An article published by the Spanish newspaper El País on January 24 reported an accusation of alleged sexual abuse against Peruvian cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani in 1983 when he was an incardinated priest in Opus Dei, something that has been denied by purple.
Juan Luis Cipriani was born in Lima in 1943 and was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in August 1977. He was incardinated in this prelature until May 1988, when he was appointed by San John Paul II Auxiliary Bishop of Ayacucho, diocese that was then in the epicenter of the terrorism of the Luminous Path Group.
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In May 1995 he was appointed archbishop of that ecclesiastical headquarters and in January 1999 he was appointed Archbishop of Lima. In February 2001 he was created Cardinal, becoming the first purple formed in the Opus Dei.
In January 2019, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Lima at the age of 75 and appointed then P. Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio.
At the months of his resignation, Cardinal Cipriani moved away from the Peruvian public landscape, in which he was active since his years as bishop. However, last week his name returned to the media because From El País article (requires subscription).
Next, we present a chronological count on the case that surrounds the Peruvian archbishop.
The accusation of abuses disseminated by the country
On January 24, the Spanish newspaper published an article ensuring that Pope Francis had forced the resignation of Cipriani Cipriani to the archbishopric of Lima due to an accusation of undue touching that he would have committed in 1983 against a teenager who is now 58 years old.
According to the medium, ecclesiastical sources of Lima assured him that the alleged victim wrote a letter to the Pope in 2018. For his part, this person states that he denounced the abuses to Opus Dei when they happened, but that the prelature did nothing.
Cardinal Cipriani’s first defense
The next day, Cipriani Cardinal He published a letter responding to El País in which he rejects the accusations saying that “it is serious that information that seems to proceed with documentation reserved by the Holy See that I not even have in my possession is published partially.”
The purple said that in August 2018 he was informed of a complaint, but that he was never delivered to him. He also states that in December 2019, without a process being opened, “the Apostolic Nuncio verbally told me that the congregation for the doctrine of faith had imposed a series of penalties limiting my priestly ministry.” In addition, he was asked to live outside Peru and keep silent.
The emeritus archbishop also reports that in February 2020 he had an audience with the pontiff and, he says, the Pope allowed him to resume his pastoral tasks.
Opus Dei in Peru is pronounced
Also on January 25, the Regional Vicar of Opus Dei in Peru, P. Ángel Gómez-Hortigüela, reported in a statement that “there is no registration of any formal process during the years in which, as a priest, Father Juan Luis Cipriani was incardinated in Opus Dei.”
However, he acknowledges that in 2018 he did not host a request to meet with the complainant because “he knew he could not interfere with a formal accusation already initiated before the Holy See, which is the corresponding route when it comes to a cardinal.” He also points out that he reacted “thinking that this meeting could not be positive.”
“Today I realize that I could have offered a personal, human and spiritual reception, which I know that he received from other people from Opus Dei,” he adds.
The Vatican confirms the measures to Cardinal Cipriani
On January 26, the Director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, confirmed that after giving Residence and use of badges. “
The Peruvian Episcopate and the Archbishop of Lima are also pronounced
Within the framework of these facts, the Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Carlos Castillo, and the Presidency of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) each published a text on January 28.
“Before the statements” by Matteo Bruni, the archbishop published his Letter to God’s people to affirm his solidarity with the victims of abuse and highlight the work of Pope Francis to sanction these crimes.
In his letter, the prelate does not mention the name of Cardinal Cipriani, but asks for “recognizing the truth of the facts” in the face of investigations carried out in recent months and thanks the “journalists who have been collaborating in the protection of the victims.”
For its part, the presidency of the CEC He published a statement in which he affirms that the measures “once the veracity of the facts were proven to the purple.”
“We regret the pain suffered by the victim of abuse,” he adds.
Cardinal Cipriani’s second defense
From Madrid where Cardinal Cipriani resides a second letter spread on January 29 in which he reaffirms that he has not committed any crime or sexual abuse “neither in 1983, nor before, nor after.”
“I am forced to specify,” he adds, “that when the nuncio in Peru transmitted the precept with which the congregation limited me some faculties, I signed it declaring in writing in the same act that the accusation was absolutely false.”
Cardinal Cipriani also reiterates that he has not been able to defend himself against the accusation and denouncing that he is the object of a “campaign to attempt harassment and destruction” of his dignity and honor.
Until the moment of publication of this note, the Vatican has not officially informed if any criminal proceedings against the Peruvian cardinal have been carried out.
Eduardo Berdejo
Professional in Social Communication of the National University of San Marcos in Peru, I have more than 20 years of experience in Catholic digital journalism. As part of ACI Press, I have been sent to cover the trips of Pope Francis to Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, in addition to the synodality synodality in the Vatican in 2023.