Statement 04/04/2025

Statement

April 4, 2025

Yesterday, April 3, 2025, we received the news that Sister Maria Elena Camones More, Commissary since July 26, 2024, has been notified in Lima of the Decree of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life of January 14, 2025, specifically approved on the same day by the Holy Father.

By this decree, our Public Association of the Faithful of Diocesan Right, with the intention of becoming a Society of Apostolic Life, Servants of the Plan of God (SPD), has been suppressed.

The other entities founded by the Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari Rodrigo, the Marian Fraternity of Reconciliation, the Christian Life Movement and the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, have also been suppressed due to the lack of initial charism and the abuses committed within them.

Pope Francis has designated Mons. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós, as delegate to accompany our process of suppression and starting today, he acts as the Apostolic Commissioner for the liquidation of the Servants of the Plan of God’s assets. The new Apostolic Commissioner has also communicated the appointment of Sister Carmen Reyes Varas as his Assistant Delegate in this process of liquidation.

The Servants of the Plan of God were approved as a Public Association of the Faithful on August 15, 1998. We have discovered that there have been many abuses during the first years of the community’s rapid growth and that it has persisted throughout our history.

In 2018, the Archbishop of Lima decreed a first intervention or Canonical Visitation which highlighted the harmful and abusive structures that were present within the community and showed us the need to initiate a process of reflection and renewal, which included the realization of the First General Assembly and the election of new authorities, which took place in December 2019.

Continuing with our process and given the evident number of victims, in December 2021, His Excellency Monsignor Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio, Archbishop of Lima, decreed a second canonical visitation. On August 10, 2023, he decreed a new intervention, appointing as Commissary Rev. Iñazio Azcoaga Lasheras, a diocesan priest of the Archdiocese of Pamplona-Tudela, Spain. He was later replaced in this role by Sister María Elena Camones More, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Lima.

In August 2024, the new Commissary invited us to begin a process of personal discernment aimed at an eventual closure of the community.

On January 31, 2025, from Lima, we officially received the news that the Holy Father Francis had appointed Mons. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós as Delegate to accompany our process of suppression. At that time, we issued a communiqué stating that “we filially accept the decision of suppression made by Pope Francis, and although it is very difficult and painful, we feel united with him as the Vicar of Christ and with our beloved Church, which we have always served with the best of intentions.”

Over the past two months, and after several meetings with Mons. Jordi Bertomeu Farnós, we have been engaged in a personal and communitarian discernment aimed at closing the local communities and our future life of serving God and the Church.

The Apostolic Commissioner has made himself available to us to ensure the psychological and spiritual healing of each one, to ensure the continuity of the apostolic works in progress as much as possible, and to make reparation to all those affected after being part of our community.

Now that the suppression is a reality, since the notification of the decree and having become more aware of what we have lived through, we feel indebted both as an institution and on a personal level. Especially to all the sisters who at some point were part of the community, and also to their parents and close family members, who entrusted them to a community that seemed to offer a life project through which they could fully live out their vocation as consecrated women—something that, as it turned out, was not the case. This causes them pain and confusion, but in the midst of it all, we would like to convey that nothing is impossible for God, and that in this experience of trusting abandonment in which we now find ourselves, we wish to share with them the consolation we also feel, and ask that they too hold our hand during this time.

We are aware of the immense suffering that, in addition to the abuses experienced, has been caused by the attitude of silence maintained by those of us who have been within the community in recent years. We are aware of how many of the decisions made by our leadership have perpetuated this system of abuse, neglecting respect for each person and the living out of the Gospel.

We acknowledge, with sorrow, that the sectarian culture of abusive control that took hold in the Servants of the Plan of God was expressed in the lack of proper respect and care for each person: from vocational recruitment, the distancing from families, the abusive exercise of authority, manipulation of conscience, physical, psychological and spiritual abuse, to the abandonment suffered after leaving the community, etc. We are deeply pained and ashamed by what we have had suffered within our community, and for this we ask forgiveness for our actions and omissions.

We also ask forgiveness for reacting late and slowly to the suffering of our sisters, and for the times we did not listen, denied or minimized their pain. Forgive us if we did not know how to welcome them and take the appropriate measures of justice and charity; for not giving the voices that were raised the place they deserved. We are deeply sorry for the consequences of re-victimization that this process has entailed. We are grateful to all those who, in one way or another, have sought to express their pain and thus contributing to this process of purification.

Mons. Jordi Bertomeu has informed us that he has ordered the continuation of the ongoing process of economic and psychological reparation for the victims, carried out by the “Independent Service of Reception, Listening and Reparation Eshma.” Moreover, he has also expressed his willingness to receive new complaints for as long as he holds his position as commissary. We trust that this process will be truly restorative and will bear the fruits of forgiveness and healing that we so desire.

Finally, we would like to thank all the Bishops of the Dioceses in which we have served, as well as many lay and consecrated persons who have offered their support and accompanied us during these 26 years — and especially during this recent time. We are grateful to those who have been part of our projects and works, who have taught us so much through their simplicity and love, and who have given us the opportunity to enter into their lives.

Infinite thanks to God for His merciful pedagogy. As the Apostolic Commissioner reminded us, for years we have celebrated the anniversary of our foundation on August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption: even in an event that has proved sterile, such as the foundation of our community, God now announces an unexpected abundance for all of us, gathering together all the good things we have lived. He has visited us as Mary visited Elizabeth. This name means “God brings to fulfilment” and she, who was barren, discovered that she was the recipient of the Lord’s imagination, that she could recognize the hidden presence of God in her fellow woman, Mary. her fellow woman, Mary. Both of them, in this dialogue of trust, experience a new spiritual consolation or joy: they know the meaning of their lives, what to do from now on, how to go on. They know that God is not the enemy of their plenitude, but that He alone can give it to them. They know that God is the Child in Mary’s womb who, even in moments of deep desolation, allows himself to be embraced and caressed.

In this last statement from those of us who have been Servants of God’s Plan up to now, we entrust ourselves to your prayers so that the Lord may enlighten and strengthen us in this journey we are undertaking.

Click here to read the Decree of suppression


* We remind everyone that any official communication from the Servants will be published only through their official communication channel (www.siervasdelplandedios.org).

Press contact:
e-mail: oficina.prensa@siervasdelplandedios.org

Suppression of the Servants of the Plan of God

Statement

Suppression of the Servants of the Plan of God

February 5, 2025

We hereby communicate that on Friday, January 31 of this year, we officially received the news through Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu Farnós of the initiation of the process that, once formalized and communicated in the coming weeks, will lead to the suppression of the public association of the faithful, Servants of the Plan of God. This decision is motivated by the consideration that there is no original charism in Mr. Luis Fernando Figari Rodrigo, which affects us and all the entities founded by him.

Mons. Bertomeu has informed us that he has been appointed as the Pontifical Commissioner to carry out this process of suppression. We express our support and prayers, as well as our willingness to fully collaborate with all who are to accompany us in this new stage.

We filially accept the decision of suppression made by Pope Francis, and although it is very difficult and painful, we feel united with him as the Vicar of Christ and with our beloved Church, which we have always served with the best of intentions.

We reiterate our plea for forgiveness from all victims and from all those who have suffered harm, pain, or any form of abuse by a member of our community.

Furthermore, we sincerely thank all the people — our families, friends, benefactors, and collaborators — who have accompanied and supported our lives, vocation, and missions that the Lord has so mercifully entrusted to us over these 26 years.

We entrust ourselves with gratitude to the prayers of all the faithful so that this path of personal healing, which we have begun a few years ago, may come to a good conclusion. Likewise, with great hope and trust, we place ourselves in God’s hands to discern the new paths that He continues to show us personally so that we may keep serving Him.

May we, under the protection and intercession of our Mother, Holy Mary, live out her words, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).

