(ITALY)
Laura Sgrò [Rome, Italy]
September 23, 2026
By Gloria Branciani, Mirjam Kovac, Sister Samuelle, Vida Bernard, and Pia
[This is a Google translation of the Italian text.]
Your Holiness,
We are five victims of Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik: Gloria Branciani, Mirjam Kovac, Sister Samuelle, Vida Bernard, and Pia—the last of whom has chosen to use a pseudonym due to a well-founded fear of reprisals.
We decided to write to you on the occasion of your trip to France—and specifically your visit to Lourdes, where you will meet abuse victims like us—at a place where Fr. Rupnik’s mosaics will no longer be visible on the basilica’s façade, following the decision by His Excellency Monsignor Jean-Marc Micas, Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, to cover them permanently. This was a powerful and courageous gesture that we deeply appreciated, not least because we have never experienced an atmosphere of solidarity; on the contrary, we have always faced significant opposition and hostility.
We know only from media reports that a trial against Fr. Rupnik has begun, because our legal counsel, attorney Laura Sgrò, has never received a response from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith—despite repeatedly urging them, through every available channel, to provide at least some clarity regarding the proceedings in which we are involved as victims, out of respect for and in the interest of all parties concerned.
We, the victims, experience this loud and prolonged silence as a further, ongoing act of violence—one that weighs like a boulder upon the violence we have already endured. It is a sexual, physical, psychological, and spiritual violence—an assault that has long scarred our souls—now compounded by this new and painful violence of silence and abandonment by the judicial system.
We have been accused—or rather, defamed—as whores and liars; accused of taking money to level charges against Father Rupnik and of profiting from this horrific affair. Abused and reviled, we continue to suffer violence amidst the deathly silence and indifference of those called upon to decide our fate. And, tragically, the very violence we continue to endure publicly serves only to discourage others who have suffered as we have and might otherwise wish to come forward.
Against our will, we have gone from being positive examples to negative ones. For the message conveyed by our complaints is this: it is futile to report abuse to ecclesiastical authorities, because nothing happens; no one is held accountable, and victims never see justice. We have lost all trace of justice, your Holiness; a trial conducted in obscurity offers no guarantees to anyone—neither the accused nor the victims—and is irreconcilable with the very concepts of law, truth, justice, fairness, and mercy that you, your Holiness, hold so dear.
We do not intend to consign ourselves to oblivion, nor to forgo justice, until the gravity of the events that occurred is acknowledged and the person responsible is punished. And in this arduous journey toward the truth, we wish to be regarded as a resource, not an obstacle.
We place our trust and confidence in you, Holy Father—as the supreme Shepherd of the Church—that you may exercise your supreme authority of judgment and grace and heed our plea: the plea of every abuse victim who seeks recognition of the truth through a fair trial. We ask that due process, clarity, transparency, expediency, and the impartiality and independence of the judges always be guaranteed, so that the proceedings and their outcome—whatever it may be—remain free of any shadow of doubt.
We are in need of Truth, your Holiness; yet the Church, no less than we, is in great need of it as well.
Gloria Branciani, Mirjam Kovac, Sister Samuelle, Vida Bernard, and Pia
Victims of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik