Rome opens a new phase in the intervention of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) and the Servants of the Lord and of the Virgin of Matará (SSVM), which will include a «re-reading of the charism» and the «revision, renewal and purification» of their spirituality, formation and apostolate. The process comes after two special penal tribunals of the Holy See, in first instance and on appeal, found Father Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of both institutes, guilty of «an offense against the sixth Commandment committed with violence against several persons.»
The outcome of the proceedings and the new stage opening for the two institutes have been officially communicated to their superiors. The document is signed by José Antonio Satué, pontifical delegate for the IVE; Clara Echarte, pontifical delegate for the Servants; and Simona Brambilla, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Guilty in first instance and on appeal
According to the communiqué, the pontifical delegates held a meeting this week in Rome with the provincial superiors of both branches of the religious family, also in the presence of officials from the Dicastery for Consecrated Life.
During the meeting, the decisions adopted by the two competent special penal tribunals in the canonical process against Buela were reported. «In both degrees of judgment, he was found guilty of an offense against the sixth Commandment committed with violence against several persons,» the document states, referring to canon 1395 §2.
The first of these decisions was already included in the decree by which Rome intervened in the IVE. Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló had established a special penal tribunal in May 2020 which, on July 20, 2021, concluded that Buela had committed this offense against five members and former members of the Institute. Francis subsequently allowed the appeal requested by the defense and authorized the constitution of a special appeals tribunal. Buela died on April 23, 2023 before that second tribunal concluded its work.
The information now known therefore completes a point that remained pending: the appeals procedure continued and the second tribunal confirmed the founder’s guilt.
The delegates present the public communication of the result as an act intended to «restore the truth» and do justice to the persons harmed by Buela’s conduct.
From the founder’s conviction to the «re-reading of the charism»
The issue is no longer limited to the founder’s personal conduct. The same communiqué links the outcome of the proceedings with «the path of re-reading the charism» and with the «revision, renewal and purification» of the spirituality, formation and apostolate of the two institutes.
The clarification introduced immediately afterwards is especially significant: the process must be carried out «distinguishing between the gift of the Spirit granted for the building up of the Church and the limitations or personal actions of the Founder.»
The communiqué leaves open the task of discerning what belongs to the spiritual patrimony of the institutes and what elements must be revised due to their connection with Buela.
The IVE defines its charism as the search to «prolong the Incarnation in all things,» with special attention to the evangelization of culture. The Institute, founded in Argentina in 1984, maintains a broad international missionary presence. Its own institutional information presents its pastoral activity in 93 ecclesiastical jurisdictions in 44 countries.
An increasingly profound intervention
The new phase adds to the measures adopted by the Holy See in recent years regarding the IVE.
In January 2025, Rome appointed José Antonio Satué as pontifical delegate with full powers of government over the Institute. Among the measures then known were the constitution of a group of religious, canonists and theologians to carry out a «profound revision of the proper law» and the prohibition for three years of admitting new candidates and allowing entries into the novitiate.
The decree simultaneously recognized the IVE’s «great missionary drive,» but pointed to a «great weakness» in the formation process, a high number of departures and insufficient collaboration by superiors and members of the Institute with the previous pontifical commissioner to clarify the complaints against Buela.
The intervention advanced again last August, when Satué reorganized the general government through a team composed mostly of persons outside the Institute. Six of the eight members of the new structure come from outside the IVE and exercise their functions under the authority of the pontifical delegate, who retains his powers of government.
Read also: Satué reorganizes the government of the IVE with a mostly external team
Among the officials incorporated into that structure is Capuchin Giampiero Gambaro, head of the General Procurature. The canonist had previously intervened in the case of Father Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzales in Chiclayo and his arrival at the IVE’s government again raised questions about his actions in that case.
The future of the IVE, pending review
For now, the document signed by Satué, Echarte and Brambilla does not announce a suppression nor anticipate the outcome of the review. Its language expressly points to distinguishing the «gift of the Spirit» from Buela’s personal actions, while extending the examination to the spirituality, formation and apostolate of the two institutions.
The confirmation of the conviction on appeal, however, modifies a central element of the case. Buela’s canonical guilt no longer appears solely as the conclusion of a tribunal whose decision had been appealed: two canonical instances have reached the same conclusion about the founder, while the Institute he created remains under pontifical tutelage and now faces a review that also encompasses the way his legacy has shaped the life of the religious family.