Laicized Right Before the Conclave： The Priest Who Accused Leo XIV of Covering Up Abuse
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Misogyny
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Summary
In the lead-up to the election of Pope Leo XIV, a highly respected Peruvian canon lawyer, formerly a judicial vicar, a chancellor, and even an exorcist, was laicized without a trial or even a decree. Now, that canon lawyer had publicly accused Cardinal Robert Prevost of mishandling sexual abuse cases by a priest who was a close friend of Cardinal Prevost.
Transcript
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it seems that the papacy is divided. The one who holds the office is against the very nature of
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that office. I'm going to tell you something really fascinating that happened right before
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the election of Leo XIV as Pope. Just months before Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected
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Leo XIV, a highly respected Peruvian canon lawyer, formerly a judicial vicar, a chancellor,
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and even an exorcist, was laicized without a trial, without a decree, just laicized.
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Now, interestingly, that canon lawyer had publicly accused Cardinal Prevost of mishandling
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sexual abuse cases by a priest who was a close friend of Cardinal Prevost.
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Now, this canon lawyer took on a case that nobody wanted, a case brought by three women
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who claimed that Cardinal Prevost, now Leo XIV, was guilty of cover-up by this priest
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friend of his for his sexually abusing them, these three women, as children.
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The canon lawyer was laicized without a trial or even a decree in December of 2024, right
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This is a story about Monsignor Ricardo Coronado Arasque.
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And Monsignor Coronado strongly contests this action, his laicization, was procedurally flawed and retaliatory.
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He brings decades of service, credible service, well-recognized, appreciated service, so much so that he was brought from Peru over to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in order to serve there as judicial victor, as chancellor for the Diocese of Colorado Springs, and even act as an exorcist.
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so the judicial victor for the interdiocesan tribunal in peru that's what he was there as
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well he was seminary instructor of canon law and the diocesan exorcist also in peru
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so he served faithfully under several bishops including bishop michael sheridan in colorado
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Springs. So when the three women that alleged that they were sexually abused as minors by a
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priest close to then Bishop Prevost in Chicleo, Monsignor Coronado was the only one who took up
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their case. And in response, he faced public sanctions from the Peruvian bishops, from the
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conference even, and accusations that he firmly denies, and then laicization.
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Monsignor Coronado, thank you so much for joining us.
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Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross, if you could please lead us.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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For those of you, those of our viewers in the United States, especially who don't know of you yet,
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So my background mainly has been in the administration of the church and teaching.
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So this is the two things that I have been doing throughout my life since I was ordained.
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Then in the 90s, I attended here in Peru, the law school of the Catholic University of Peru.
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So, and then I was naturally drawn into canon law.
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So, in 1999, I went to study canon law in Mexico, in the Pontifical University of Mexico.
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And then I attended also the Pontifical University of Salamanca in Spain.
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After the completion of my doctoral degree, I came back to Peru.
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But Bishop Sheridan of Colorado Springs lost his canon lawyer.
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He didn't have anybody to actually run the tribunal.
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And he reached to Archbishop Chapua, with whom I had an internship for three summers.
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So he said that he didn't have anybody in his tribunal to help Bishop Sheridan,
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So Bishop Sheridan requested my bishop to release me, which he reluctantly did.
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So I was here between Colorado Springs and my diocese here in Cajamarca for 17 years.
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So I will be in Colorado Springs for three months and one month here.
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Throughout this time, it was a rather very challenging time
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because I was in charge basically of four different dioceses,
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and sometimes I will help other dioceses also in the United States.
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So my work was mainly, well, I will help on the weekends,
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some parishes, especially those engaged in Hispanic ministry.
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Okay. And you served for many years then as judicial vicar and chancellor
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in Colorado Springs, Colorado, under Bishop Michael Sheridan.
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That's right. And then also as judicial vicar and seminary instructor
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and even exorcist there in Peru. Is that not the case?
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Well, I began the exorcist in Colorado Springs.
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So, yeah, I did that for at least five years, I would say, yeah.
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So Bishop Sheridan was the one who encouraged me,
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and finally he said, you have to do it, and I did, you know.
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Okay, so, I mean, this is a career, I mean, in terms of the church, obviously, but 17 years of work.
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And Bishop Sheridan was a very well-known, very Orthodox bishop in the United States.