Fraternally,
Servants of the Plan of God

* A reminder that all communications from the Servants will only be published through our official communication channel (www.siervasdelplandedios.org).


Our press office contact: oficina.prensa@siervasdelplandedios.org

Open letter from our superior general

Open letter from our General Superior

To our families,
former members and their families,
friends, benefactors, and
people close to our community

Lima, June 24th, 2022

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It has been two and a half years since our First General Assembly and midway through our governance, we can say that it has been a time with many challenges. One of the most significant challenges has been to continue examining the history of our institution and to come to a greater consciousness of the culture we had lived in, in which values such as obedience, freedom, unselfishness, and self-denial, among others, were seriously distorted.

Looking back into our history, we can recognize how the misuse of power had led to a series of deviations from many essential elements of the Christian and consecrated life. Today, we can recognize from a distance, and with greater consciousness that we have suffered and replicated the misuse of authority, which has caused profound pains in many people. Amid all difficulty, we perceive the loving and healing action of God who in his mercy and fidelity keeps calling us to give ourselves to Him.

The external help that we had received over the past years and listening to our own stories have allowed us to look at ourselves from other angles and to become more conscious of the abuse of power and conscience that we had lived in our community. Though there is still a long way to go, we discovered the need and the commitment to initiate a profound reformation and to build a more solid foundation that promotes a good, free and healthy consecrated life, which enables us to give an authentic testimony to the Gospel to whom we serve.

Therefore, even though we are aware that this is one step of the long journey to healing that we have started in ourselves, along with our families, people who are closed to our community, and those sisters and their families who cross paths with us, with greater consciousness and deep sorrow, we want to ask forgiveness from the depths of our hearts for the pain that we caused, for the abusive actions that the members had gone through in the community, for the delay in expressing it, and for not knowing how to take care of your suffering in the appropriate time and manner.

We also want to thank each of you, who in good faith, have sought different ways to help and contributed to this process that we are living today. Thank you for your company and patience, and for the confidence to share your experiences with us, and thus embark on new ways of communion and change.

The internal process is heartbreaking and we see the responsibility to keep making progress with the decisions and actions taken in this first stage:

  • Receive a more integral formation (external instructors) that helps us to be more conscious of what we had lived, practiced, and suffered. Also, make a plan to build a culture of respect and good manner, to maintain a healthy relationship of trust, dialogue, and joint responsibility.
  • Form the current authorities and those who help in the initial formation and provide external advisers to the formators of initial formation. This formation seeks an interior transformation to serve with charity and mercy.
  • Offer the necessary conditions for one to improve self-knowledge and vocational discernment.
  • Initiate the work of revision and implementation of the abuse prevention protocol, of which we now have the first draft of the protocol.
  • Implement an independent commission (called “Comisión de Atención y Acogida” which can be translated as “Commission for Attention and Reception”) which has already started to attend our members within the community in its first stage. Now, we want to make this commission available to the public, to meet those who are in need to be heard or want to give their testimonies or denounce. The Commission will investigate everything that needs to be clarified and redressed.[1] The commission is presided by Isabelle Soublette[2], whose email is:

atencionyacogida.testimonios@siervasdelplandedios.org

Furthermore, we are thankful for the accompaniment of the Church, who by the Canonical Visit in progress has been enlightening and helping us. We are waiting for their conclusions and the decision of the Archbishop of Lima, to proceed on our journey of institutional growth and strengthening.

We entrust ourselves to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Heart full of love and mercy that heals our wounds and teaches us to embrace suffering hearts.

We ask for your prayers so that the Lord gives us the strength and courage to keep walking in the truth and charity that only comes from Him.

Kindly and fraternally in Christ,

Natalia Sánchez Hincapié
General Superior
Servants of the Plan of God


[1]This does not replace the mechanism to receive denouncements established by Archdiocese of Lima: comisionescucha@arzobispadodelima.org
[2]Clinical psychologist with experience in attending victims of abuse. Nationality Chile.