The Ugaz Project is a theatrical play based on real events. It tells the story of a journalist’s fight to expose sexual and financial abuse within a powerful institution in Peru known as the Sodalitium of Christian Life.
The journalist is Paola Ugaz, who says the response from this Catholic entity and its protectors was harsh legal persecution against her and other journalists involved in the investigations.
PAOLA UGAZ
They accused me of being the head of a money laundering network, of having trafficked uranium and plutonium, of having a contact in Sinaloa with a drug trafficker to buy cars.
This is why the journalist welcomed Pope Leo XIV’s personal involvement in her case. The pontiff sent a letter praising the play and the work of journalists who take risks.
“I want to thank those who have persevered in this cause, even when they were ignored, discredited, or even prosecuted.”
PAOLA UGAZ
I felt incredibly moved. I still haven’t finished processing everything the letter says—mentally and emotionally. We’re still reading it, because I think it’s not only about the situation of journalists in Peru. This letter goes further. It offers support to journalists in El Salvador, and to what’s happening in the Philippines.
Ugaz recalls that during his time in Peru, Pope Leo XIV tried to help victims personally after a failed attempt to publish a joint statement between bishops and survivors of the Sodalitium abuse.
PAOLA UGAZ
Many people reached out to us, called us—people with suicidal thoughts. There was a lot of pain that had gone unaddressed by both the State and the Church. So we asked him to please help us make contact with victims and support them, because their needs were urgent. He personally acted as a bridge between the most affected victims and the Sodalitium. And he secured concrete help: money, psychiatrists, medicine…
A few days after his election, Pope Leo and the journalist were seen together in Paul VI Hall, at a meeting the pontiff organized with the press, where he denounced the various attempts to silence journalism.
JRB
Trans. CRT
