Mosaic art created by Father Marko Rupnik could be removed from the Basilica of the Sanctuary of Lourdes, France, out of consideration for victims of abuse who come to the sanctuary in search of consolation, the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes said.
“Lourdes is a place where many victims turn to the Immaculate Conception for comfort and healing. Their anguish is great before the mosaics of Father Rupnik in this very place: We cannot ignore it,” Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said in a statement released Friday.
Rupnik, a Jesuit priest and artist, founded the Aletti Center, an art school in Rome dedicated to religious art. He has been accused of sexually and psychologically abusing consecrated women from the Loyola Community in Slovenia who were associated with the Aletti Center.
As the National Catholic Register reported earlier this year, Rupnik’s art decorates more than 200 churches and shrines around the world, including at Lourdes, Fatima, and the Vatican.
The Jesuit order has received accusations against Rupnik that span from 1985 to 2018 and include claims of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse, and abuse of conscience.
According to current restrictions imposed by the Jesuit order, Rupnik is prohibited “from any public ministerial and sacramental activity,” banned from public communication, ordered not to leave Lazio, and “may not engage in any public artistic activity, especially in relation to religious structures (such as churches, institutions, oratories and chapels, exercise or spirituality houses).”
In April, the bishop of Lourdes said, a decision will be made regarding what to do about the mosaics by Rupnik that decorate the Shrine at Lourdes.
The work was commissioned in 2008 for the facade of the Basilica of the Rosary at the Sanctuary of Lourdes on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother.
The bishop of Lourdes said in his statement: “Like all works of art, they are appreciated by some, less by others, but the vast majority of pilgrims and visitors to Lourdes highlight their beauty.”
He then noted that “for several months, Father Rupnik has been in the news following various accusations of sexual abuse of adults in the framework of his ministry in various parts of the world.”
He noted that because Rupnik “has been sanctioned by his religious superiors and by the Holy See …the question of the status of his works and his future is being raised.”
Consultations with victims
“Given the specific nature of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes,” the bishop said, “the general question of the status of the works of artists involved in situations of abuse is much more delicate here.”
Millions of pilgrims travel to Lourdes every year to receive healing at the site where, in 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to a 14-year-old girl named Bernadette Soubirous.
The bishop reported that on March 27, together with the rector of the shrine, Father Michel Daubanes: “We brought this matter to the attention of the Guidance Council of the Shrine.”
“The issue was discussed with great seriousness: We know that the victims must be at the center of our reflections, and any decision will have serious consequences,” he said.
He said that a “reflection group” has been established, made up of the bishop, the rector, a victim of abuse, an expert in sacred art, and a psychotherapist, whose objective is to reach a determination in April.
During this time, they intend to “develop the necessary elements to make the best decision, carry out this reflection in the most serene way possible and not reject any decision hypothesis a priori.”
Finally, Bishop Micas said that he was entrusting this process and the decision to be made “to the intercession of Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, and to the mercy of God.”
“I also count on the prayers and support of the faithful of the diocese and of those who love the Sanctuary of Lourdes,” he concluded.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Hollie Dance (center left) and Paul Battersbee (center right)), the mother and father of Archie Battersbee, speak to the media as they leave the Royal Courts of Justice on June 29, 2022 in London, England. Archie’s parents ultimately lost their legal fight to keep their son on life support. He died on Aug. 6, 2022. / Carl Court/Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 7, 2022 / 06:40 am (CNA).
Archie Battersbee, the 12-year-old British boy whose family waged an unsuccessful legal fight to stop his doctors from disconnecting him from a ventilator, died Saturday.
“Can I just say I’m the proudest mum in the world — such a beautiful little boy, and he fought right until the very end,” his mother, Hollie Dance, told reporters outside the Royal London Hospital, where Archie died, the New York Times reported. “And I’m so proud to be his mum.”
Archie had been in a coma on a ventilator since April when he was found unconscious with a ligature around his neck. According to news reports, his family suspects he may have been taking part in a social media challenge.
Archie’s doctors at Royal London Hospital had maintained that the boy, whose heart was still beating, was “very likely” brain-stem dead, but a conclusive test was never performed. A UK High Court judge granted the doctors’ request to perform the test, but the test — required by the UK’s Code of Practice — was not carried out because doctors determined there was a danger it could produce a false negative result.
His family, which opposed the brain stem test because they believed it to be too dangerous, argued that Archie needed more time to recover to whatever extent possible.
The family presented video evidence they said showed Archie crying and gripping his mother’s hand. In a June 13 ruling, the High Court judge said the evidence was unconvincing. She ordered that doctors remove the boy from the ventilator, saying the available medical evidence showed that Archie was brain dead as of May 31. An appeals court subsequently upheld the decision.
