A new case of alleged sexual abuse shakes the Catholic Church. The Peruvian priest Omar Sánchez Portillo has been accused by a young man who claims he was abused between 2019 and 2020, after being invited to volunteer in the Association of the Beatitudes, a social action organization located in Tablada de Lurín, in Villa María del Triunfo, south of Lima. Sánchez Portillo, 59 years old and current secretary general of Cáritas Lurín, has also been known for maintaining a confrontational profile and an active presence in mass media and digital platforms, where he tends to speak more about political issues than about matters related to faith.
During the pandemic, his work to raise money to install oxygen plants for those infected with covid-19 stood out. His solidarity with vulnerable people was often highlighted; but at the same time, Sánchez Portillo divided opinions with his political views. He launched darts against communism, defended the style of Trump and Milei, and claimed to be from “a true right like VOX [Spanish far-right party]”. Before the first round of the last elections, he hosted an internet program where he interviewed a group of presidential candidates, including Keiko Fujimori, with whom he has maintained a friendship since the 1990s. He also advocated for the candidacy of far-right Rafael López Aliaga, considering that “he was the only one who could fight corruption.”
The investigative portal Epicentro TV revealed this complaint before the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, which remained in absolute secrecy. The process began in 2023 and is signed by the victim and a relative. They claim that the priest manipulated the young man — then 26 years old — taking advantage of the fact that he had been addicted to drugs since he was 16. He presented himself as his “savior” and took him to live at the Association of the Beatitudes, but according to them, it was all a deception with sexual purposes.
“He made us believe he would be his caretaker and, after having him under his charge for a while, he already had him in his bed, sexually abusing him as the vulnerable person he was and is. The consent of a vulnerable person is flawed […] it is someone who no longer knows how to distinguish anything in life,” the relative who took the complaint to the Holy See has said. “He wove a web around him, and around us, to satisfy his basest desires. It was all a farce,” he adds.
According to the account, the victim lacked a father figure, suffered abuse during childhood, his mother was a kidnapping victim, and his youth was spent in various rehabilitation centers.
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Priest Sánchez Portillo has not responded to the complaint and has limited himself to sharing on his social networks an image of John Paul II with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. The diocese of Lurín, where he serves as secretary, issued a statement signed by the bishop of that jurisdiction and president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, Carlos García Camader. They mention that they are aware of what happened and that “the pertinent measures are being executed with due diligence and speed, in order to guarantee the procedure, the protection of the rights of the parties, and the clarification of the facts.”
La Sustancia, the digital program where the reverend interviewed presidential candidates and commented on current events as a fierce political analyst, issued a statement clarifying that it no longer had any labor ties with him, as this ended shortly before the first round. Omar Sánchez Portillo studied Law at the University of Lima and received the Church’s calling at 24 years old, after living in New York. He is diocesan. “He fell in love with a vegetarian girl and got 17 tattoos highlighting the name of his then-girlfriend, a phrase attributed to Julius Caesar, and the number of a law enacted by Adolf Hitler to persecute and imprison homosexuals in concentration camps,” describes journalist Paola Ugaz, who uncovered the case.
José Enrique Escardó, the first complainant of abuses by the Sodalicio de Vida Cristiana, has suggested the possibility that there are more victims of Omar Sánchez Portillo. “Some time ago I learned of the complaint and was just waiting for it to become public. I hope he is thoroughly investigated because whoever has one victim like this has more,” he said. Luciano Revoredo, director of the portal La Abeja, has defended the priest claiming that the complaint is a strategy to discredit “good shepherds.” Be that as it may, the questioned priest remains silent.
Finally, the victim’s circle insists that a canonical penalty should be imposed for the crime against the Sixth Commandment with vulnerable persons, the crime of abuse of power, and the crime against special obligations. “We only want to prevent this priest from deceiving other people and using them as instruments of his criminal actions,” the relatives state.
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