Rome Newsroom, Jul 24, 2023 / 11:30 am (CNA).
The former superior of the now-expelled Father Marko Rupnik has stated that “internal procedures” at the Vatican prevented the Jesuit order from prosecuting the disgraced artist priest more vigorously for his sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of several women, according to an Associated Press report published Monday.
A communication officer at the Jesuit curia in Rome confirmed to CNA that the AP report, based on a letter written by Father Johan Verschueren, the major superior for the Jesuits’ international houses, is accurate.
In the letter, Verschuren confirmed that Rupnik is no longer a Jesuit after the Slovenian priest did not appeal his June expulsion before a July 14 deadline. The decree of expulsion was issued for what the Jesuits said at the time was Rupnik’s “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience” after he had refused direction from his superiors to enter into a process of reparation for his abusive behavior.
Responding to criticisms that Rupnik is still a priest, Verschueren wrote that the Vatican’s current legislation “precluded an investigation that could have led to a harsher penalty,” according to the AP. The Vatican strengthened its laws to criminalize clerical abuse of adults in June 2021 but did not retroactively apply them to reported acts of abuse committed by Rupnik between 1985 and 2018 that had been found credible by the Jesuits’ investigative team.
The Jesuit superior had previously said that removing Rupnik from the clerical state or ordering the abuser priest into a life of penance were possible options, but, under present norms, Rupnik remains a priest without any direct supervision and he hypothetically could be put into ministry by a sympathetic bishop.
In his letter, Verschuren also noted that the Jesuits would disaffiliate from the Centro Aletti, an artistic community founded by Rupnik in the 1990s and has since been linked canonically with the order.
The controversy surrounding Rupnik, whose mosaics can be found in some of the most prominent Catholic religious sites in the world and have been regularly used in Vatican initiatives, has raised serious questions about the Society of Jesus’ handling of abuse claims — and also of Pope Francis’ role in the matter.
Knowledge of Rupnik’s abuse — which he is alleged to have inflicted upon religious sisters during his time as the leader of the Loyola Community in Slovenia in the 1980s, but also in the following decades — only became public knowledge after Italian media began reporting on accusations of abuse.
The superior general of the Society of Jesus, Father Arturo Sosa, confirmed on Dec. 14, 2022, that Rupnik had been excommunicated in May 2020 for having absolved one of his accomplices, a measure that was lifted that same month after he repented.
During a Jan. 24 AP interview, Pope Francis was asked if he had any role in deciding Rupnik’s case, to which he replied: “I had nothing to do with this,” adding that he was only “involved in a small process that came to the Congregation of Faith in the past.”
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Jesuit superiors fault Pope Francis for the reduced penalties against Fr Rupnik. Excommunication rescinded. Removal from the priesthood thwarted. Rupnik now free to carry on his debauchery. Francis responding to the accusations like Sergeant Schultz, ‘I know nothing’. The pathos of it all. God come to our aid. Lord make haste to help us.
I had a strange dream a few years ago. I was in a massive overgrown forest with endless numbers of people, like a billion. My desire was to find a quit place to rest. After walking a long while, I felt peaceful, dry and safe. Soon, my desire turned to fire and everywhere I walked the ground began to burn. Embarrassed, I kept trying to stomp out the flames. But it only made things worse. Against everything I had ever been taught as a child about how to camp, I stopped worrying about the fire and just took off running. Flames burst out all around me. People gaped at me as I flew by them just standing there. My Bishop yelled at me from atop a tree that I was acting like an idiot. As I passed the Pope he grinned, then stopped himself, stated to frown, and even tried to hit me with his walking stick as I flew past him. Eventually, I burned out in a river and passed out on the other side. Before I did, I saw the whole forest on fire behind me on the other side.
When I opened my eyes, I felt like I had lain there for a hundred years. There were a lot of people with me, but nothing like a billion. Everybody was glad they had made it. I saw the Pope, he was there, but he was a different one. Nonetheless, I flinched when he came up to greet me. But when he smiled, we both burst out laughing. All he said was: you fool!
When I woke up from my dream, I was drenched, as if I had been baptized in my clothes.
Amazing. You seem to have had a prophetic dream. There’s frequent reference of this in the Bible. Joel 2:28, quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17 mentions God using dreams.
To me your dream represents the COVID-vaccination imposture.
That’s what my former Bishop said in Puerto Rico.
Was that in your dream too? It doesn’t say. If he is not inclined to understand dreams he is still right (as we hear news from the trustworthy sources).
Did you take the evil vaccines into your life?
Yes, yes, we understand: God alone can damn Rupnik to Hell.
But Catholics depend upon the Pope to bring Rupnik to justice and protect the flock.
Enabling Rupnik to remain a priest is unconscionable.
And while you are at it, get the money Rupnik took and give it to his victims. The Jesuits will be OK without it.
More correctly, God does not damn Rupnik or anyone else to Hell. Instead, in our freedom–as the image and likeness of God–we do this to ourselves.
Amen. Preach it brother!
See, accepting correction and fixing our mistakes is not so bad.
I have a friend who refused to believe anything bad about Francis until his intervention on Rupnik. That was his “red pill.” I said to him over a drink, I’m glad to hear it. For me it came very early, when he complained that we musn’t be seen as “obsessed” over abortion, as though there could be such a thing. Those words sent a message around the world that Catholic witness on the matter is not to be taken too seriously. I know so many people who sacrificed so much for the babies, and that was a knife in all our backs, and a death sentence for heaven knows how many babies as it undermined our witness. Francis never stopped looking for ways to exercise shock narcissism ever since.
The Vatican had best tread very carefully and it “increases inclusivity” lest parishioners, including children” feel harmed physically or even psychologically. The two consequences, of course, will be legal actions and reduced attendence.
This Vatican, Jesuits, the Synod, hierarchs as craven politicians, etc., etc. I’ve tired of them all.
It is time for the hideously corrupt and heretical Jesuit order to be condemned and eradicated permanently and the same for for its hideously corrupt and heretical pope.
I cringe every Sunday when I see the picture on the cover of our 2023 church hymnal, emblazoned as it is with one of Rupnik’s big-eyed mosaics. It’s presence is arguably appropriate, however, considering some of the awful music contained within.