DISCIPLINE, OBEDIENCE, AND PUNISHMENTS: Spiritual abuse as an enabler of sexual abuse within Sodalicio

Abstract

This chapter examines Luis Fernando Figari’s leadership of the Sodalicio community, and his role in the foundation of two related movements for women, the Marian Community of Reconciliation, and the Servants of God’s Plan. It describes the conservative ethos that characterized Figari’s vision for Sodalicio and the impact this had on the community’s daily life. It then traces the revelations of abuses within Sodalicio that began after the death of Figari’s close associate German Doig (2001), the investigation of Doig by Figueroa (from 2006), the crisis provoked by the book on Sodalicio by Pedro Salinas and Paola Ugaz, Half Monks, Half Soldiers (2015), and the subsequent findings of three commissions (the Ethics Commission 2016, the Experts Commission 2017, and the Congressional commission 2019), which recorded evidence of abuses within Sodalicio. The Ethics Commission spoke to the undue emphasis that Sodalicio placed on discipline, obedience, and punishments. We argue that the sexual abuses perpetrated by Figari, Doig, and others demonstrate how sexual abuse can be enabled and sustained by spiritual abuse.