(ITALY)
National Review [New York NY]
October 25, 2023
By MICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTY
Father Marko Rupnik was released by the Jesuits after an investigation credibly showed that he had abused his authority over a group of Slovenian nuns for years. In the 1990s this included his forcing them to commune his ejaculate from chalices used for Mass. The Jesuits investigated these crimes but found them outside the statute of limitations. Rupnik went on to Rome to found the Aletti Center, where he could practice as an artist and teach Ignatian spirituality. In 2016, Rupnik committed one of the gravest canonical crimes: He affected to use his power as a priest to absolve a woman of a sexual sin she had committed with him. This crime comes with a penalty of automatic excommunication. In January 2020, an investigation confirmed that Rupnik had committed the crime. In May of the same year, the conviction and verdict were reaffirmed unanimously and formalized after an investigation by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).
But during that meantime, in March of 2020, Pope Francis invited Father Rupnik to preach the Lenten homilies at the Vatican. A month after CDF affirmed the excommunication of Rupnik, the excommunication was lifted.
In 2021, a separate investigation into a community at Loyola turned up nine women accusing Father Rupnik of abuse. The investigation found that the accusations “are credible and their story is solid.” Restrictions were placed on Father Rupnik’s ministry. He continued to be allowed to pursue his artwork and was allowed to preach only to private audiences.
While the investigation was referred upward to the CDF again, with recommendations for a penal process, Rupnik was received in audience by Pope Francis. Rupnik continued to preach, apparently in public, the diocese of Rome even posting some of his sermons on YouTube. The CDF declined to pursue a penal process, citing the statute of limitations. Rupnik continued to receive awards and honors.
Over the course of 2022, the facts of Rupnik’s case and the various investigations became widely known in the press, occasioning awkward comment from relevant authorities. Rupnik continued to preach publicly despite the “absolute” restrictions put on him, at the discretion of the local bishop. (Which means either the negligence or the connivance of Pope Francis and those who oversee the diocese of Rome.)
Now it has been announced that Father Rupnik is a priest in good standing back in Slovenia.
It is difficult to come to any other conclusion than that Father Rupnik simply has the favor of the Holy Father, who feels no compunction about reinstating a favorite artist and preacher as a priest in good standing even if he serially sexually abused women religious and then abused the sacraments of the church.
Rupnik’s reinstatement is the gesture of a mafioso who knows he acts with impunity.