was your family,’ they told you. When you said: ‘My family is coming to visit me’, or: ‘My family called me’, they told you: ‘No, they are not your family. Your family is us.’ That was something that was constantly repeated and was very systematic,” he said in his FNP statement to which the Investigation Unit of La República had access.
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money issue
The machinery of the Sodalitium is fueled by the funds provided by the families of the Sodalites. FNP offered a description of what the system that Figari had designed for the financing of the religious organization was like. They keep even the last cent.
“They profited from many things under the criteria of religiosity and this blind trust. Since I entered that place, they told me that I have to comply with an economic quota, that all of us who entered the community (of Sodalicio) have to pay for our support and that it was valued at 350 dollars per person. My dad paid from the day I entered until the day I left. (…) The contribution, in my case, from the beginning was settled from 350 dollars for the 13 years that I lived in the community (of Sodalicio). And for 12 months of each year, it is $54,600,” FNP testified before the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime.
“My brother lived 9 years in the community under the same scheme. We are talking about the mandatory contribution of $37,800. There are 54,600 plus 37,800 dollars that my father contributed to our social life as something established. (…) My dad bought us a truck for Sodalicio when we lived here, for $15,000. I received an inheritance from my mother when she died, of $20,000, which I also gave to the community. Actually we lived to give everything to the community. If we add up the contributions we made, they are over $500,000, because my father was asked for extra donations,” he explained to the prosecutor.
Unlike other witnesses, FNP had access to the Sodalicio leadership, because he worked under the orders of the Archbishop of Piura, José Eguren Anselmi, who sued journalists Paola Ugaz and Pedro Salinas for publishing investigations into the organization’s opaque businesses. religious. FNP spoke of Eguren’s secret meetings with the priest Jaime Baertl Gómez and the layman Juan Carlos Len Álvarez. “They They have the absolute economic power of the Sodalicio“said the witness.
Journalistic investigations revealed that the Sodalicio resorted to land trafficking and criminal organizations to forcibly appropriate properties that belonged to the Piuran peasant communities, something that the Sodalicio authorities always denied. However, FNP confirmed these activities in violation of the law.
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Everyday abuse
“Jaime Baertl was like the advisor for all economic things. You knew implicitly that they handled the economic issue and could achieve things. They told me that I couldn’t see anything economicallybecause that was what they took care of directly in Lima. (…) I received a call from a person from Piura, with financial solvency, who called me very confused and told me: ‘those lands that you are buying are lands that are being sold illegally. I know the owners. And since you are my friend, I want to ask you to please schedule a meeting with the people responsible so that we can resolve it because I am sure that you are not aware.’ I was surprised. Super surprised. (…) I called Father Jaime (Baertl Gómez), who was the one who constantly came to see this project, and I told him. (…) My surprise was greater because he told me: ‘No, don’t worry. This is not happening like that. Don’t worry, we’ll solve it.’ Once again, with the trust I had towards Jaime (Baertl Gómez), I said: It’s already resolved. Then I later found out that there were many irregularities and that groups of land traffickers and the Sodalicio (were) buying the lands from people knowing that they were not the owners,” FNP testified.
As if that were not enough, the former Sodalite also revealed to the Prosecutor’s Office Specialized in Organized Crime the abuses committed by those responsible for Sodálite with the youngest members. With this testimony, FNP confirms what the members of the Vatican investigation team found.
“Me I have had to see abuse up close in the Sodalicio with which I have not agreed, very serious, serious psychological abuses. I have also suffered some of them, under the criterion that the superior is the voice of God. I have swum in the sea with clothes carrying stones to the island, 150 meters. I have witnessed insults from Mr. (Oscar) Tokumura (Tokumura), how he insulted people, telling them ‘shitty animal’, ‘shitty beast’, ‘you’re good for nothing’. I have witnessed kicks, because they made us stand so they could kick us in the stomach and it was a test of whether we exercised or not. I ran until I vomited, I spent three days without eating, drinking only water. (…) My brother almost lost his life in its formation stage by an order from the superior of the community of San Bartolo. They forced us to swim in the sea and my brother was afraid of the sea. One day when the sea was in flood, they forced him to swim, he came out saying that he couldn’t continue and they forced him to swim,” said the witness.
The Sodalitium nightmare is in its final phase.
