logo
Pope Francis accepts the resignation of a Peruvian bishop accused of ignoring abuse

Pope Francis accepts the resignation of a Peruvian bishop accused of ignoring abuse

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of an influential Peruvian bishop, who has come under criticism for not doing enough to stop abuses committed by a conservative Catholic movement that was recently disbanded by the Vatican.
Peru's Bishops Conference said Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos from the diocese of Trujillo, will be replaced by the Jesuit bishop Gilberto Vizcarra. A reason for the Pope's decision was not provided.
Cabrejos, 76, was the president of Peru's Bishops Conference until January, and had held that position for 12 years.
In a statement published last year, the archbishop said that he had presented his resignation letter to the Vatican in 2023, in accordance with Catholic Church laws that call on bishops to prepare for retirement at age 75.
During the time that Archbishop Cabrejos led the bishop's conference, the Peruvian-based Catholic movement, Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, was accused of sexually abusing its recruits, of threatening journalists and of deploying schemes to strip peasants off their lands in the north of Peru.
Victims of the movement, known also as SCV, have accused Cabrejos of turning a blind eye to these practices.
'He was indifferent towards victims,' said Pedro Salinas, a journalist and former member of the SCV who published a book about the group's abuses that unleashed several investigations into the conservative Catholic movement.
SCV, which had been founded in the early 70's, was disbanded in January by Pope Francis.
In 2017, a report commissioned by the group's leadership determined that its founder Luis Figari sodomized his recruits and subjected them to humiliating psychological and other sexual abuses.
After an attempt at reform, Francis sent his two most trusted investigators, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, to look into the Sodalitium abuses. Their report uncovered 'sadistic' sect-like abuses of power, authority and spirituality, economic abuses in administering church money and even cases of harassing critics.
The 2023 report by Bertomeu and Scicluna resulted in the expulsions last year of Figari and 10 top members, including an archbishop who had sued Salinas and journalist Paola Ugaz for their reporting and was forced to retire early.
In a recent interview with Peruvian newspaper La Republica, Cabrejos said that Peru's Bishops Conference had been warning the Vatican of abuses committed by SCV since 2015. The archbishop claimed that the investigators sent to Peru by the Vatican based their findings on information that had already been gathered by Peruvian church leaders for several years.
The SCV was founded in 1971 as one of several Catholic societies born as a conservative reaction to the left-leaning liberation theology movement that swept through Latin America in the 1960s.
At its height, the group counted hundreds of members across South America and the United States. It was enormously influential in Peru and had its U.S. base in Denver.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Natalee Holloway: 20 years since disappearance, Joran van der Sloot's arrest
Natalee Holloway: 20 years since disappearance, Joran van der Sloot's arrest

Yahoo

time7 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Natalee Holloway: 20 years since disappearance, Joran van der Sloot's arrest

The Brief Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba during a class trip in May 2005. Joran van der Sloot was arrested on June 9, 2005, as the main suspect. In 2023, he confessed to killing Holloway but has not been charged in her death. It's been 20 years since the disappearance of Alabama 18-year-old Natalee Holloway during her class trip to Aruba. On June 9, 2005, the first arrest related to the case was that of Joran van der Sloot, the Dutch national, who was the main suspect. The backstory Holloway, 18, went missing during a high school graduation trip to Aruba with classmates. She was last seen on May 30, 2005, leaving a bar with van der Sloot. Holloway's disappearance quickly became an international sensation, filling evening newscasts with live reports from the island and photos of her smiling face. Her disappearance also spawned countless books, podcasts and movies. A judge eventually declared her dead. The Holloway family has long sought answers about her disappearance, and van der Sloot has given shifting accounts over the years. At one point, he said Holloway was buried in gravel under the foundation of a house but later admitted that was untrue. Timeline Van der Sloot was identified as the main suspect and detained weeks later for questioning, along with two Surinamese brothers, but no charges were filed in the case. But in 2010, U.S. prosecutors said van der Sloot reached out to Beth Holloway, seeking $250,000 to disclose the location of the young woman's body. A grand jury indicted him that year on one count each of wire fraud and extortion. In 2012, van der Sloot pleaded guilty in Peru to killing 21-year-old Stephany Flores, a business student from a prominent Peruvian family. She was killed in 2010, five years to the day after Holloway's disappearance. Van der Sloot married a Peruvian woman in July 2014 in a ceremony at a maximum-security prison. In October 2023, van der Sloot pleaded guilty to extorting Holloway's mother in exchange for a 20-year sentence. The plea deal required van der Sloot to provide all the information he knew about Natalie Holloway's disappearance, allow her parents to hear in "real time" his discussion with law enforcement, and take a polygraph test. He admitted that he beat the young Alabama woman to death on a beach in Aruba after she refused his advances, then dumped her body into the sea. "I smash her head in with it completely," van der Sloot said in an Oct. 3, 2023, interview with federal authorities. "Her face basically, you know, collapses in. Even though it's dark, I can see her face is collapsed in." "I would like the chance to apologize to the Holloway family, my own family," he said, later adding, "I am no longer the person I was back then." He wasn't charged in Holloway's death. RELATED: Joran van der Sloot's confession in Natalee Holloway death provides long-sought answers, mother says What's next In 2023, the Aruba public prosecutor's office said it was not immediately clear whether van der Sloot could face murder charges on the island. The investigation into Holloway's disappearance is still open, and authorities "will follow up on any serious leads," said Ann Angela, a prosecutor's office spokesperson. RELATED: Natalee Holloway's killer Joran van der Sloot jumped by 2 inmates in Peru prison beatdown What they're saying "As far as I'm concerned, it's over," Beth Holloway, Natalee's mother, told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Alabama in 2023. "Joran van der Sloot is no longer the suspect in my daughter's murder. He is the killer." The family agreed to the plea deal because it was a way to get answers, she said. "Questions will forever remain about the extent to which others participated in depriving us of the opportunity to return Natalee's remains to Alabama," Dave Holloway wrote in the letter to the judge in 2023. The Source FOX News and the Associated Press contributed to this story. The information in this story comes from a combination of official court records, media reports, and public statements from law enforcement and the Holloway family over the past two decades. This story was reported from Los Angeles.

Most Memorable Photos of Protests Erupting in Los Angeles Over Immigration Raids
Most Memorable Photos of Protests Erupting in Los Angeles Over Immigration Raids

Yahoo

time8 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Most Memorable Photos of Protests Erupting in Los Angeles Over Immigration Raids

Protesters confront police on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. Credit - Jae C. Hong—AP A standoff between law enforcement and protesters in Los Angeles opposing the Trump Administration's immigration policies escalated over the weekend, prompting President Donald Trump to deploy more than 2,000 National Guardsmen to the city. Demonstrators shut down the 101 freeway on Friday to protest coordinated federal immigration raids that swept across the greater Los Angeles area. At least 44 people were 'administratively arrested' during a single operation that day, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson told CBS News. California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that his state plans to file a lawsuit early Monday against the president. The raids sparked a three-day mobilization against Trump, who said the city had been 'invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals.' On the campaign trail, he has vowed to launch the 'largest deportation in American history.' Recent media reports suggest ICE has been ordered to arrest at least 3,000 people per day. According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), local businesses were looted and vandalized during the unrest, while some demonstrators threw eggs and used incendiary devices against officers. Though the LAPD initially described Saturday's protests as 'peaceful,' the situation escalated by Sunday evening. Police declared an unlawful assembly and dispersed crowds with tear gas and rubber bullets. 'Demonstrators have marched to the LA Live area and are blocking all lanes of traffic on Figueroa and 11th St,' the department said in a post on X. 'You are to leave the area immediately.' The police department did not facilitate any arrests, but spoke about immigration authorities' right to conduct the raids. 'Federal authorities have the right to be able to do what they're doing," said LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell. "We don't engage in that activity." Some key moments from the protests are captured in the images below. Contact us at letters@

He Killed a Reggae Star's Daughter Feet Away from Her Child. Then Came the Judge's Haunting Words
He Killed a Reggae Star's Daughter Feet Away from Her Child. Then Came the Judge's Haunting Words

Yahoo

time8 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

He Killed a Reggae Star's Daughter Feet Away from Her Child. Then Came the Judge's Haunting Words

Brianna McKoy and Derrick Francis were arguing when he fatally shot her in 2023, authorities said McKoy, 23, was the mother of Francis' son Zander, who was 18 months old when his mother was killed A national manhunt was launched for Francis after he fled the sceneA New York man convicted of killing the mother of his son in front of their child when he was just 18 months old has learned his fate. On Thursday, June 5, Derrick Francis, 43, was sentenced to 55 years in prison for the murder of Brianna McKoy, 23, in Bridgeport, Conn., on April 6, 2023, online court records show. On April 25, a three-judge panel of the Connecticut Superior Court convicted Francis of the shooting death of McKoy in the apartment they shared in the city's North End, said Joseph Corradino, the State's Attorney for the Judicial District of Bridgeport, in a release. 'In coming to their verdict, the judges found that Francis had failed to prove his affirmative defense of extreme emotional disturbance,' the State's Attorney said in the release. McKoy was the daughter of Jamaican reggae star Ricky Trooper, who has written about his daughter's murder on Instagram. 'Hate the 6th of April,' he wrote on April 5. 'That day the fassy took my baby away from us.2 years now and the pain only get worst (sic).' McKoy's family has been seeking justice for her since the fatal shooting. "Today we finally got that justice and it's been a long time coming," her mother, Camille Hemmings, told News 12. On the day McKoy was killed, she and Francis were arguing at their apartment when he shot her four times with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, police said, News 12 reports. During closing arguments in Francis's trial, defense attorney Gerald Klein said Francis had "reached a breaking point" during his relationship with McKoy and called the homicide "a crime of passion,' the CT Post argued that Francis had initially said in one of his police interviews that he had to wrest the gun from McKoy, the CT Post reports. Later on, Francis said he found the gun in a drawer while looking for money he thought McKoy had allegedly taken, Corradino argued, according to the CT Post. Their son Zander was only 'a few feet away" when Francis fired the gun at McKoy, police said, according to News 12. "Baby Zander has not spoken a single word since that day,' Hemmings told News 12. 'He goes to therapy on a regular basis now to restore his speech." After the shooting, Francis fled the scene, setting off a national manhunt, according to the State's Attorney. Francis fled to Ohio, but was apprehended two days later when officers stopped a car he was riding in because they had an arrest warrant for the driver, the State's Attorney said. Francis ran from the officers during the traffic stop, but was captured after a short chase. Ohio officers recovered a gun under the vehicle's passenger seat that the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory determined was consistent with having fired the cartridge cases recovered from the crime scene, according to the State's Attorney. In a GoFundMe set up for Zander, the organizer wrote, "Camille Prince's daughter lost her life due to domestic violence." Hemmings told News 12 nothing can take away the pain of losing her daughter, but she is glad that her killer will serve out the next five decades behind bars. "He finally got what he deserved — 55 years. He will hopefully die in prison a lonely and miserable death," Hemmings told News 12. If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store