The Jesuits yesterday said that a famous artist priest has definitively been expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they could not prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures.
The Reverend Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest, but is no longer a Jesuit priest, after he did not appeal last month’s expulsion decree, said his former superior, the Reverend Johan Verschueren.
Rupnik, a Slovenian priest, is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church. His mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.
Photo: AP
Late last year, the Jesuits acknowledged Rupnik had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse over 30 years. He had largely escaped punishment until then, apparently in part because of his exalted status in the church and at the Vatican, where even Pope Francis’ role in the case came into question.
After conducting an investigation, the Jesuits last month announced that they determined the women’s claims to be “very highly credible.”
They said they had kicked Rupnik out of the order because of his “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”
The Jesuits had exhorted Rupnik to atone for his misconduct and enter into a process of reparation with his victims, but he refused.
“I cannot but greatly regret this insistent and stubborn inability to confront the voices of so many people who have felt hurt, offended and humiliated by his behavior and conduct toward them,” Verschueren wrote in a letter obtained yesterday confirming the expulsion.
At the same time, Verschueren acknowledged criticism that Rupnik still remains a priest, who now has no religious supervision whatsoever.
He said the Vatican’s legislation precluded an investigation that could have led to a harsher penalty — the most stringent church penalty is to defrock a priest, essentially making him a regular layman again.
It was a reference to the fact that at the time of Rupnik’s alleged abuse, the Vatican did not usually punish sexual or other types of misconduct between priests and adult women, considering any such relations consensual.
The Vatican has recently begun to recognize such misconduct as criminal, but new laws cannot be applied retroactively, and the Vatican is generally loathe to make exceptions to punish old misconduct involving adults.
If Rupnik wants to preach and celebrate the sacraments publicly, he would have to find a friendly bishop to take him in — something that is not out of the question since he retains steadfast supporters.
Among them are the leaders of the Aletti Center, an ecumenical study center and mosaic art studio founded by Rupnik in the 1990s in Rome. Last month, the current leader, Maria Campatelli, issued a strong defense of Rupnik, calling the allegations against him “defamatory and unproven.”
In an open letter, she said the claims amounted to a form of media “lynching” against the priest and his art center.
She added that Rupnik had in January asked to leave the Jesuits and that other Jesuit priests at the Aletti Center made similar requests because of their “overriding distrust of superiors.”
Verscheueren confirmed Rupnik requested to leave, but said that was denied because the Jesuits wanted him to make amends with his victims.
Verscheueren yesterday said the order would distance itself legally from the Aletti Center, which no longer has a Jesuit community in residence. The Jesuits inaugurated the center in 1993 and are linked to it canonically as a public association of the faithful.
Verscheureren said the Jesuits plan to exit the association and terminate the partnership.
Francis’ role in the case came into question after the Jesuits acknowledged that Rupnik had been briefly declared excommunicated in 2020 for having committed one of the most serious crimes in the Catholic Church — using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity. The excommunication was lifted two weeks after it was declared, raising the question of whether Francis had intervened on behalf of his fellow Jesuit.
In a January interview with The Associated Press, Francis denied he had intervened other than procedurally, to keep new allegations against Rupnik in the same tribunal as older ones. At the same time, Francis seemed to know far more about the outcome than the Jesuits had revealed, saying also that Rupnik had paid compensation to the woman.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS