Luis Fernando Figari

Who Is Luis Fernando Figari?

Luis Fernando Figari is a well known Peruvian religious leader. He is also known as Luis Figari. He is the founder of some important religious groups.

He is very important to many people because of the work he has done. Luis Fernando Figari is a name that is respected by many.

Early Life and Background

Luis Fernando Figari was born on July 8, 1947.

Career and Claim to Fame

Luis Fernando Figari has an official website where you can learn more about him. You can visit his website to find out about his life and work.

Birthday, Age and Zodiac

Luis Fernando Figari was born on July 8, 1947. He is 79 years old. His zodiac sign is Cancer. People who are Cancer are often very kind and caring.

Fun Facts and Legacy

Luis Fernando Figari is a very important person in the religious world. He was born on July 8, 1947, and is now 79 years old. His zodiac sign is Cancer, which is a sign of kindness and care.

We can learn more about Luis Fernando Figari on his website. He is a well known Peruvian religious leader and founder of some important groups.

Profile Overview of Luis Fernando Figari

Luis Fernando Figari Rodrigo (born 8 July 1947) is a Peruvian Catholic layman who is the founder and former superior general of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae. He also founded the Christian Life Movement and several other religious associations.

This profile of Luis Fernando Figari covers Biography, Controversies, Allegations of physical and sexual abuse, Vatican review and Expulsion of Figari, Vatican findings and dissolution of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.

He has been the subject of allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse of young men, some of whom were minors. On 30 January 2017, following an investigation of these claims, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life ordered that Figari be "prohibited from contacting, in any way, persons belonging to the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, and no way have any direct personal contact with them." In August 2024 he was formally expelled from the Sodalitium with the explicit approval of Pope Francis.

Biography of Luis Fernando Figari

Luis Fernando Figari was born in Lima, Peru, on 8 July 1947. His parents were Alberto (1902–1990) and Blanca Figari (1909–1995), both Peruvian. He was born in a Catholic family, the last of four children. He studied at the Immaculate Heart of Mary School until he was 10 years old and then at Holy Mary High School at Lima. He studied humanities and law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, and then law at the National University of San Marcos in Lima. During this time, he became a leader of the National Confederation of Youth, the youth branch of the Odriíst National Union, the political movement of former president Manuel A. Odría. When he was 19, he was elected to represent the university students from Lima in giving a welcoming speech to US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy during his visit to Peru. He began studying theology in the Pontifical and Civil School of Theology of Lima, where he would also teach in 1975.

Between 1967 and 1968, as a secondary educator at the San Isidro school, he founded the Escalones Juveniles Nacionalistas (EJN), a religious and nationalist organization of Falangist ideology and influenced by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera's thought, which remained active until 1971.

He founded the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae in 1971, a moment he later called the "baptism of a search". Cardinal Juan Landazuri, Archbishop of Lima, began meeting with Figari in 1972 to monitor the development of the Sodalitium and express support. In 1974, Figari founded the Immaculate Mary Association for women. In 1984, Figari participated in the first World Youth Day in Rome. In 1985, he founded the Christian Life Movement (CLM), an ecclesial movement. In 1991, he founded the Marian Community of Reconciliation, a religious association for lay consecrated women. In 1994, CLM was recognized by the Holy See as an international lay association of faithful of pontifical right. In 1995, he founded the Confraternity of Our Lady of Reconciliation. In 1997, Pope John Paul II approved Sodalitium as a society of apostolic life. In 1998, Figari founded another religious association for consecrated women, the Servants of the Plan of God.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II named Figari as consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI named Figari an auditor for the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, one of the few lay participants invited to that assembly. On 3 June 2006, Figari addressed the closing words to Pope Benedict XVI in the Encounter of the Ecclesial Movements and New Communities with the Pope at the Vigil of Pentecost in St. Peter's Square.

On 21 December 2010, Figari resigned from his role as Superior General of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, citing health reasons.

Controversies of Luis Fernando Figari

Figari has been known to openly sympathize with Falangism, which has earned a reputation for being Spain's Fascist ideology. In a 2016 interview with The Guardian former Sodalitium member Pedro Salinas accused Figari of admiring fascist figures Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, saying that Figari "admired the oratory of Hitler and Mussolini. He was inspired by Nazi marches and he had a fascination with the Hitler Youth.” Salinas also accused Figari of being the person with the most power in Sodalitium, saying that under Figari's rule, Sodalitium "was an absolutely totalitarian religious organisation in which the power rested in the hands of one person: Luis Fernando Figari.” In an article for El País in October 2024, Archbishop of Lima Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio described Figari's Sodalitium Christianae Vitae as "a failed Cold War experiment" which also "conceals its crimes and its ambition for political and economic dominance." Archbishop Castillo also said that Sodalitium was influenced by fascism, describing Figari's former society as "the resurrection of fascism in Latin America, using the church cunningly, through sectarian methods, testing how strong you are or forcing you to sleep face down on stairs to forge your character."

Allegations of physical and sexual abuse

Some groups are opposed to the Sodalitium, which has generated suspicion and alarm; it is seen by some as a conservative, elitist sect with an authoritarian and fundamentalist structure. In 2003, after parents accused the Sodalitium of brainwashing their son and separating him from them, the movement opened its doors to the press for the first time. Young members were reported as laughing at talk of brainwashing and said that they had been evangelised, not captured, as teenagers.

Pedro Salinas, a former member, said at the time that during his membership in the SCV in the 1980s he was subject to absurd orders. He said that he assumed that "now the Sodalicios have learned from their mistakes and have evolved", but that when he was a member of the movement they had "sectarian characteristics". In a 2015 book, Salinas reported abuse and mistreatment, including sexual abuse, on the part of Figari. Alessandro Moroni Llabrés, the community's current superior general, responded that it was "a cause for deep grief and shame if such acts could have been committed by Luis Fernando Figari... We condemn the incidents that may have occurred, especially the sexual abuse". Moroni said that the testimonies Salinas reported were plausible and needed to be thoroughly clarified, and that former members of the Movement had reported abuse.

Church authorities were investigating. Allegations submitted to ecclesial tribunals were kept confidential. Figari denied all accusations, but made no public statement, "as would be his moral obligation". The SCV asked for forgiveness, and said they offered victims help. They formed a committee of members and non-SCV experts to meet with any person affected and said they were committed to investigating and clarifying the truth about "the incidents, which are intolerable, because they involve grave suffering for persons who trusted our community, and they betray our deepest values". They said they were available to cooperate with civil and ecclesial authorities.

There were thirty allegations of abuse by Figari and his closest associates, including Daniel Murguía and Germán Doig. Salinas's book also detailed Figari's involvement in his youth with right-wing Catholic, extreme right-wing, and falangist groups.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Fernando_Figari), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.