Vatican dissolves Argentine religious institute after inquiry

The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life announced that Pope Francis had approved the decision to abolish Miles Christi on 6 February.

The Pope ordered the dissolution of a 21-year-old conservative movement in Argentina.

Miles Christi (Soldiers of Christ) was founded in the Archdiocese of La Plata in the province of Buenos Aireas 1994 as a public association of clerical faithful. Five years later, it became a clerical religious institute, comprising priests, coadjutor brothers, consecrated women and lay associates.

In 2020, its founder Fr Roberto Juan Yannuzzi was expelled from the priesthood having been found guilty “of crimes against the Sixth Commandment with adults”, absolving “the accomplice” and “abuse of authority”. His crimes involved male religious members of the Miles Christi Institute.

The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life announced in a statement that Pope Francis had “specifically approved” the decision to abolish Miles Christi on 6 February.

Bishop Mauricio Landra, an auxiliary of the Diocese of Mercedes-Luján, was charged by the Dicastery with conducting the dissolution. “Given the delicacy and complexity of the situation, in order for everything to be carried out with justice and charity, in order to implement the decision taken by the Holy See, we entrust this time to Mary, Mother of the Church,” he said.

In 2022, Miles Christi was the subject of a Vatican inquiry when the Pope appointed Bishop Jorge García Cuerva of Río Gallegos – now the Archbishop of Buenos Aires – as pontifical commissioner of the order.

The then-Archbishop of La Plata Víctor Manuel Fernández (now Prefect of the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith) cancelled a contract allowing Miles Christi to continue in charge of the parish of St Louis Gonzaga and St Francis’s school in La Plata.

The archdiocese took over the parish and school which had been run for 16 years by Miles Christi. Shortly afterwards the ecclesiastical tribunal of La Plata, in Buenos Aires province, reported an accusation of sexual abuse against a Miles Christi priest had led to an investigation, which eventually proceeded to the state court.

According to its website, the chief mission of Miles Christi was the sanctification of lay people, especially university students.

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