Peruvian laywoman reacts to Crux's coverage of SCV

(Editor’s Note: On September 20, Node published an article by Elise Ann Allen on recent developments surrounding the Sodalitium of Christian Life, a movement based in Peru. In response, one of the people quoted in the article, Peruvian laywoman Giuliana Caccia Arana, sent a detailed series of objections. In the interest of fairness, Node publishes his response in full, in our translation from the original Spanish.)

I hereby request that you correct the false and distorted information about me that was published in your media under the title “Scandal-plagued Peruvian group pushes back against Vatican investigation,” on September 20, 2024, authored by Elise Ann Allen.

Before indicating the falsehoods and inaccuracies that the aforementioned article exposes, I must point out that on September 19, 2024, before the publication of the article in question, at the request of Ms. Allen, I sent her via an internal message on the social network LinkenIn, a document with the details of what was exposed by Pedro Salinas in his video column entitled “Rata por liebre”, dated September 11, 2024.

What is explained in the document sent to Ms. Allen is not reflected in the article “Scandal-plagued Peruvian group opposes Vatican investigation,” because Ms. Allen is implicating me in a story that I have nothing to do with. The document sent to Ms. Allen is attached to this letter as evidence of the above.

Therefore, I demand that, by virtue of my right of rectification recognized in Article 14 of the American Convention on Human Rights, in Article 2, paragraph 7, of the Political Constitution of Peru and developed in Law No. 26775, your media publish a rectification of everything that is not true and harms my name.

I will now list the falsehoods exposed in the article attributed to me:

My audience with the Scicluna-Bertomeu mission took place in July 2023. The reasons why I requested this meeting are strictly personal. I was not sent by anyone, nor at anyone’s request. Ms. Allen’s article wants to implicate me as part of a harassment strategy against one of the “main accusers” of the Sodalicio affair, in an accusation against Cardinal Robert Prevost, in a case of a Peruvian priest (Coronado), among others. What is the connection between this personal visit and what is happening with a bishop and other actors of the Catholic Church? It is clear that there is an intention to want to implicate me in a story of which I am not a part. This becomes more evident when, under the subtitle “Accusing the victims of the SCV”, she continues to recount – with more than one lie – my meeting with the Scicluna-Bertomeu mission. The way Ms. Allen presents the information in this article does not meet the minimum standards of journalism, because she first assumes that the false information is true and then at the end of the article simply provides my denials. This is not rigorous. And it also does not match Pedro Salinas’ account of the facts, which is extremely striking. Why does one person’s “side of the story” prevail in a media outlet that claims to be objective? Why is what Pedro Salinas says the “truth” of a story and the information I sent a “denial”?
Allen says that I belong to “a parents association close to the SCV”. This is FALSE. I am the founder and director of the Origen Association, and within this association we have created an initiative called Peruvian Fathers which was created recently (December 2023). It is not an association close to the SCV. It is a civil society platform in which thousands of citizens participate of their own free will and to defend their parental authority. Christian Life Soda This has nothing to do with that. What does this association have to do with the story they want to tell?
Allen claims that “according to the Peruvian journalist Raul Tola, in an article published a few days after the end of the work of Scicluna and Bertomeu, on the first day of the investigation, Caccia and Blanco arrived at the Vatican nunciature in Lima, where the interviews with the victims and members of the SCV were taking place, asking to be interviewed.” This is doubly FALSE. First, because even if Tola also distorts the facts, this is not what he says in his column either. Second, because I did not go to the apostolic nunciature to ask to be interviewed. I requested the interview by telephone a few days before. I provided all this information in great detail to Ms. Allen in the document that I sent her via LinkedIn, precisely to prevent the false story of Mr. Tola and Mr. Salinas from prevailing. And now, I repeat:
- On Friday, July 23, 2023, when I learned through the media that the Holy Father was sending a commission of inquiry to the country, I called the Apostolic Nunciature to request an audience. Sister Fanny answered me and what I said during the call was literally that I wanted to give my testimony because I was the victim of systematic harassment by two former Sodalits. I never spoke of harassment by journalists or anything like that.
- On Sunday, July 24, 2023, at 12:14 p.m., I received a WhatsApp message from Archbishop Zummer, of the Apostolic Nunciature of Lima, from the phone of the secretariat of that institution, asking me to call my phone. I did not see the message immediately. He called at 12:16 p.m. I did not hear the call. But shortly after, I saw my phone and returned it to him a few minutes later. There, he asked me to correct my last name because the secretary, Sister Fanny, had written it wrong. Archbishop Zummer gave me an appointment the next day, July 25, at 4:30 p.m. In the name of Archbishop Zummer, the appointment was granted within the framework of the mission sent by the Holy Father.
- I arrived at the meeting a few minutes before the scheduled time. I entered through the main door of the nunciature. I waited in a room. And then Father Bertomeu received me. He told me that his visit had been requested personally by the Holy Father and that no one would know what would happen there, except the Pope. The meeting took place. And I left through the main door, where Father Bertomeu accompanied me.
Allen claims that “Tola – who did not identify Caccia or Blanco by name, referring to them only as a man and a woman – stated in his article that they claimed to be victims not of the SCV, but of the journalists who investigated the SCV, namely Salinas and fellow journalist Paola Ugaz.” This is doubly FALSE. First, Tola says that he “presented himself as a victim of the whistleblowers in the case.” At no point does Tola specify that I was referring to Salinas and Ugaz. This is a fanciful interpretation by Elise Ann Allen. Second, as I also explained in the document sent to Ms. Allen, I did not go and denounce a journalist who reports to Sodalitium. This is a lie. I went and gave my testimony about two former Sodalit of whom I am a victim.
Allen ends the article with this quote from Pedro Salinas: “We later found out that it was Caccia and Blanco, because the photographers waiting outside the nunciature asked us for help in identifying the people who were coming in, and Caccia and Blanco were the only ones who came on Monday.” In response to this statement from Salinas, I asked Mrs. Allen to ask me for proof of a photo of me taken that day.

Although Ms. Allen gives my warning at the end of the article, she does not do so in full, which, combined with the manner and order in which she chooses to recount the facts – many of which are false and distorted – leaves the reader with the idea, by the end of reading the article, that I am part of a group seeking to attack the bishops or discredit the Sodalitium investigation. And this is completely FALSE and does not correspond to the facts.

As I indicated in writing to Mrs Allen, it was not my intention – and I do not intend – to discredit the Vatican Mission. And after this article, which seeks to implicate me in a matter with which I have nothing to do, I also do not have to associate myself with the accusations of cover-up that are being levelled against Cardinal Prevost. This is the first time that I have spoken about the meeting I had with the Scicluna-Bertomeu Mission, and I do so only following your request and noting that some journalists are spreading a distorted version of the facts. My intention has always been to keep this secret.

For the reasons stated above, and with the right granted to me by the American Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution, I demand the immediate and complete publication of this rectification, otherwise I will be forced to resort to the competent judicial authorities to defend my honor and good reputation.