That’s where John Allen is reporting from, and he has some fascinating stuff, including skullduggery swirling around Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima and explanations for the growth in evangelical Protestantism in the country

Peruvian journalist Federico Prieto Celi gave me another reading July 12. He theorized that the growth is in part linked to conscious American policy. He cited a famous remark of Theodore Roosevelt to the effect that, “I believe it will be long and difficult to absorb these countries into the sphere of the United States as long as they remain Catholic.” In a similar vein, he pointed to a 1969 essay by Nelson Rockefeller: “The Catholic church has stopped being a trusted ally of the United States, and on the contrary is transforming itself into a danger because it raises the consciousness of the people. It’s recommended to give support to fundamentalist Christian groups and churches of the sort of Moon and the Hare Krishna.”

On the other hand, the evangelicals themselves bitterly dispute the idea that they’re local branches of an American franchise.

..and an account of one heroic woman’s work:

Today the Wawa-Wasi center consists of three classrooms, a nursery with eight cribs of different sizes, a makeshift infirmary, and Lucha’s small office where she acts as administrator, teacher, counselor and sometimes even spiritual director.

The women here follow a three-level course of formation. The first focuses on basic literacy, the second introduces more complex reading and writing, and the third branches out to also include some history and geography. While the women study, the children get health check-ups and participate in group activities. Lucha’s center also sponsors a child-to-child nutrition program, making sure that the children of Villa El Carmen, and their families, get a balanced diet.

It may perhaps strike some readers as incongruous that Lucha’s spiritual inspiration is not the social activism of the Jesuits, or the progressive vision of liberation theology. Instead, Lucha’s training and support comes from Opus Dei, a group generally classified among the more conservative elements of the Catholic Church.

As well as a bit of information on the Austrian seminary scandal and another Italian scandal.