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He was famous in the United States for his orthodoxy, which some bishops who weren't so
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orthodox even at the time under Benedict and John Paul. But you have a great record there.
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And so in the intro, I mentioned something really unbelievable that you are now laicized, which
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it sounds crazy, but tell us how this even happened. How do you go from a priest who is
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highly regarded, so highly regarded that you are taken from your own diocese, brought to the United
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States, employed as a judicial vicar to help there, because of your experience with canon law
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and everything else, you're even brought closer into the circle where the bishops encouraging you
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And then all of a sudden you come to a point of laicization.
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well, I am not of the stature of Archbishop Viganò,
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when Bishop Golka was appointed in Colorado Springs.
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And, you know, I am uncovering, discovering a lot of things now.
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And that happened because then Bishop Prevost, who was the bishop in Chiclayo,
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And I think he had something against me because I was an Augustinian.
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and but however we met only once in my life but it is very coincidental that every single bishop
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you know newly appointed bishop was against me and especially those here in Peru well
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Golka was extremely hostile to me and he even declared you know unofficially bishop Sheridan
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to be a persona non grata in the building, in the diocese of Colorado Springs.
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So I went to stay with Bishop Sheridan for a few weeks because I had a wedding
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and then I had, I wanted to visit him and he got very sick.
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It was his only sickness I knew and his final one.
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And he said, but the diocese took him to the hospital.
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It was me and another priest who drove him to the hospital because he couldn't, you know, he couldn't manage himself.
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He couldn't take care of himself in his own house.
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So I stayed a little bit more, like another week longer with him, trying to help him as much as he could.
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And then I had to come back to Peru, but then we got a new bishop in Cajamarca who didn't
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even want to meet with me when I came back from the United States.
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Another bishop was appointed also, who was a member of the interdiocesan tribunal because
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because my tribunal here served three dioceses and everybody was reluctant to meet with me
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and they didn't want to meet actually we never met so my bishop immediately began a canonical
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process against me for concubinage like i had been living with somebody in a marital
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relationship that never happened ever so the the only woman i have been with for some for long
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years now is my mother i live with her she is the only person i live with she lived with me
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she came back with me to peru and is the only person i have living under the same roof for
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they edited everything that was in the Facebook.
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I was in United States. This person wanted me to
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send him some material about catechesis, which I
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did. And then it was all distorted. So it was somebody who created a case against me just for
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the sake of getting rid of me. The thing is, the truth is, I was a true conservative.
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I was too outspoken. I would never silence myself out of false respect to any bishop or anybody.
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Another thing occurred when I was here in Lima.
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Finally, they dismissed me as judicial picker in Colorado Springs.
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I had to resign in Colorado Springs because, you know, the environment was so hostile with Bishop Ngolka
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that we signed an agreement that I would resign and he would pay me the years I have.
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yet pending until the conclusion of my contract.
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It's just, well, anyway, the one who interviewed this alleged victim who is 50 years old is Prevost.
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And he instructed this person how to act against me.
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Of course, Prevost became the head of the custody for bishops.
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And then two bishops, especially the bishop of Cajamarca, the bishop of Chota,
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They didn't want to respond anything to my canon lawyer.
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And finally, one day I got a letter through the nuncio here in Lima
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saying that I must ask for voluntary legislation
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The dismissal never happened because they referred
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the canonical process is totally illegal and invalid
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because there was no chance for me to defend myself.
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But there is nothing that proves that Bergoglio actually signed the decree of dismissal.
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But all of that happened because I was in Lima, May 8, 2024.
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a victim of sexual abuse came to me asking me to defend her and other two victims from a priest
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in Chiclayo who was covered up by Prevost. He covered this. Prevost, just so everybody's
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following the story here, Prevost is Robert Prevost. Now we know him as Leo XIV. He was
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the bishop of Chiclayo. That's why that term might seem pretty familiar to you. But please
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continue, Father. Before he left Chiclayo, these three victims approached him in Chiclayo.
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And these are sexual abuse victims. Okay. Yeah. As minors. So they approached Prevost in Chiclayo
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Bishop Prevost do this in the first place? This priest that these women were accusing,
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did he know Prevost or how did this work? Why would he do that?
