Cardinal accused of sex abuse challenges late pope’s sanction

Pope Francis addresses the crowd gathered at Plaza de Armas square in Lima from the balcony of the Archiepiscopal Palace, during his Angelus prayer, next to the then Archibishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, on January 21, 2018. — Photo by Agence France-Presse

As Pope Francis’s body lay in state in the Vatican last week, one of the mourners — with eyes downcast and hands clasped — was a disgraced cardinal from Peru.

Juan Luis Cipriani, once the most influential religious figure in Peru as the former archbishop of Lima, stood at the side of the Argentine pontiff’s coffin in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He wore a black cassock, red sash and skullcap and a pectoral cross — the vestments that Francis himself forbade the cardinal to wear in the wake of accusations of sexual abuse against him.

Cipriani, a conservative and the first cardinal from the traditionalist Catholic group Opus Dei, was accused in 2018 of sexually abusing a teenager four decades ago, allegations that he denies.

Francis accepted his resignation as archbishop in January 2019.

The Vatican confirmed in January 2025, in response to media reports, that a “penal injunction” had been imposed on the cardinal following his resignation.

Those disciplinary measures included forcing Cipriani to leave Peru, forbidding him from making public statements and from wearing the insignia or outfit of a cardinal, it said.

Gareth Gore, an author who has written about the influential lay and clerical organisation Opus Dei, called Cipriani’s presence and attire “a hugely provocative act”.

“It’s an affront to the late pope’s authority and a show of force from the ultra-conservative wing of the Church ahead of the upcoming conclave,” he told AFP.

In sanctioning Cipriani, Francis also banned him from participating in the conclave to choose the next pope, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.

He is now 81 and only cardinals under age 80 can vote in the conclave.

But Cipriani can still attend the meetings of cardinals convened after Francis’s death, in which they discuss Church priorities ahead of the conclave that begins on May 7.

According to photos published in the media, besides visiting Francis’s coffin in St Peter’s, Cipriani has also paid a visit to the pontiff’s tomb in Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, likewise dressed in cardinal’s robes.

“Cipriani and the cardinals who allow him to do so re-victimise the victim who denounced him, which is unforgivable,” the Peruvian Survivors’ Network said in a statement.

“It is a worrying message that affects confidence in the criteria for choosing the next pontiff,” it added.

In a public letter published in January, Cipriani strongly defended his innocence and wrote that Francis allowed him in 2020 to “resume his pastoral duties”.

‘Empty slogan’

When Francis became pope in 2013, the Church was reeling from an avalanche of sexual abuse allegations against priests, which were covered up for decades by the clergy themselves.

Although Francis took steps to combat clerical sexual abuse, including making it compulsory to report suspicions of sexual assault to Church authorities, victims’ groups said his efforts fell short.

“Zero tolerance is an empty slogan as long as it is not enshrined in canon law,” Matthias Katsch, a German survivor and activist with the Eckiger Tisch association, told the Crux online newspaper.

At a meeting on Monday, the cardinals named abuse as one of the main challenges facing the next pope and the Catholic Church. It was unknown whether Cipriani attended that meeting.

The possibility that he did, however, makes a “mockery” of that position, said campaigner Anne Barrett Doyle from BishopAccountability.org, a site that documents clerical abuse.

“It highlights the disconnect between the Church’s words and actions on abuse,” she added in an email sent to AFP.

‘Committed no crime’

Cipriani was archbishop of Lima between 1999 and 2019, when he went into exile in Madrid.

El Pais reported that the cardinal’s alleged victim is now 58 years old and wrote directly to the pope to denounce the cardinal, alleging Cipriani had touched and caressed him when he was between 16 and 17 years old.

In his public letter published in the Peruvian media in January, Cipriani complained that he had been sanctioned “without having been heard” and “without a trial being opened”.

“I have not committed any crime nor have I sexually abused anyone, neither in 1983, nor before, nor after,” he wrote.

READ: Cardinals thank Becciu for skipping conclave, appeal ongoing

The Cipriani scandal follows that of Italy’s Angelo Becciu, who insisted he could take part in the election of the new pope even after Francis stripped him of his privileges in 2020 for his alleged role in a Vatican financial fraud, for which he was later convicted.

On Tuesday, he acquiesced, saying he would abide by Francis’s will and not take part.