ROME (AP) — The scandal over a famous ex-Jesuit artist who is accused of psychologically, spiritually and sexually abusing adult women came to a head Friday after some of his alleged victims and the pope’s own anti-abuse adviser asked for his artworks not to be promoted or displayed.
The separate initiatives underscored how the case of the Rev. Marko Rupnik, whose mosaics grace some of the Catholic Church’s most-visited shrines and sanctuaries, continues to cause a headache for the Vatican and Pope Francis, who as a Jesuit himself has been drawn into the scandal.
Early Friday, five women who say they were abused by Rupnik sent letters to Catholic bishops around the world asking them to remove his mosaics from their churches, saying their continued display in places of worship was “inappropriate” and retraumatizing to victims.
Separately, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, head of the pope's Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, sent his own letter urging Vatican offices to stop displaying Rupnik's works. He said continued use of the works ignores the pain of victims and could imply a defense of the Slovene priest.
The two-pronged messages were issued after the Vatican's top communications official strongly defending using images of Rupnik artwork on the Vatican News website, insisting that it caused no harm to victims and was a Christian response.
The Rupnik scandal first exploded publicly in late 2022 when the Jesuit religious order admitted that he had been excommunicated briefly 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.
The case continued to create problems for the Jesuits and Francis, since a dozen more women came forward saying they too had been victimized by Rupnik. The Vatican initially refused to prosecute, arguing the claims were too old.
Nevertheless, after hearing from more victims, the Jesuits expelled Rupnik from the order and Francis — under pressure because of suspicions he had protected his fellow Jesuit — waived the statute of limitations so that the Vatican could open a proper canonical trial.
To date Rupnik hasn’t responded publicly to the allegations and refused to respond to his Jesuit superiors during their investigation. His supporters at the Centro Aletti art studio have denounced what they have called a media “lynching.”
The debate about what to do with Rupnik’s works as the Vatican investigation into him continues isn’t so much a matter of “cancel culture” or the age-old debate about whether one can appreciate art, such as a Caravaggio, separately from the actions of the artist: Some of the women who say they were victimized by Rupnik say the abuse occurred during the creation of the artwork itself, rendering the resulting mosaics a triggering and traumatic reminder of what they endured.
One nun said she was abused on the scaffolding as a mosaic was being installed in a church, another as she posed as his model.
“Notwithstanding the years that have passed, the trauma that each suffered has not been erased, and it lives again in the presence of each of Father Rupnik’s works,” said their letter, which was signed by attorney Laura Sgro on behalf of her five clients,
It was sent to bishops from Brazil to Lebanon and dioceses in between that contain chapels, churches or basilicas housing some of Rupnik's 230 mosaics.
The Vatican trial against Rupnik is ongoing — Sgro says she hasn’t been contacted to provide testimony of her clients — and Rupnik’s many defenders in the Vatican and beyond say it’s important to withhold final judgment until the Vatican makes its ruling.