ROME — The Holy See has confirmed that Argentine priest Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the Institute of the Incarnate Word (IVE), committed abuse against several individuals.
The Vatican reached this conclusion following a canonical process and has ordered the religious family, which has been under Vatican intervention for more than seven years and without self-governance, to undertake a path of renewal.
The decision was communicated during a meeting in Rome on Sept. 14 involving the pontifical delegates overseeing the menʼs and womenʼs branches of the congregation, provincial superiors of both institutes, and representatives of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The decision was made public Tuesday and had also been posted on the IVEʼs website last week.
According to a Vatican statement, both the Special Criminal Tribunal of First Instance and the Court of Appeal, established by the Churchʼs competent authority, “reached moral certainty regarding the responsibility of Fr. Carlos Miguel Buela, founder of the two institutes, for committing an offense against the Sixth Commandment, perpetrated with violence against several persons,” in accordance with Canon 1395 §2 of the Code of Canon Law.
The Vatican said the clarification seeks “to restore the truth as an act of justice toward those persons who have been harmed by the founderʼs behavior.”
Reexamining the charism and purifying the institution
The statement framed the decision within the broader renewal process currently underway in both the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, which remain under Vatican oversight.
The Vatican stressed the need to pursue a process of “re-reading the charism and reviewing, renewing and purifying the spirituality, formation and apostolic activity proper to each institute, distinguishing between the gift of the Holy Spirit granted for the building up of the Church and the limitations or personal actions of the founder.”
The goal, the statement said, is to distinguish the charism received for the service of the Church from the personal conduct and shortcomings of Buela, whose legacy has long been overshadowed by allegations of sexual abuse, manipulation, and serious failures in governance.
A step toward renewal
The Vaticanʼs measures amount to what is effectively a process of institutional renewal. The effort bears similarities to the path undertaken by the Holy See with the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi after the confirmation of abuses and crimes committed by their founder, Marcial Maciel.
The initiative has the support of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life, headed by Sister Simona Brambilla, as well as the two pontifical delegates originally appointed by Pope Francis and later confirmed by Pope Leo XIV: Bishop José Antonio Satué of Teruel and Albarracín, Spain, for the menʼs branch and Sister Clara Echarte for the womenʼs branch.
Presence in 45 countries
The Religious Family of the Incarnate Word is present in 45 countries and includes more than 3,000 members, including priests, religious sisters, and lay members of its Third Secular Order. Founded in Argentina in 1984, it experienced rapid international growth in the decades that followed.
However, just 11 years after its founding, the Holy See began intervening in the congregation amid allegations of sexual abuse against Buela and other concerns involving the exercise of authority and community life. Since then, various pontifical commissioners and delegates have sought to address the situation.
A major milestone came in December 2016, when the Diocese of San Rafael in Argentina publicly announced that the Vatican had found Buela guilty of “improper behavior with adults.” In a statement read at the time during a press conference, the diocese said allegations had emerged involving “sexual actions affecting religious and seminarians of the institute.”
In 2019, Spanish Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló was appointed pontifical commissioner. He imposed restrictions on the congregationʼs expansion and publicly denounced the internal resistance he encountered during his mission.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.