Vatican Confirms Founder of Argentine Institute Guilty of Sexual Abuse
The Holy See has definitively confirmed that Father Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, committed sexual abuse, prompting a process of spiritual renewal for the two religious communities he founded.
The Vatican has definitively confirmed that Father Carlos Miguel Buela, the Argentine priest who founded the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará (SSVM) in San Rafael, Mendoza, in 1984, was guilty of sexual abuse. The Special Criminal Tribunal of First Instance and the Court of Appeals, constituted by the competent ecclesiastical authority, reached «moral certainty» of his responsibility «for the commission of a crime against the Sixth Commandment, perpetrated with violence against several persons, in accordance with canon 1395 § 2», according to a statement from the Holy See.
The decision was announced by Sister Simona Brambilla, Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican ministry that oversees religious men and women worldwide, together with Bishop José Antonio Satué Huerto of Teruel and Albarracín, Spain, and Sister Clara Echarte. The latter two are the papal delegates — Bishop Satué for the male branch and Sister Echarte for the female branch — appointed by Pope Francis shortly before his death in January 2025 to supervise the two institutes founded by Buela.
Buela, who died on 23 April 2023, had been living in seclusion in a monastery in Genoa, Italy, after being suspended in 2010 following accusations of sexual abuse made by nearly twenty seminarians, crimes dating back to the 2000s. In 2001, the Argentine Curia had promoted the closure of the IVE and the SSVM, but the Vatican — under Pope John Paul II — approved the transfer of the headquarters of this conservative congregation to Italy, to the diocese of Velletri-Segni, near Rome. Because Buela's victims were not minors but vulnerable adults (seminarians and nuns), his case, initially under the responsibility of the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was later transferred to the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Vatican News recalled that Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castellò served as Pontifical Commissioner of the IVE after serious internal problems related to the institute's management and the aforementioned accusations of abuse of power and improper sexual conduct against its founder. The Spanish cardinal, after facing numerous difficulties, which he also expressed in a 2023 letter to IVE members, concluded his mandate in 2025, when two pontifical delegates were appointed. Over the past year and a half, these delegates have accompanied the two religious entities in their formation, religious discipline, apostolate and governance.
According to the statement released on Tuesday, the pontifical delegates summoned the superiors of the IVE and the SSVM (Sisters of Divine Mercy) to Rome to inform them that the Vatican's judicial system had reached «moral certainty» of the guilt of the founder of their congregations for crimes of sexual abuse, at a meeting held on 14 September. «This clarification aims to contribute to the restoration of truth as an act of justice for those who were harmed by the conduct of Father Carlos Miguel Buela, as well as to provide the members of both institutes with the necessary information for the process of re-examining the charism and reviewing, renewing and purifying the spirituality, formation and apostolate specific to each institute, distinguishing between the gift of the Spirit granted for the building up of the Church and the limitations or personal actions of the founder», the Vatican statement said.
As a Vatican source, who requested anonymity, explained to the newspaper La Nación, the key to understanding the statement lies in these final lines. «To avoid the closure of the IVE or the SSVM, an attempt is being made to differentiate the founder, who was a scoundrel, from the work he established throughout the world», the source explained, without hiding that this could raise serious doubts, especially among his victims. The IVE is known for its missions in extremely difficult places, under bombardment, amid conflicts. Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Gaza, for example, is a priest of the IVE and is accompanied by nuns of the SSVM. The priests whom Pope Francis visited in September 2024 in the heart of the Vanimo jungle, a remote area of Papua New Guinea, one of the poorest countries in the world, are also from the IVE. There, the priests built a school and even an orchestra, also with the help of SSVM nuns. According to its website, the IVE is currently present in 45 countries on five continents and has seven formation houses. The site states that Father Buela was the founder of the congregation, but at no point are his very serious crimes of sexual abuse mentioned, whose «moral certainty» has been confirmed.
While acknowledging the differences, Buela's case recalls that of Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the ultra-conservative Mexican congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, which also caused scandal and was placed under the control of Benedict XVI (2005-2013) after the abuses and other scandals of its leader came to light.
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