Many do not know his name, but in the Jesuit order he is one of the most important artistic figures of the Church in recent years, author of mosaics in basilicas, chapels, convents, hospitals throughout the world. His work can be found in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, in a chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, in the Sanctuary of Lourdes or in the Sanctuary of the Holy Trinity of Fatima.
This is the Slovenian priest Marko Rupnik, 68, a star of Catholic art who is now in the eye of the hurricane after discovering that he sexually and psychologically abused about twenty nuns during the 1990s. The case has generated an earthquake, both in the Society of Jesus and in the Vatican, upon learning that in 2020 he was excommunicated by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith – which is in charge of prosecuting sexual abuse – but less than one a month later his punishment was lifted for reasons still unknown. It is not known if it was something that Pope Francis requested, or if Rupnik appealed the sentence and his request was accepted.
Everything has come to light after some Italian media published the complaints of the women he abused. The Jesuit General Curia has confirmed two procedures, one related to a matter "related to the sacrament of confession" - one of the most serious crimes that a priest can commit - and the other, "to abuses committed by the father Rupnik against several women from the Loyola Community.”
The first episode is the one that led to the brief punishment of excommunication. This is the case of an Italian woman who is now 58 years old and who has related to the Italian newspaper Domani the deep psychological and spiritual wounds that she caused him. She met him in 1985, when she was studying medicine and wanted to go missionary after graduation, and she soon became her spiritual guide. Little by little, she gained her trust, until first kissing her "lightly on her mouth", telling her that this was how she "kissed the altar where she celebrated the Eucharist".
Then came increasingly extreme erotic games, "while painting or after the celebration of the Eucharist or after confession." He even took her to see porn movies in Rome or later, when he took her to the Loyola Community in Slovenia, he proposed to have a threesome with another nun because he believed that "sexuality should be free of possession, in the image of the Trinity ”. This woman recounted that, in the early 1990s, of the 41 sisters in the community, Father Rupnik managed to abuse almost 20.
The Society of Jesus has admitted that Rupnik was sanctioned with some precautionary measures such as the prohibition of the sacrament of confession after investigating the sexual abuse of these nuns when the Doctrine of Faith received a complaint in 2021. The case, however, It was closed in October of this year after the Vatican department considered that the facts had prescribed, a fact that has generated much criticism. Father Hans Zollner, a Jesuit, one of the Vatican's top experts on sexual abuse, denounces that "the legal issue is not the only one." For the moment, the Jesuits have asked the victims who have not yet spoken to contact them so that they can be heard with "empathy".
