The Society of Jesus reported that after the first investigation in which testimonies of power and sexual abuse of women have been collected for 30 years by the Slovenian Jesuit Marko Rupnik, known for being the author of numerous mosaics in churches throughout the world, the already existing restrictive measures have been tightened and any public artistic exercise has been prohibited.
"Many of these people do not know each other and the events narrated refer to different times (the Loyola community, people who declare themselves abused of conscience, spiritual, psychological or sexual abuse during personal relationship experiences with Father Rupnik, and people who have been part of the Aletti Center). Therefore, the degree of credibility of what is reported or denounced seems to be very high", concludes this report by the Jesuits published this Tuesday.
For the moment, they explained in a statement, in addition to prohibiting "any public artistic exercise, especially against religious structures", those already in force are maintained: prohibition of any ministerial and sacramental public activity, prohibition of public communication, prohibition of leaving the region from Lazio.
It was reported that based on the complaints collected "the criminal relevance, before the Italian judicial authority, of Father Rupnik's conduct tends to be excluded" but "the relevance of these is very different from the canonical point of view and in relation to his life and his religious and priestly responsibility".
For this reason, the internal investigation will continue and while new precautionary measures can be adopted, as well as if it is suspected that a more serious crime has been committed, the complaint will be presented to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Holy See, which is the body that it can take measures of a canonical nature such as expulsion from the priesthood. Although for the moment, after the collection of this initial information, the obligation to denounce the department of the Doctrine of the Faith has not been released, they argued.
While the possibility of expulsion from the Society of Jesus will be studied after giving Rupnik the right to defend himself, since for the moment he has wanted to collaborate.
The case began when the Jesuits admitted that Rupnik had been sanctioned with some restrictions after an investigation into sexual and psychological abuse of nuns in the 1990s, despite the statute of limitations.
According to the chronology that the Society of Jesus published on its page regarding this episode, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree in May 2020 that punished the Jesuit with excommunication for the crime of "acquittal of an accomplice of a sin against the sixth commandment", but shortly after, with an extraordinary act, the excommunication was lifted and it is still unknown who did it, since Pope Francis assured that it had not been him.
The online newspapers Left and Domani have been publishing testimonies from nuns who claimed they suffered "repeated and prolonged sexual abuse" by Father Rupnik since 1994.
This Jesuit is known worldwide for his mosaics such as those that adorn the facade of the Lourdes basilica, in France, a chapel in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, in the monastery of Santo Domingo de la Calzada or in the cathedral of La Almudena in Madrid.
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