Archie Battersbee, the 12 year old Catholic boy has died in a hospital in London after his life support was switched off even though his parents were against withdrawing the life support of their son. It was this year that Archie’s family converted to Catholicism. pic.twitter.com/ajjs5bLjao
Last week, Archie’s parents exhausted their legal options when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) refused to intervene in the case.
“It was the last thing, wasn’t it? And again our country has failed a 12-year-old child,” Dance said, according to the BBC.
Catholic bioethics experts condemned the decision by the hospital to take Archie off of life support. Before Archie’s death, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, based in the UK, released a statement saying, “It seems extraordinary that questions of life and death should be matters of a balance of probability rather than determination beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Baptized in the hospital
The bioethics center issued a statement following the announcement of Archie’s death.
“The court battle over Archie Battersbee’s care is the latest example of the dying of children becoming complicated by unresolved conflict between parents and hospital authorities. It seems clear that there are serious problems with the current clinical, interpersonal, ethical, and legal approach to these situations,” the statement said.
“The tragic case of Archie Battersbee must lead to reform so that such conflicts can be averted in the future,” the center said.
“Our last thoughts and our prayers are for Archie’s family, and for Archie himself. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace,” the statement concluded.
In court testimony, a family spokeswoman described Archie’s family as “vaguely Christian” but not church-goers prior to his brain injury. Archie, however, was attracted to Christianity because he saw mixed martial artists praying before they entered the ring, the spokeswoman testified.
“Archie had saved up for and then begun wearing a small cross and a St Christopher’s ring in the two years before the accident,” the June 13 High Court ruling states.
“Archie had been speaking about being baptised and wanted his mother to take him to a church service at Christmas. This led to the family having Archie christened as he lay unconscious. Archie’s mother, brother and sister were christened then on Easter Sunday at the hospital,” the ruling states.
Pope Francis meets Canadian Indigenous leaders at the Vatican on April 1, 2022. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Apr 1, 2022 / 07:50 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on Friday expressed his “sorrow and shame” for the role Catholics have played in the abuse … […]
Seminarians at Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Nigeria’s Kaduna state where four students were kidnapped and one, Michael Nnadi, was killed in 2020. / Credit: Good Shepherd Major Seminary Kaduna/ Facebook
ACI Africa, Jan 26, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).
Last year, 2023, was a difficult year for Brother Peter Olarewaju, a postulant at the Benedictine monastery in Nigeria’s Ilorin Diocese who was kidnapped alongside two others at the monastery. Olarewaju underwent different kinds of torture and witnessed the murder of his companion, Brother Godwin Eze.
After his release, Olarewaju said his kidnapping was a blessing, as it had strengthened his faith. He even said that he is now prepared to die for his faith.
“I am prepared to die a martyr in this dangerous country. I am ready any moment to die for Jesus. I feel this very strongly,” Olarewaju said in an interview with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Nov. 26, 2023, days after he was set free by suspected Fulani kidnappers.
The monk’s testimony is not an isolated case in Nigeria, where kidnapping from seminaries, monasteries, and other places of religious formation has been on the rise. While some victims of the kidnappings have been killed, those who survived the ordeal have shared that they have come back stronger — and ready to die for their faith.
Seminarian Melchior Maharini, a Tanzanian who was kidnapped alongside a priest from the Missionaries of Africa community in the Diocese of Minna in August 2023, said the suffering he endured during the three weeks he was held captive strengthened his faith. “I felt my faith grow stronger. I accepted my situation and surrendered everything to God,” he told ACI Africa on Sept. 1, 2023.
Many other seminarians in Nigeria have been kidnapped by Boko Haram militants, Fulani herdsmen, and other bandit groups operating in Africa’s most populous nation.
In August 2023, seminarian David Igba told ACI Africa that he stared death in the face when a car in which he was traveling on his way to the market in Makurdi was sprayed with bullets by Fulani herdsmen.
In September 2023, seminarian Na’aman Danlami was burned alive in a botched kidnapping incident in the Diocese of Kafanchan. A few days earlier, another seminarian, Ezekiel Nuhu, from the Archdiocese of Abuja, who had gone to spend his holidays in Southern Kaduna, was kidnapped.
Two years prior, in October 2021, Christ the King Major Seminary of Kafanchan Diocese was attacked and three seminarians were kidnapped.
In one attack that attracted global condemnation in 2020, seminarian Michael Nnadi was brutally murdered after he was kidnapped alongside three others from Good Shepherd Major Seminary in the Diocese of Kaduna. Those behind the kidnapping confessed that they killed Nnadi because he would not stop preaching to them, fearlessly calling them to conversion.
