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San José de Luján formation house, Argentina. / Credit: Miles Christi InstituteLa Plata, Argentina, Mar 8, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).The Vatican's Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has decreed the suppression of the Miles Christi religious order, founded in Argentina and the subject of a Vatican intervention in 2022."This decision was specifically approved by Pope Francis on Feb. 6, 2025," stated an official communication released by the AICA news agency.Implementing the measure fell to Mauricio Landra, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Mercedes-Luján, as the papal delegate appointed by the Vatican dicastery."Given the delicacy and complexity of the situation, in order for everything to be carried out with justice and charity, in order to implement the decision taken by the Holy See, we entrust this time to Mary, Mother of the Church," Landra said when announcing the decision.Miles Christi (Soldier of Christ) was a clerical religious orde...

La Plata, Argentina, Mar 8, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

The Vatican's Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has decreed the suppression of the Miles Christi religious order, founded in Argentina and the subject of a Vatican intervention in 2022.

"This decision was specifically approved by Pope Francis on Feb. 6, 2025," stated an official communication released by the AICA news agency.

Implementing the measure fell to Mauricio Landra, auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Mercedes-Luján, as the papal delegate appointed by the Vatican dicastery.

"Given the delicacy and complexity of the situation, in order for everything to be carried out with justice and charity, in order to implement the decision taken by the Holy See, we entrust this time to Mary, Mother of the Church," Landra said when announcing the decision.

Miles Christi (Soldier of Christ) was a clerical religious order of diocesan right founded in 1994 in the Archdiocese of La Plata, Argentina.

In February 2020, its founder, Roberto Juan Yannuzzi, was expelled from the clerical state after having been found guilty "of crimes against the Sixth Commandment with adults, of absolution of the accomplice and of abuse of authority."

At the end of 2022, Pope Francis appointed Jorge García Cuerva, then the bishop of Río Gallegos and now archbishop of Buenos Aires, as pontifical commissioner of the order.

In December of the same year, the Archdiocese of La Plata — under the authority at that time of then-Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández — determined that the contract by which for 16 years the Miles Christi order had been in charge of the St. Louis Gonzaga Parish and the St. Francis School be rescinded.

The archdiocese then took over running the parish and the school.

A few days later, and after receiving questions from the order about the measures taken, the ecclesiastical tribunal of La Plata reported that there was "an investigation due to a sexual abuse complaint filed against a Miles Christi priest."

The complaint, the tribunal said, was submitted to the superior general of the religious order in the first semester, then forwarded to the archdiocese, expanded, and finally filed in the state courts.

In February 2023, García, as pontifical commissioner of the Miles Christi order, together with the Archdiocese of La Plata, communicated the decision to close the St. Ignatius center, which operated in the city of La Plata.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA's Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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