Cipriani controversy tests cardinals’ resolve on clerical abuse ahead of conclave

Elise Ann Allen/ Crux• April 30, 2025

As the world’s most exclusive club prepares to elect the new pope, they are in the midst of an immediate test of just how seriously they will take the issue of clerical sexual abuse due to a Peruvian cardinal who is participating in pre-conclave meetings despite abuse allegations against him.

Peruvian Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, 81, is not eligible to vote in a conclave due to his age, while in 2019 he was subject to restrictions on his ministry imposed by Pope Francis over allegations lodged a year prior that he had sexually assaulted an adolescent boy.

Those sanctions, which Cipriani accepted and signed off on just before turning 75, apparently barred him from the following: wearing his red cardinal robes and other symbols associated with the cardinalate, returning to Peru without permission, making public declarations, and participating in a future conclave while he was still of age to do so.

Cipriani has repeatedly denied the allegations, which went public in January 2025 when Spanish newspaper El Pais revealed that Cipriani’s ministry had been restricted after an apparent victim complained to the Vatican in 2018, and that another similar complaint was lodged in 2002, but had apparently come to nothing.

These restrictions were confirmed by Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, who in January said Cipriani in 2019 had “imposed a penal precept with some disciplinary measures” and which, Bruni added, “appear to still be in force.”

These measures, Bruni said, were “related to his public activity, place of residence and use of insignia”, and were “signed and accepted” by Cipriani himself.

Despite these restrictions, Cipriani has repeatedly violated them, traveling to Lima in January to receive a prestigious award from the city’s mayor, Rafael Lopez Aliaga, and issuing several public statements over the past two months denying the allegations against him, while accusing Pope Francis of undue process, and demanding that the Peruvian bishops rectify statements confirming the restrictions on his ministry.

He has also disobeyed the order not to use his cardinal insignia and symbols, showing up in his red cardinal robes to pay respects to Pope Francis on 24 April, while the late pontiff was lying in state, and at a Vespers service for the Pope held 27 April in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where the body of Pope Francis is buried.

Cipriani has also been seen leaving the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall, where pre-conclave general congregation meetings are taking place, with the gaggle of other cardinals present.

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the issue of clerical abuse was discussed by cardinals on 28 April as part of a discussion on the many challenges the Church faces.

When asked about Cipriani’s participation, Bruni said that the Vatican constitution governing conclave rules, Universi Dominici Gregis, made it clear that all cardinals without personal impediments such as illness were summoned to participate.

While the document does not include any specific rules barring prelates accused of sexual abuse from participating in a conclave or pre-conclave meetings, it does include provisions allowing cardinals to handle urgent matters as a collective body.

Point six of the constitution says, “should there be a problem which, in the view of the majority of the assembled Cardinals, cannot be postponed until another time, the College of Cardinals may act according to the majority opinion.”

The third paragraph of point seven in the document says: “During the time of the election, more important matters are, if necessary, dealt with by the assembly of the Cardinal electors.”

It thus falls to the cardinal electors, presumably under the leadership of the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Italian Giovanni Battista Re, to determine whether Cipriani ought to continue attending the general congregations.

Asked about Cipriani’s participation again during an April 29 briefing, Bruni did not respond to observations that Cipriani was disobeying orders from Pope Francis, but referred to his January statement in which he confirmed the restrictions on Cipriani’s ministry, and that they were still in effect.

The mushrooming controversy over Cipriani’s participation comes after another question of attendance at the conclave involving Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was stripped of his rights and duties as a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2020 for alleged financial crimes and found guilty and sanctioned for these crimes by the Vatican’s court in 2023.

Becciu had initially, when general congregations began, argued publicly that he was never banned from participating in a conclave; however, he has withdrawn after reportedly being shown documents signed by the Pope confirming it was his will that Becciu should not participate.

The question that the cardinals now face is what to do, if anything, about Cipriani, given the allegations against him and his blatant disobedience of the restrictions imposed on him by Pope Francis.

The Peruvian bishops earlier this year confirmed the existence of a penal precept against him, presumably incurring sanctions for disobedience, but it is unknown what these sanctions involve, and who might impose them during the sede vacante before a new pope is selected and assumes leadership of the Catholic Church.

Although Cipriani is not an elector, his presence at general congregations has caused alarm among victims and activists who believe his presence is an insult to survivors and that it is also hypocritical given the apparent concern over the clerical abuse scandals among the College of Cardinals.

Multiple victims, experts and advocacy groups have condemned his presence, with advocacy group Bishop Accountability saying on 28 April that Cipriani’s participation “reassures abusive bishops of their colleagues’ continuing support even as it sends a distressing message to abuse victims. It revives the haunting idea that the Church is safer for accused clergy than for children.”

Many observers note that on the whole, while Pope Francis made his share of mistakes over the clerical abuse issue, he ultimately tried to do the right thing, and decisions such as defrocking former cardinal and priest Theodore McCarrick and suppressing the Peru-based Sodalitium Christianae Vitae marked significant progress on this front.

The case of Cipriani marks the first real litmus test since the Francis papacy came to an end as to how the current body of cardinals will respond to the Church’s abuse crisis, and what sort of action can be expected when it comes to high-ranking, influential prelates who face allegations.

It will be especially noteworthy if a cardinal accused of and punished for financial crimes was forced out of the conclave, while a cardinal accused of and punished for sexual crimes against minors is not.

If paragraphs six and seven of Universi Dominici Gregis are applied in this case, the cardinals can collectively make a decision about his participation. Presently, they don’t appear to be doing that.

RELATED: Controversy erupts as sanctioned cardinal attends pre-conclave meetings

Photo: Peruvian cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani lifts a blessed host during the celebration of the Corpus Christi in Lima’s main square (CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP/GettyImages)