After Nnadi’s murder, his companions who survived the kidnapping proceeded to St. Augustine Major Seminary in Jos in Nigeria’s Plateau state, where they courageously continued with their formation.
As Christian persecution rages in Nigeria, seminary instructors in the country have shared with ACI Africa that there is an emerging spirituality in Nigerian seminaries that many may find difficult to grasp: the spirituality of martyrdom.
They say that in Nigeria, those who embark on priestly formation are continuously being made to understand that their calling now entails being ready to defend the faith to the point of death. More than ever before, the seminarians are being reminded that they should be ready to face persecution, including the possibility of being kidnapped and even killed.
Father Peter Hassan, rector of St. Augustine Major Seminary in the Archdiocese of Jos, Plateau state, said that seminaries, just like the wider Nigerian society, have come to terms with “the imminence of death” for being Christian.
“Nigerian Christians have been victims of violence of apocalyptic proportions for nearly half a century. I can say that we have learned to accept the reality of imminent death,” Hassan said in a Jan. 12 interview with ACI Africa.
He added: “Nevertheless, it is quite inspiring and comforting to see the many young men who are still ready to embrace a life that will certainly turn them into critically endangered species. Yet these same young men are willing to preach the gospel of peace and embrace the culture of dialogue for peaceful coexistence.”
Shortly after Nnadi’s kidnapping and killing, St. Augustine Major Seminary opened its doors to the three seminarians who survived the kidnapping.
Hassan told ACI Africa that the presence of the three former students of Good Shepherd Major Seminary was “a blessing” to the community of St. Augustine Major Seminary.
“Their presence in our seminary was a blessing to our seminarians, a wake-up call to the grim reality that not even the very young are spared by those mindless murderers,” Hassan said.
Back at Good Shepherd, seminarians have remained resilient, enrolling in large numbers even after the 2020 kidnapping and Nnadi’s murder.
In an interview with ACI Africa, Father Samuel Kanta Sakaba, the rector of Good Shepherd Major Seminary, said that instructors at the Catholic institution, which has a current enrollment of 265 seminarians, make it clear that being a priest in Nigeria presents the seminarians with the danger of being kidnapped or killed.
ACI Africa asked Sakaba whether or not the instructors discuss with the seminarians the risks they face, including that of being kidnapped, or even killed, to which the priest responded: “Yes, as formators, we have the duty to take our seminarians through practical experiences — both academic, spiritual, and physical experiences. We share this reality of persecution with them, but for them to understand, we connect the reality of Christian persecution in Nigeria to the experiences of Jesus. This way, we feel that it would be easier for them to not only have the strength to face what they are facing but to also see meaning in their suffering.”
“Suffering is only meaningful if it is linked with the pain of Jesus,” the priest said. “The prophet Isaiah reminds us that ‘by his wounds, we are healed.’ Jesus also teaches us that unless the grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it will remain a single grain, but that it is only when it falls and dies that it yields a rich harvest. Teachings such as these are the ones that deepen our resilience in the face of persecution.”
Sakaba spoke of the joy of those who look forward to “going back to God in a holy way.”
“Whatever happens, we will all go back to God. How joyful it is to go back to God in a holy way, in a way of sacrifice.” he said. “This holiness is accepting this cross, this pain. Jesus accepted the pain of Calvary, and that led him to his resurrection. Persecution purifies the individual for them to become the finished product for God. I believe that these attacks are God’s project, and no human being can stop God’s work.”
However, the rector clarified that those who enroll at the seminary do not go out seeking danger.
“People here don’t go out putting themselves in situations of risk,” he said. “But when situations such as these happen, the teachings of Jesus and his persecution give us courage to face whatever may come our way.”
Sakaba said that although priestly formation in Nigeria is embracing the “spirituality of martyrdom,” persecution in the West African country presents “a difficult reality.”
“It is difficult to get used to pain. It is difficult to get used to the issues of death … to get familiar with death,” he said. “No one chooses to go into danger just because other people are suffering; it is not part of our nature. But in a situation where you seem not to have an alternative, the grace of God kicks in to strengthen you to face the particular situation.”
Sakaba said that since the 2020 attack at Good Shepherd Major Seminary, the institution has had an air of uncertainty. He said that some of the kidnappers who were arrested in the incident have been released, a situation he said has plunged the major seminary into “fear of the unknown.”
“It hasn’t been easy for us since the release,” Sabaka told ACI Africa. “The community was thrown into confusion because of the unknown. We don’t know what will happen next. We don’t know when they will come next or what they will do to us. We don’t know who will be taken next.”
In the face of that, however, Sabaka said the resilience of the seminary community has been admirable. “God has been supporting, encouraging, and leading us. His grace assisted us to continue to practice our faith,” he said.
The jihadist attacks, which continue unabated in communities surrounding the seminary, do not make the situation easier.
“Every attack that happens outside our community reminds us of our own 2020 experience. We are shocked, and although we remain deeply wounded, we believe that God has been leading us,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.
Can’t pass up this opportunity…No, not the journey of 10,000 miles, but rather the recycled (!) disposal of 10,000 tessera (the mosaic chips)! Whatever to do with the tessera?
Perhaps convert (!) them into a quite different mosaic at the same location, but by an untainted artist? Or, instead, baptize them in the Tiber as was done with Pachamama? (The deified flow-of-history sort of thing.)
Or, in the Vatican itself, maybe a permanent and clearly Christian image, still from the New World—perhaps Our Lady of Guadalupe—right there in the Vatican Garden at the very spot where the veneration of the Peruvian/Amazonian fertility goddess took place?
Yes, an unambiguous message reminding us that, while near to the rock cliff at Banias at the foot of Mt. Hermon, Jesus Christ clearly avoided (clarity!) this grotto as one of the many settings for the Greco-Roman pantheistic cult of “Pan”—and for sexual abuses, if only by men against women. (briefly, see Stanley L. Jaki, “And on this Rock”, Christendom Press, 1997, pp. 138-9).
Significantly, too, it is only and separately at the top of this mountain that we are shown the Transfiguration.
““Like all works of art, they are appreciated by some, less by others,”
For him to admit that, you just know that a large number of people have commented on how hideous they are.
Setting apart the evil acts of which he stands accused, It is sad to contemplate the fact that he had a whole school producing sludge like that, and that people were defacing churches (or anything else) with it.
“‘Lourdes is a place where many victims turn to the Immaculate Conception for comfort and healing. Their anguish is great before the mosaics of Father Rupnik in this very place: We cannot ignore it,’ Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said…”
Yes, Bishop Micas, the mosaics need to be removed in recognition of the hideous, bestial acts that the ignominious Rupnik visited on innocent women. For decades on end.
But they also need to be removed because the figures Rupnik renders are baleful, vacuous, hollow-eyed zombies, reflective of the emptiness of his own soul.
Anyone who wonders about the state of the Jesuitical order need only to look at Rupnik’s work. The emptiness absolutely howls through both.
In a jpurney of 10,000 miles one must take the first step.
Hopefully this is that first step.
Spell much?
Typo or temporary glitch in the hippocampus? Happens to yours truly far too often! 🙁
Can’t pass up this opportunity…No, not the journey of 10,000 miles, but rather the recycled (!) disposal of 10,000 tessera (the mosaic chips)! Whatever to do with the tessera?
Perhaps convert (!) them into a quite different mosaic at the same location, but by an untainted artist? Or, instead, baptize them in the Tiber as was done with Pachamama? (The deified flow-of-history sort of thing.)
Or, in the Vatican itself, maybe a permanent and clearly Christian image, still from the New World—perhaps Our Lady of Guadalupe—right there in the Vatican Garden at the very spot where the veneration of the Peruvian/Amazonian fertility goddess took place?
Yes, an unambiguous message reminding us that, while near to the rock cliff at Banias at the foot of Mt. Hermon, Jesus Christ clearly avoided (clarity!) this grotto as one of the many settings for the Greco-Roman pantheistic cult of “Pan”—and for sexual abuses, if only by men against women. (briefly, see Stanley L. Jaki, “And on this Rock”, Christendom Press, 1997, pp. 138-9).
Significantly, too, it is only and separately at the top of this mountain that we are shown the Transfiguration.
This would be a convincing gesture. Anything from a man like this is an affront.
Even had the artist not been associated with terrible acts at the end of the day it’s bad, cartoonish art and Lourdes is better off without it.
It should be destroyed.
““Like all works of art, they are appreciated by some, less by others,”
For him to admit that, you just know that a large number of people have commented on how hideous they are.
Setting apart the evil acts of which he stands accused, It is sad to contemplate the fact that he had a whole school producing sludge like that, and that people were defacing churches (or anything else) with it.
The article states:
“‘Lourdes is a place where many victims turn to the Immaculate Conception for comfort and healing. Their anguish is great before the mosaics of Father Rupnik in this very place: We cannot ignore it,’ Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said…”
Yes, Bishop Micas, the mosaics need to be removed in recognition of the hideous, bestial acts that the ignominious Rupnik visited on innocent women. For decades on end.
But they also need to be removed because the figures Rupnik renders are baleful, vacuous, hollow-eyed zombies, reflective of the emptiness of his own soul.
Anyone who wonders about the state of the Jesuitical order need only to look at Rupnik’s work. The emptiness absolutely howls through both.