Peruvian Bishop Sharply Accuses Cardinals O'Malley and Parolin
In April 2021, he resigned as bishop at the age of 56, citing family reasons, and now appears to be living in Germany.
He told the anti-Catholic ReligionDigital.org (17 December) that "I denounced Figari [the founder of the SVC] for sexual abuse at the beginning of 2013 and found only closed and sealed doors, although I was a bishop".
Monsignor Schmalhausen says that becoming a bishop in 2006 was his way out of a pernicious system of manipulation and control.
He describes the SCV as a "sectarian community", "an invisible cage of mental confinement", with "abuse becoming a system", with a "toxic internal culture", with "mafia-like behaviour".
Schmalhausen joined the SVC at the age of 14: "I suffered various forms of abuse, mistreatment, humiliation, ridicule and insults".
His first year in the house of San Aelred, when he was 18, was "my year of hell and horror".
"I had Germán Doig as my superior, with his strategy of sticks and sweets, and Figari, who came to dinner every Saturday to break my will, week after week, with slanders, mockery and insults".
The bishop accused Luis Fernando Figari of sexual abuse in early 2013. Doig had died 12 years earlier.
In 2015 and 2016, he warned in Rome of the serious problems of the community as such, both verbally and in writing: "I met with the Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin: Roman silence."
He took my complaint personally to the then Congregation for Religious Life: "Another effort in vain".
"I also warned Cardinal Sean O'Malley, head of the Commission for the Prevention of the Abuse of Minors, with a long written report: Bostonian silence."
Instead: "As time went on, I became aware of the calumnies that were being sown against me inside and outside Rome."
After his accusations, he was shunned by those in power, he says: "I still remember today, during the 2018 papal visit to Peru, the evasive looks and gestures in response to my greeting from the two Cardinals Parolin and O'Malley, part of the papal entourage."
The indifference and coldness were absolute, he says: "I was devastated. I then realised two things: the institutional - systemic - dimension of the cover-up in the Church, and that my episcopal ministry was probably coming to an end".
"I experienced first-hand the pernicious gravity of the spiritual and conscientious abuse by Luis Fernando Figari himself, a prisoner of the pathological arrogance of substituting himself for God," he said.
Schmalhausen says he has experienced first-hand the painful path of trauma resolution: "The phobias, the panic attacks, the nightmares, the fear, the paranoia, the anxiety and so many other symptoms that accompany this long ordeal. I know first-hand the dynamics of manipulation, subjugation and the breaking of the will".
In 2021, Monsignor Nicola Girasoli, then nuncio to Peru, called Schmalhausen and shouted at him, demanding his resignation. Monsignor Schmalhausen says about this: "What was the point of resisting a machine whose wheels would not stop? All it took was a simple letter and a diplomatic excuse: 'Bishop Kay had to look after his very old mother'".
According to Schmalhausen, the SCV tried to take control of his prelature behind his back, "and in fact succeeded". He even claims that the SCV hacked into his secretary's computer: "In this way the Sodalit leadership had access to my correspondence, itineraries and communications."
He believes that the Scicluna-Bertomeu Commission set up by Francis did an "impeccable job". For him, the disciplinary measures leading to the expulsions are "more than justified".
Speaking to CruxNews.com, Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley called Schmalhausen's testimony "a very unfair presentation of the facts".
O'Malley said he had a phone conversation with Schmalhausen about the SCV in June 2017, and that Schmalhausen subsequently sent his report.
After receiving the report, O'Malley said he tried to reach Schmalhausen again by phone, but was "unable to reach him" [which sounds strange].
Picture: Kay Martín Schmalhausen Panizo © Pepe Alonso, EWTN, CC BY, #newsEofkueevfx