Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani is pictured here during a 2017 liturgical celebration in Lima, Peru. / Credit: Eduardo Berdejo/ACI Prensa
Lima Newsroom, Feb 3, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).
A recent article published by the Spanish newspaper El País reported an accusation of alleged sexual abuse against Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani that supposedly occurred in 1983 when he was a priest incardinated in Opus Dei. The cardinal has denied the accusation.
Born in Lima in 1943, Cipriani was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in August 1977. He was incardinated in the prelature until May 1988, when he was named by St. John Paul II as auxiliary bishop of Ayacucho, a diocese that was then at the epicenter of terrorism by the Shining Path maoist guerilla group.
In May 1995, he was named archbishop of that ecclesiastical see and in January 1999 he was named archbishop of Lima. In February 2001 he was created a cardinal, becoming the first cardinal formed in the Opus Dei apostolate.
In January 2019, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop of Lima when he turned 75. Following his resignation, Cipriani withdrew from the Peruvian public scene, in which he had been active since his years as a bishop.
However, last week his name turned up in the media again due to the article in El País. Below is a chronology of the case involving the Peruvian archbishop.
The accusation published by El País
On Jan. 24, the Spanish newspaper published an article claiming that Pope Francis had forced Cipriani to resign as head of the Archdiocese of Lima due to an accusation of inappropriate touching that he allegedly committed in 1983 with a teenager who is now 58 years old.
According to the newspaper, ecclesiastical sources in Lima stated that the alleged victim wrote a letter to Pope Francis in 2018. In addition, this person claims that he reported the abuse to Opus Dei when it happened but that the prelature did nothing.
Cipriani’s first defense
On Jan. 25, Cipriani published a letter responding to El País in which he denied the accusations, saying that “it is a serious matter that information should be published in a partial manner that appears to come from confidential documentation held by the Holy See that I do not even have in my possession.”
The cardinal said that in August 2018 he was informed of a complaint but that it was never handed to him. He also claimed that in December 2019, without any proceedings being opened against him, “the apostolic nuncio verbally informed me that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had imposed a series of penalties on me limiting my priestly ministry.” In addition, he was asked to live outside of Peru and remain silent on the matter.
The archbishop emeritus also related that in February 2020 he had an audience with Pope Francis and, he said, the pope allowed him to resume his pastoral duties.
Opus Dei in Peru issues a statement
Likewise on Jan. 25, the regional vicar of Opus Dei in Peru, Father Ángel Gómez-Hortigüela, reported in a statement that “there is no record of any formal process during the years in which, as a priest, Father Juan Luis Cipriani was incardinated in Opus Dei.”
However, he admitted that in 2018 he did not accept a request to meet with the complainant because “he knew that he could not interfere with a formal accusation already initiated with the Holy See, which is the appropriate course when it comes to a cardinal.” He also noted that he reacted “thinking that this meeting might not be positive.”
“Today I realize that I could have offered him a personal, human, and spiritual reception, which I do know he did receive from other people in Opus Dei,” he added.
The Vatican confirms the measures against Cipriani
On Jan. 26, the director of the Vatican Press Office, Matteo Bruni, confirmed that after resigning as archbishop of Lima, Cipriani received “a penal precept with certain disciplinary measures regarding his public activity, place of residence, and use of insignia.”
“Although on specific occasions certain permissions were granted to respond to requests due to the age and family situation of the cardinal, at present, this precept remains in force,” Bruni said.
Statements by archbishop of Lima, Peruvian bishops
In the context of these events, the archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Carlos Castillo, and the president’s office of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference (CEC, by its Spanish acronym) each published a statement on Jan. 28.
“In response to the statements” by Bruni, the archbishop published his Letter to the People of God to affirm his solidarity with the victims of abuse and to highlight the work of Pope Francis to punish these crimes.
In his letter, the prelate does not mention Cipriani’s name but asks “to recognize the truth of the facts” in light of investigations carried out in recent months and thanks the “journalists who have been collaborating in protecting the victims.”
For its part, the CEC president’s office published a statement stating that the measures were applied to the cardinal “once the veracity of the facts was ascertained.”
“We regret the pain suffered by the victim of abuse,” it added.
Cipriani’s second defense
From Madrid, where he resides, on Jan. 29 Cipriani released a second letter in which he reaffirmed that he has not committed any crime or sexual abuse “neither in 1983, nor before, nor after.”
“I am obliged to clarify,” he added, “that when the nuncio in Peru transmitted to me the precept with which the congregation limited some of my faculties, I signed it, declaring in writing at the same time that the accusation was absolutely false.”
Cipriani also reiterated that he has not been able to defend himself against the accusation and charged that he is the object of a “campaign of attempted harassment and destruction” of his dignity and honor.
At the time of publication of this article, the Vatican has not officially reported whether any criminal proceedings have been carried out against the Peruvian cardinal.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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