Archdiocese of Lima, Peru, restores priestly functions to Father Luis Eduardo Ayala Falla after accusation of improper touching is found without evidence

On June 2, 2021, Archbishop Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, Peru, restored the priestly functions of Father Luis Eduardo Ayala Falla. The archdiocese said investigations showed “there is no evidence of the accusations” against him, which concerned alleged improper touching.

The Archdiocese of Lima decreed the completion of an investigation carried out by Fr. Jorge López Vignand, a delegate and investigator and judicial vicar of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal. The decree cited a “lack of credibility of the facts denounced” and ordered the lifting of the precautionary measures imposed against Fr. Ayala in November 2019.

The archdiocese had reported on November 8, 2019, that it had suspended Fr. Ayala after ATV, a television station, broadcast a report in which a 20-year-old man stated that the priest had touched him improperly on September 7, 2019, at the Doce Apóstoles parish in Chorrillos, where Fr. Ayala worked as an assistant. The archdiocese opened a canonical process with an ad hoc commission and suspended Fr. Ayala from exercising his duties as a priest for the duration of that process.

The June 2, 2021 decree, signed by Chancellor Sister María Elena Camones More, stated that the delegate and instructor had analyzed the complaint “diligently and seriously” and found “contradictions” in it. According to the decree, the complainant said he had no evidence of the facts, and the witnesses presented did not provide anything concrete or support the complaint. The decree also stated that the complainant was asked to provide new witnesses, had not done so despite sufficient time and assistance, and that the archdiocese therefore considered the complaint not credible. Honest examination of testimony, in this case, served as the basis for the church’s finding (Proverbs 18:17).

A separate criminal matter also ended without charges proceeding. In January 2021, the Second Superior Criminal Prosecutor’s Office of Lima Sur declared the criminal complaint against Fr. Ayala for improper touching unfounded, at second instance and definitively. The civil authority stated that the accusation had not been corroborated by any peripheral element and that there was insufficient evidence of the possible commission of the reported crime.

In a video shared with ACI Prensa on June 3, 2021, Fr. Ayala described the accusation as “extortion and revenge,” while saying he would only “have forgiveness and no resentment.” He thanked the faithful for their prayers, the Eucharist, and their expressions of affection and friendship.

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)