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They were very close friends. Very, very close. You Google both names and you will see a lot
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so he told them that there is nothing that he can do
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And I think, I think that this priest knows too much, probably, and therefore he had to be protected.
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You know, Prevost wanted to say that I look for the victims.
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Because no canonist in Peru was willing to defend them.
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They knew how powerful the people behind that case were.
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They came to me because they knew I wouldn't be intimidated, even by Prevost.
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So what happened after that is I began to defend them.
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I wrote to the current bishop of Clive, Bishop Farfan,
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and he used a loophole saying that he's not sure that the signatures in the delegation
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or missioning me of these victims were authentic.
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So he said, no, we are not to show you anything.
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Then I sent another authenticated, notarized document with that,
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and he said that he did not want to show me anything.
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In the meantime, Prevost comes to Peru under the pretext of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Diocese of Chulucanas.
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He met with, I mean, several bishops, but especially with the nuncio and the head of the Conference of Bishops in Peru.
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He was the head of the Conference of Bishops at that time.
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So what happened is they published a press release
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eligible to defend anybody if I am involved with any case
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other four cases against four other bishops for
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So they, which is illegal, the Conference of Bishops doesn't
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processed here in Peru, and the conference of bishops have never said
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anything. But in my case, they did. So you see the persecution
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grew, and it was bigger and bigger. I have never seen a whole conference
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of bishops coming against priests. I have never
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a civil lawyer friend of mine and he tells him that it's better for me just to resign
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to leave the priesthood because they have gotten high orders to to shield Prevost
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because they don't want to damage him in any way so to leave the case as it is or else
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I was threatened because they want to protect crimes.
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So, and it's right at that time then, in the lead up to the conclave, which elects Prevost,
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that you obviously don't resign of your own accord. You don't listen to the threat. You're
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not bullied, but you are then laicized, which is unbelievable. But tell us about that. Like,
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how does that even work? You're laicized without process, without appeal, without anything.
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You cannot be laicized with no documentation. Where is the decree of dismissal? I don't have
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that. It does not exist. It's quite interesting in light of what just happened with the Society
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of St. Pius X. Obviously, they're going off the canonical books. They seem not to care.
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They excommunicate the bishops, the priests, the religious, even the laity that are formally attached, also outside of a canonical process.
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It's one thing to say, yeah, they did not obey me.
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But for them to jump, to say they're in a schism because they didn't obey me, that's crazy.
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this, this disobedience is penalized by education.
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in the external forum, you need to follow a process,
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They came next day and declared something. That's invalid. That's invalid. Even Cardinal
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Mueller is saying that that's invalid. Today he says that.
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It's very interesting because, well, there's a bunch of things, but the one I want to hit,
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first of all, is that you mentioned that you were warned to resign now because
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Prevost is being shielded from on high. And that's very interesting for another reason.
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You see, at LifeSite, we were told before the election that Prevost would be elected.
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Now, I know that's going to sound weird, but you can actually check it out because at LifeSite, we actually published a big, huge dossier on Prevost a week before he was elected.
00:27:51.960
And the reason why was because we were told he would be the one elected.
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Now, we didn't know for sure he was going, but that's what we were told.
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So that's also why when he was named, I said very publicly, what a nightmare, because I knew all
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about Prevost, because we had his whole record. We had his record as the head of the Congregation
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for Bishops, the one who got rid of Strickland, the one who brought Gregory to Washington,
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which was a scandal, and got rid of Ray. We knew his background in detail because we were told
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that he would be the one. Now, it's very interesting to hear you say he was being
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shielded, and there you are, laicized, almost right before he becomes Pope. So, very, very
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strange circumstances. But I also wanted to get, particularly because your expertise in canon law
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and your background in the sort of jurisprudence of the church, what's happening right now is a
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scandal of faith. Obviously, it's massive what Francis did and what Leo is now continuing to do.
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But in addition to the corruption of the faith, which doesn't make any sense,
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changing, flipping on its head, teachings of the church on capital punishment, on abortion relation
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to immigration, on divorce, remarriage, communion, on many, many issues, homosexuality, another one.
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But tell us about this judicial corruption inside the church, because they're doing a
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laicization against you without showing you the decree. They just did a mass and probably
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the biggest laicization ever in history, and not laicization, excuse me, excommunication in history.
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um what's what can you tell us about the corruption uh inside the church with regard to church law
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you have to be blind totally blind not to see that the judicial system of the church
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has been destroyed okay and why i'm saying that because you know i live here in south america now
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Venezuela is a place where the judicial system has been destroyed.
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It's a data that took over, they changed the law,
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Exactly the same what's happening right now in Rome.
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You know, Bishop Sanketa is a bishop who abused seminarians, sexually abused seminarians.
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There is no canonical process open against him.
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He has been protected by Bergoglio and now by Prevost.
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The only thing I have is an attestation from one sub-secretary in the Congregation for Clerity.
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The only one who has the power to dismiss priests from the clerical state is the Pope.
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The sad thing is that this abusive priest in Chiclayo, his name is Edeo Vazquez.
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He, they convinced him to request a voluntary dispensation.
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So, and this is very, very important because you know what a dispensation is.
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You request something that is against or different, it's against the law.
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so you can have some freedom for example so i have to take care of a sick person and i i cannot go
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to the sunday mass so i ask my my pastor to give me a dispensation to miss mass on sunday
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so i can go another day when the nurse is present in my house and take care of the sick person
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that's a dispensation so you can live your christian life in extraordinary circumstances
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This is what this prison, Chiklayo, asked, and Prevost granted.
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Because if the trial was open, we will see how bad he did about this case.
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In my case, they wanted to punish me as much as they could.
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Another thing is, for example, the Diocese of Cajamarca
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They don't want to pay me, and they have come to the judges here in Peru
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to convince them that priests are not to be given any salary.
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So, same as Archbishop Viganò. No pension, no retirement, not even your own wages. We are going to take away everything that we can.
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What is your final thoughts for the church where we are right now?
00:37:34.020
Well, you know, the reality is that the church is in a profound, deep crisis.
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Because, you know, for me, like Bergoglio telling that every religion is the same.
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Prevost telling the Anglicans that we are already one.
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If we are together with no distinction, all of this is apostasy.
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I think, I mean, what the so-called popes now are against the institution of the papacy.
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The one who holds the office is against the very nature of that office.
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any mass celebrated by the Fraternity of St. Pius X.
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But it's not if you go to a celebration with the Orthodox.
00:39:12.820
It's not sinful if the so-called Archbishop of Canterbury
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comes to St. Peter and gives blessings to bishops and priests.
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But if you go to St. Pius X, then, oh, that's terrible.
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Why is that terrible? They don't deny any of the articles that we process or we must process.
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So, for him, his magisterium is just horizontal.
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He has replaced theology by anthropology and sociology.
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of some Pius X. They are as Catholic as they can be.
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and then Francis and Leo, you both knew them in both capacities,
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what's what's your estimation of the difference between uh francis and leo the 14th well i think
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francis was vulgar he will use foul language publicly he is uh however there is one thing
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he knew classical theology he went to germany he didn't complete his doctoral degree but he was
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with all jesuits and these all jesuits cultivate a scholastic theology prebos attended the theological
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institute of chicago i mean that's a joke you know he has no exposure to classic
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You know, I have listened to him when he was bishop of Chiclayo about some of his hominies.
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Now he writes better because somebody else writes for him.
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But, you know, if you see the content is very weak.
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Because the regular Catholic, I mean, the regular mass goer on Sunday,
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So superficiality, emotions, there is one thing, you know,
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So, you know, convictions are the way for us to follow.
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But emotions is what is leading the church today.
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If you fulfill the motions of people, they will follow you.
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Because there is nothing, they have no response to anything that is conceptual,
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So that's, for us, it's a very difficult situation to be in
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And then the other component that we have today,
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and you see how, you know, especially the bishops who are appointed now,
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they have this little deadly combination, emotions and ignorance.
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Monsignor, as we were about to close now, any thought
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punishment that comes from Rome. That is exercise and a strategy of power. There is no exercise of
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authority. There is no exercise of supernatural power. They have only secular, worldly power.
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Monsignor, thank you so much for joining us, for your willingness to speak out despite very real
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threats that have been carried out, and they continue. But God bless you, and thank you again.
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Thank you very much for having me. God bless you.
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And God bless all of you. We'll see you next time, and remember to pray for the Church.
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Hi, I'm Liz Yor. I'm really urging all the audience to continue to follow
00:47:41.160
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