The recordings that Infovaticana is unveiling about the controversial ecclesiastical investigation into the priest Eleuterio Vásquez González, known as Father Lute, demonstrate that the then Bishop of Chiclayo Robert Prevost never suspended him from public ministry. The full content of the precautionary measures decree dated April 3, 2025, read by the diocesan instructor Giampiero Gambaro to the victims, reveals that the imposed restrictions were exclusively two: his withdrawal from the Eten parish and the limitation on confessions. Nothing more.
In the new audio, Gambaro reads Prevost’s decree verbatim, in which it is stipulated that the priest “temporarily leave the parish and refrain from hearing confessions.” There is no mention at any point of a suspension from public ministry or a general prohibition on celebrating Mass or exercising priestly functions. In fact, the delegate himself clarifies to the victims that Lute had not been suspended and that he retained the faculties proper to the ministry, with the only exception mentioned.
Withdrawing from a parish does not equate to prohibiting public ministry
Being relieved from a parish does not imply being deprived of public priestly ministry. Many priests are not parish priests and yet celebrate Mass, administer sacraments, and freely exercise their ministry. The role of the parish priest is a specific pastoral function, not a legally necessary condition for exercising the priesthood.
Canon 1333 of the Code of Canon Law is clear: the suspension of a cleric requires a formal decree that expressly indicates the faculties withdrawn. In this case, there was no such suspension decree, but rather partial precautionary measures that did not affect clerical status or the general public exercise of the ministry. Therefore, it is false to claim that Lute was suspended from public ministry.
The official narrative to date has led all media to assume that the priest was suspended, when in reality the decree only implied his transfer and a specific restriction. Gambaro’s full reading of the document ends that version and restores the legal truth of the facts.
The audio evidence: the decree read by Gambaro
The recordings clearly show the real content of Prevost’s decree and the explanations given by the ecclesiastical instructor himself. Below are the most relevant excerpts:
Giampiero Gambaro:
“The decree from Prevost on April 3, 2022, when you had already approached, first contacts with the Church, so to speak, then it says: Prohibit Father Eleuterio from administering the sacrament of penance. Confession. Second, the exercise of the functions inherent to his office as parish priest, inherent to his office as parish priest, in the parish, basically removes him as parish priest of the Santa María Magdalena parish in Ciudad Etén. Nothing more. Nothing more. It does not prohibit him from celebrating Mass or receiving it or anything. Cornejo, now I don’t have it here because even the father… (incomprehensible) where it imposes the prohibition on celebrating Mass. But between 2022 and 2023 he had no prohibition. So unfortunately Father Julio, or I don’t know who, communicated something wrong to you.”
Gambaro’s literal reading of the decree demonstrates that the only restrictions were on confession and the parish office. The priest did not lose his general ministerial faculties and remained authorized to celebrate Mass and exercise his ministry publicly.
Lawyer: “Normally —I who have followed from experience I have in the cases—, normally when it’s a case of child abuse, the first thing prohibited is the celebration of Mass.”
Gambaro: “It has not been the case, eh, what can I say. Contra facto, non valent argumenta, hehe, sorry for the Latin.”
This second conversation confirms in a resounding way that Prevost did not prohibit Lute from celebrating Mass or exercising public ministry. The Latin expression used by Gambaro —“against the facts, arguments do not prevail”— ironically summarizes the evidence: the facts contradict the official version.
With this evidence, it is definitively established that Prevost’s decree of April 3, 2022 did not suspend Father Lute from public ministry. The precautionary measures were limited to the temporary withdrawal from the parish and the restriction on administering the sacrament of penance. The priest retained his ordinary ministerial faculties and there was, at no time under Prevost’s episcopate, a suspension of public priestly exercise or a specific limitation to celebrate Masses only privately.
Gambaro’s complete reading of the decree disproves the version disseminated by Elise Ann Allen in the official biography of the pope, by the Diocese of Chiclayo in a September 2024 statement, and by Robert Prevost himself, who in July 2024 responded by email to Infovaticana about the measures taken in that file.