The Vatican confirmed on Wednesday that the church trial concerning former Jesuit priest Marko Ivan Rupnik remains active. The Vatican press office issued a formal statement explicitly labeling recent media reports claiming that the Slovenian artist had been acquitted as “totally unfounded.” The Holy See maintained that the appointed judges are continuing their work, which involves a thorough and ongoing examination of documentation provided by the Jesuits, the dioceses involved, the parties concerned, and information gathered from the press.
The case against Rupnik, a renowned artist whose mosaic designs are featured in Vatican chapels, churches, and basilicas globally, has become a significant point of contention for the Catholic Church. The scandal first exploded publicly in late 2022, when Italian blogs reported claims by women and nuns of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse by Rupnik dating back to the 1990s. These allegations had been consistently dismissed by the Catholic hierarchy for years. The Vatican has historically categorized sexual relations between a priest and an adult as sinful but consensual, only criminalizing the behavior if the adult “habitually lacks the use of reason.” Amid the #MeToo movement’s broader reckoning regarding adult abuse within the church, the Rupnik case has become one of the most sensitive matters for the Holy See, fueled by suggestions that the priest was protected for over three decades by his Jesuit superiors and the Vatican hierarchy, potentially including the Jesuit Pope Francis himself.
The Jesuits previously admitted that Rupnik had been briefly excommunicated in 2020 for committing one of the Catholic Church’s most serious crimes: using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity. However, the Vatican later declined to prosecute other claims against him, arguing the allegations were too old and involved adult women rather than minors. Following his expulsion from the Jesuit order in 2023 and mounting public pressure regarding suggestions that he had protected the priest, Pope Francis waived the statute of limitations on the older claims to allow for a proper canonical trial. Rupnik remains a priest, and his supporters have denied he did anything wrong. Maria Campatelli, director of the Rome-based Aletti Center which Rupnik founded, has stated that the claims against him were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of media “lynching.”
The Vatican's defense of its secrecy follows a scathing critique from Laura Sgro, a lawyer representing five women who have accused Rupnik. Sgro expressed deep frustration in a letter sent Tuesday to the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, which appointed the external judges hearing the case, stating that she had received no response to two years of emails and requests for basic information regarding the status of the case. She noted that the report claiming Rupnik had been absolved had greatly “discouraged and saddened” her clients, particularly because they had never been interviewed by the tribunal about their claims.
In its Wednesday statement, the Vatican press office asserted that no information can be shared about the proceedings in order to respect the process itself and avoid causing harm to all those involved. “Should the panel determine that it requires further information, it will take the necessary steps on its own initiative to obtain it,” the statement noted, a comment that suggested the victims might still be heard by the tribunal. The Vatican also addressed Sgro’s complaints about the lack of communication by clarifying that a canonical trial concerns only matters within the church, is carried out in accordance with canon law, and is not meant to replace civil or criminal justice outside the church.
In canonical abuse investigations, victims are considered third-party witnesses to their cases. They cannot participate in any of the secret proceedings, have no access to case files, and have no right to know if a canonical investigation has been started, much less its current status. Only due to a 2019 reform by Pope Francis are victims allowed to know the ultimate outcome of their case, but nothing else. Accused priests also have limited rights in canonical abuse trials and have long complained about secrecy and violations of basic rights afforded to defendants in civil or criminal processes outside the church. The lack of rights owed to victims in particular has been repeatedly condemned by international commissions and inquests into clergy abuse, which have found that the church’s judicial procedures retraumatize victims through their secrecy and opacity. Part of the problem is that canon law was never meant to address the needs of abuse survivors or to help them heal; the official goal of the system is institution-centric, aiming to restore justice, reform the offender, and repair scandal.
The official goal of the system is institution-centric: to restore justice, reform the offender and repair scandal.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc.
