José Enrique Escardó, the first public whistleblower of the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana and president of the Red de Sobrevivientes Perú, stated this Sunday on X that the apostolic nuncio in Peru, Paolo Rocco Gualtieri, and the president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, Carlos García Camader, have excluded him from the meeting that Leo XIV will hold with victims of the Sodalicio on November 14 in Chiclayo. According to him, the date and location of the meeting were communicated to him by a foreign press journalist.
Escardó maintains that both “are terrified” of what he might communicate after the meeting. In his view, the same procedure followed in Spain is being repeated, “filtering out victims so that the ‘uncomfortable’ ones for the Church do not enter and only those who do not make noise on social media and in the press are present.” The message adds that a prior notice, received days earlier, already pointed to this exclusion.
A warning he had already made
The complaint does not come as a surprise. At the end of October, in statements to Infobae, Escardó had already requested that the selection of victims who will meet the Pope be “transparent and plural” to prevent critical voices from being sidelined. At that time, he pointed to the nuncio and the president of the Peruvian bishops as those responsible for managing it and described them as “very favorable to the Sodalicio.” He also said he did not believe he would be invited and that what would not please them would be for the attendees to be filtered “as they did in Spain.”
More than thirty victims had previously delivered an open letter to the nunciature in Lima requesting an audience with the Pontiff during his trip to Peru. A second group, of 75 survivors, asked the Vatican for a direct meeting with representatives of the victims and comprehensive reparation. Escardó stated at the time that the nuncio had already received previous letters and “has not lifted a finger.”
The Vatican announced meetings with victims without providing details
At the end of October, the Holy See announced that Leo XIV will meet with victims of abuse in Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, as reported by InfoVaticana, one day after the Sodalicio victims requested to be received. The communiqué did not specify who would participate or under what conditions. For his part, the secretary for the apostolic visit of the Archdiocese of Lima, Juan Bytton, told the AP agency that the Pope had neither ruled out nor confirmed meetings with victims of the Sodalicio.
Escardó, a survivor of the Sodalicio and the most visible voice of its victims, has repeatedly criticized the actions of the nunciature and the Peruvian episcopate in this case. Leo XIV, who was bishop of Chiclayo, will visit Peru from November 11 to 16 as part of his trip to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru, and Chiclayo is on his itinerary.