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.
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.
Cardinal Juan Landazuri, Archbishop of Lima, began meeting with Figari in 1972 to monitor the development of the Sodalitium and express support.
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 21 December 2010, Figari resigned from his role as Superior General of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, citing health reasons.
He was inspired by Nazi marches and he had a fascination with the Hitler Youth.”[3] 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.”[3] 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.
[7] 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".
[9] In 2016, Sodalitium of Christian Life leader Alessandro Moroni posted an online video claiming, among other things, that Figari was now in a state persona non grata after the organization conducted an investigation which found that he engaged in sex abuse.
[10] Despite allegations, findings of a Vatican investigation, and expulsion of many Sodalite authorities, as of October 2024[update] none of Sodalitium's current or former leaders had been charged with any crimes.
[11] In May 2016, Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin of Indianapolis was named to oversee the reform of Sodalit,[12] and Figari was declared persona non grata by the Sodalitium.
[1] In February 2017, the institute's superior general turned over to Peru's Office of the Public Prosecutor information identified in a recent report regarding the sexual abuse of minors by its founder and by four of its former members.
With the rejection of both appeals, in February 2019 Superior General of the SCV, José David Correa, formally expelled Figari from the group's community life, and contact with any members.
[15] On August 14, 2024, After more than a year of high-level investigation, the Vatican expelled Luis Fernando Figari for downplaying allegations of sexual and psychological abuse and financial corruption.