Vatican: late IVE founder Carlos Miguel Buela responsible for homosexual offences.
The Vatican has publicly addressed the long-running case of Argentine priest Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE).
The case began formally in May 2020, when Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló established a Special Penal Tribunal to examine allegations against Buela.
After hearing the accused, his lawyer and numerous witnesses, the tribunal issued its judgment on 20 July 2021. It found that Buela had committed offences against the sixth commandment in relation to five male members of the Institute.
Buela appealed.
A Special Penal Tribunal of Appeal was subsequently constituted and conducted additional investigations, including further testimony from Buela and witnesses proposed by his defence.
On 30 March 2023, the appellate judges deliberated and voted to confirm the first tribunal’s finding concerning the five cases. Before the appellate judgment could be formally drafted and published, however, Buela died in Genoa on 23 April 2023.
The penal action was consequently extinguished in June.
That procedural distinction has become central to the dispute within the IVE. Buela died without a final, published appellate judgment. He therefore could no longer be subjected to a penalty.
Nevertheless, the appellate tribunal had already voted to uphold the first-instance conviction.
In a September 24 communication signed by Sister Simona Brambilla, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for religious, the Vatican authorities stated that the tribunals had reached “moral certainty” regarding Buela’s responsibility for violent sexual offences against several people.
According to the Vatican communication, establishing the truth now serves as an act of justice toward those harmed by Buela.
It also touches the question of how the Institute should remember its founder, use his writings and images, and reassess its identity in light of the conclusions reached by the ecclesiastical tribunals.
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