RUPNIK case: Vatican could be close to making a decision

A report suggests that the Dicastery for the doctrine of the Vatican faith (DDF) could be close to making a decision in the case of Fr. Marko Rupnik, former Jesuit.

According to Osv News, “a sentence is expected in the not too distant future” in the canonical trial of the priest-artist accused of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of dozens of religious under his spiritual care.

Osv News also reported that Rupnik would be tried for the crime of “spiritual abuse.” Last November, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, declared that a Vatican working group was studying the possibility of typifying the “spiritual abuse” as a crime in canon law, instead of simply being an aggravating circumstance of other crimes.

The report was published when some of Rupnik’s alleged victims shared their stories in the Italian television program “Le éne” (“Las Hieas”), which was broadcast on March 9. In the program, the Italian journalist Roberta Rei confronted Rupnik in the luggage collection zone of the Rome airport, but did not receive answer to her questions about the veracity of the accusations of abuse against her.

Mons. Jurij Bizjak, who retired on November 29, 2024 of Koper’s diocese, told Osv News in January that Rupnik Continue traveling internationally as part of his artistic career. Another recent journalistic report He indicated that he lives in a religious convent, about an hour by car from Rome, called Montefiolo convent, with some of his collaborators of the Aletti Center, an artistic and theological center that he founded in Rome.

In August 2023, Rupnik was accepted as a priest in the Diocese of Koper, in his native Slovenia, after being expelled from the Jesuit order for disobedience. In a press release in October 2023, Koper’s diocese declared that “while Rev. Rupnik is not convicted in a public trial, it enjoys all the rights and duties of diocesan priests.”

On the case of Rupnik in the DDF, Cardinal Fernández said in an interview at the end of January that the Dicastery had finished collecting information, had made a first review and was working to form an independent court for the criminal judicial procedure.

CNA – Ewtn News English agency – contacted DDF officials and other people close to the case, but did not receive a response at the time of publication.

In October 2024, a year after Pope Francis suspended the prescription period, thus allowing the Vatican to investigate and judge the case of RUPNIK, a person who works within the disciplinary section of the DDF told CNA that they were examining the procedural steps that could be taken in the RUPNIK case and “the mechanism by which justice can be given.”

Rupnik, internationally recognized for his religious artistic works, has been accused of abusing adult women who were under their spiritual care as part of a religious community that helped to found in the late 80s and early 90s. Some of these accusations were made public through the media in early December 2022, although the superiors of the priest and the Vatican officials were already aware of them several years before.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.