ROME – Two private citizens who filed a criminal complaint against a Vatican official investigating a scandal-plagued Peruvian secular group announced this week that the case has reached a new phase; At this stage, legal experts say the case will likely be dismissed on diplomatic grounds immunity.

In a video posted on YouTube on October 28 and titled “They want to silence us,” Peruvian laywoman Giuliana Caccia Arana and Peruvian laywoman Sebastian Blanco said they were “surprised” to hear from their lawyers about this on Thursday, October 24. There had been a development in the criminal complaint they filed against Spanish Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, who is frequently tasked by Pope Francis with investigating cases of abuse.

Caccia and Blanco filed a complaint alleging that Bertomeu leaked confidential details of their testimony as part of an investigation based in Peru. Sodalityum Christianae Vitae (SCV).

The duo said the new development was a decision made on October 16 by Sandro Ruiz Herrera, the state prosecutor overseeing the case. Sandro Ruiz Herrera initially initiated an investigation into his complaints, stating that he withdrew and referred the case to the Peruvian Prosecutor. He was sent to the General’s office on the grounds that Bertomeu had diplomatic privileges as a Vatican official and papal envoy.

Bertomeu and Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, assistant secretary of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, were appointed by Pope Francis last year to lead a Special Mission based in Peru. Sodalityum Christianae Vitae (SCV).

Widely regarded as the Vatican’s top investigators, the duo had held diplomatic passports on behalf of the Vatican since 2018, when Pope Francis sent them on a similar special mission to investigate religious abuse scandals in Chile.

To talk turning pointPeruvian lawyer Jose Ugaz confirmed Bertomeu’s diplomatic status as the pope’s official representative, saying: “Bertomeu has a diplomatic passport from the Vatican government…he is a representative of the state.”

Ugaz stated that “he also has a document authorizing him as a member of the diplomatic mission” and said, “He is within the scope of diplomatic immunity in other international documents recognized for foreign officials, including the Vienna Agreement and the 1980 concordat regulation.” Relations between Peru and the Vatican.

Ugaz said that in this case, Ruiz Herrera “did a good job in forwarding the complaint because he thought that having diplomatic immunity did not make it appropriate to open an investigation.”

Now the Attorney General must decide whether “since he is a foreign official with immunity, he will make agreements with the Vatican to launch an investigation at the highest level, or will he close the case because he cannot do so.” “He will be tried in Peru.”

“I think this is a closed case,” Ugaz said, adding that it might take a few days for some formalities to be completed but that the arguments for archiving it were “compelling.”

Founded in 1971 by Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, SCV has been shrouded in scandal for 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 went to Lima in July 2023 to hold various meetings within the scope of the Special Mission, which reports directly to the pope.

Both Caccia and Blanco wanted to interview Scicluna and Bertomeu and were given an appointment. Bertomeu interviewed them because Scicluna missed his flight. When details of their conversation became public, they filed a criminal complaint against “and those responsible”, assuming Bertomeu had disclosed the information.

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However, those involved in the process said that the identities of Caccia and Blanco were discovered by photographers outside the priesthood, and that the content of their statements, but not their names, was conveyed to other witnesses in the investigation carried out by Scicluna and Bertomeu. to evaluate accuracy. As a result, these participants say, the information in question need not come from Bertomeu.

Caccia and Blanco said in their video that Ruiz Herrera, in explaining his decision to refer the case to the Attorney General, cited a 1982 decree granting categories of diplomatic immunity that include heads of missions and diplomatic agents at the rank of nuncio. minister rank.

Caccia and Blanco appealed the decision, arguing that Bertomeu had never held the rank of minister and thus had never been in Peru as a diplomatic agent.

Threatened with excommunication by the pope if they did not withdraw their complaints, the duo published an article in Peru on October 28. El Comercio The newspaper tells its version of events and accuses members of the press of criticizing their handling of the libel case.

Based on the comments, Ugaz expressed his belief that: their videoCaccia and Blanco, who also claim to be victims of a smear campaign, “confuse an internal norm with what clearly corresponds to Bertomeu’s diplomatic status and therefore to the immunity guaranteed to him by the Peruvian State.”

According to the first article of the concordat, “the Catholic Church in Peru enjoys full independence and autonomy”, meaning, according to Ugaz, it is guaranteed the authority to conduct internal affairs, such as the complaint against Bertomeu, within the framework of its own legislation and religious legislation. courts.

“The impression I get is that the complainants have no idea about Bertomeu’s diplomatic status,” he said. “It is not necessary to have the category of nuncio or foreign minister to benefit from diplomatic immunity.”

As an example, Ugaz noted that officials working in multilateral organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations “enjoy immunity in Peru and all the countries where they work, and ministers do not need to be present to be legally protected.”

He said the Special Mission led by Scicluna and Bertomeu was considered an internal investigation into the Catholic Church under the church-state concordat, meaning the pair enjoyed diplomatic privileges. Therefore, a complaint against Bertomeu is a matter that only the church can resolve through its own legislation and courts, as stated in the concordat.

To talk turning pointPeruvian lawyer Carlos Rivera said the fact that the complaint had been filed against Bertomeu “seems a little confusing to me.”

“This is absolutely unusual. Absolutely unusual. I mean weird, weird,” he said, expressing his belief that neither Scicluna nor Bertomeu “did any irregular action, any illegal action, and this is not a crime.”

Saying that the investigation itself was “very cautious”, he said: “They were carrying out a task entrusted to them by none other than the Pope”, and therefore this complaint seemed to me an absolutely unusual fact.

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

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen