Article originally published in El Debate on April 7, 2025.
The decision responds to decades of abuses of power, spiritual manipulation and financial scandals within their communities
By María Rabell García (Correspondent in Rome and the Vatican of “El Debate”)
By decision of Pope Francis, the Holy See has decreed the definitive suppression of the Public Association of Faithful Servants of God’s Plan, one of the female branches born of the Sodalitium of Christian Life and founded by the Peruvian Luis Fernando Figari.
This measure, executed by a decree of the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, is part of the process of dissolution of all the works promoted by Figari, who has been accused for years of abuses of power, conscience and sexual abuses, as well as financial irregularities.
“Our Public Association of the Faithful of Diocesan Right has been suppressed, with a view to being a Society of Apostolic Life, Servants of the Plan of God,” begins the statement published by the community, publicly acknowledging the end of its institutional existence after 26 years of history.
A community marked by the expansion of… and abuse
Since its founding in 1998, the Servants of God’s Plan sought to draw inspiration from Mary’s example as “the Servant of the Lord” and Jesus’ call to “serve, and not be served.” Their presence extended to six countries – Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Italy and Angola – and they even formed a music group with evangelizing purposes, winning the sympathy of many young people at mass events such as World Youth Day 2019 in Panama.
But behind the apparent missionary vitality, the institution today recognizes a deeply damaged history. In their own statement, the servants confess to having lived through a “sectarian culture of abusive control,” which resulted in “vocational recruitment, estrangement from families, abusive use of authority, manipulation of conscience, physical, psychological and spiritual abuse.”
“We are hurt and ashamed of what has had to be suffered within our community, and we ask forgiveness for our actions and omissions,” they say, in one of the statements in the text. They also acknowledge that they “reacted late and slowly” to the complaints, and that this lack of action contributed to the revictimization of many consecrated women.
The road to repair
The Vatican intervention was not sudden. In 2018, under the then Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, a first Canonical Visitation was held that revealed a “harmful and abusive structure.” Three years later, in the face of the testimony of a growing number of victims, his successor, Monsignor Carlos Castillo, ordered a second investigation that culminated in August 2024 with a clear proposal: to close the community.
During the last months, the nuns carried out a process of discernment guided by the Spanish priest Jordi Bertomeu, papal delegate and now pontifical commissioner in charge of the liquidation. Together with him, the nun Carmen Reyes Varas has been appointed assistant delegate.
“We feel indebted as an institution and on a personal level,” they express in reference to the “enormous suffering” of the victims. “We are aware of how many of the decisions of our governments have been transmitters of this system of abuses,” they acknowledge.
In addition to the closure of communities, the process includes accompaniment for the spiritual, psychological and economic reparation of the victims. The statement notes that Commissioner Bertomeu has offered his availability to support viable apostolic works and channel the necessary aid through Eshmá, an independent service that offers help to people who have suffered “abuse in institutional, spiritual or religious settings,” explains the official website.
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