Vatican Is Putting Famous Artist on Trial

The Vatican took the unusual step on Monday of announcing that it had named judges to decide the fate of a famous ex-Jesuit artist, whose mosaics decorate basilicas around the world and who was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse. The case of the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik tarnished the legacy of Pope Francis, given suggestions that the Jesuit pope, the Jesuit religious order, and the Jesuit-headed Vatican sex abuse office protected one of their own over decades by dismissing allegations of misconduct against him, the AP reports.

The Vatican office that manages clergy sex abuse cases, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the five judges named to hear the Rupnik case in a canonical court include women and priests who don't hold jobs in the Vatican bureaucracy. It said that such a composition was "done in order to better guarantee, as in any judicial process, the autonomy and independence of the aforementioned court." The statement suggested an implicit recognition that prior to now, the Vatican's handling of the Rupnik file had been anything but autonomous or independent, the AP notes.

• Rupnik's mosaics grace some of the Catholic Church's most-visited shrines and sanctuaries around the world, including at the shrine in Lourdes, France, in the Vatican, a new basilica in Aparecida, Brazil, and the chapel of Pope Leo XIV's own Augustinian religious order in Rome.
• The Rupnik scandal first exploded publicly in late 2022 when Italian blogs started reporting the claims of nuns and other women who said they had been abused by him, including during the production of his artwork.

• Rupnik's Jesuit religious order soon admitted that he had been excommunicated briefly in 2020 for having committed one of the Catholic Church's most serious crimes—using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity. But he continued working and preaching. The case continued to create problems for the Jesuits and Francis, though, since more women came forward saying they too had been victimized by Rupnik, with some of their claims dating back to the 1990s.
• The Jesuits eventually kicked him out of the order after he refused to respond to allegations by about 20 women, most of whom were members of a Jesuit-inspired religious community that he co-founded in his native Slovenia, which has since been suppressed.

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• The Vatican initially refused to prosecute, arguing the women's claims were too old. The stall exposed both the Vatican's legal shortcomings, where sex crimes against women are rarely prosecuted, and the suggestion that a famous artist like Rupnik had received favorable treatment. While Francis denied interfering in a 2023 interview with the AP, he eventually caved to public pressure and waived the statute of limitations so that the Vatican could open a proper canonical trial.
• The judges will use the church's in-house canon law to determine Rupnik's fate, though the Vatican statement didn't say what alleged canonical crimes he is accused of committing. He hasn't been charged criminally. Canonical penalties can include sanctions such as restrictions from celebrating Mass or even presenting oneself as a priest.
• Some of Rupnik's victims have gone public to demand justice, including in a documentary, Nuns vs. The Vatican, that premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival. They welcomed word on Monday that the trial would finally start, attorney Laura Sgro said.