Jesuits confirm expulsion of artist accused of abuse and regret not being able to take further action

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ROME (AP) — The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist and priest has been permanently expelled from their religious order for sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of women, regretting that they could not prosecute him more forcefully due to internal Vatican regulations.

The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest, although he is no longer a Jesuit, after he decided not to appeal his June expulsion decree, said Rupnik’s former superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren.

Rupnik, a Slovenian priest, is one of the most renowned religious artists in the Catholic Church. His mosaics decorate churches and basilicas all over the world, including the Vatican.

Late last year, the Jesuits acknowledged that Rupnik had been accused by multiple women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse over a 30-year period. For the most part he had avoided punishment up until then, apparently thanks to his prominent position in the Vatican, which called into question even Pope Francis’ role in the case.

Following an investigation, the Jesuits announced in June that they considered the women’s allegations “very highly credible.”

They noted that the priest had been expelled from the order because of his “stubborn refusal to fulfill the vow of obedience.” The Jesuits had urged him to apologize for his conduct and start a reparation process with his victims, but he refused.

“I can only deeply regret your persistent and stubborn failure to address the voices of so many people who have been hurt, offended and humiliated by your behavior and conduct towards them,” Verschueren wrote in a letter obtained Monday confirming the expulsion.

At the same time, Verschueren admitted to criticism that Rupnik remains a priest, who now has no religious supervision at all. He noted that current Vatican law prevents an investigation that could lead to tougher sanctions. The Church’s maximum penalty is expulsion from the priesthood, which would effectively make him a layman again.

That comment was a reference to the fact that at the time of Rupnik’s alleged abuse, the Vatican did not generally sanction sexual abuse or other forms of misconduct by priests of adult women, considering any relationship consensual. The Vatican has recently begun to recognize such conduct as criminal, though the new rules cannot be applied retroactively and the Vatican generally avoids making exceptions to punish past abuses involving adults.

Looking ahead, if Rupnik wants to preach and celebrate the sacraments publicly, he will need a like-minded bishop to accept him, something that is not out of the question because he still has strong supporters.

Among them are the heads of the Centro Aletti, an ecumenical think tank and mosaic art studio founded by Rupnik in the 1990s in Rome. Its current director, Maria Campatelli, made a strong defense of Rupnik in June, calling the accusations against him “defamatory and unproven”. In an open letter, she claimed that the accusations were a form of media “lynching” against the priest and his artistic center.

He added that Rupnik himself had asked to leave the Jesuits in January and that other Jesuit priests at the Aletti Center had made similar requests because of their “primordial distrust of their superiors.” Verscheueren confirmed that Rupnik had asked to leave, but said that his request had been refused because the Jesuits wanted him to compensate their victims.

Verscheueren indicated Monday that the order would legally distance itself from the Aletti Center, which no longer has a resident Jesuit community. The Jesuits inaugurated the center in 1993 and have canonical ties to it as a public association of the faithful. Verscheueren noted that the Jesuits planned to leave the association and end their collaboration.

Francis’ role in that case was left on the table after the Jesuits acknowledged that Rupnik had been briefly excommunicated in 2020 for committing one of the Catholic Church’s most serious crimes, using the confessional to acquit a woman with whom he had had sex. The excommunication was lifted two weeks later, raising questions about whether Francis had intervened from his Jesuit colleague.

In a January interview with The Associated Press, Francis denied that he had intervened, except in a bureaucratic way, to keep the new charges against Rupnik in the same court as the previous ones. At the same time, Francis seemed to know more about the outcome than the Jesuits had revealed, and also said that Rupnik had paid compensation to a woman.