VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Disgraced ex-Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik continues to live a normal life at his Rome-based art center, with restrictions on his activities having come to an end upon his expulsion from the Jesuit order and having been incardinated into a Slovenian diocese.
On March 9, a member of the Aletti Center – Rupnik’s longtime base of operations for his international art projects – confirmed to this reporter that the priest is still based there normally, although was apparently not on site that day.
The priest was widely accused, in allegations which became public in late 2022, of committing serial abuse in multiple forms – sexual, spiritual, physical, and psychological. According to testimony from an alleged victim of Rupnik, who is also a former member of his Loyola Community, the priest abused at least 21 of the 40 members present in the community during the 1990s.
But even since the scandal became public in December 2022, the Rupnik case has been marked by alleged cover-up, while his work has received continued promotion despite its intimate link to his alleged abuse. To this end, LifeSiteNews has compiled a detailed timeline of events relating to Rupnik since December 2022, which is found in a bullet-list format at the bottom of this article, and a pdf version here. A detailed analysis of the events prior to that date can be found as reported on by LifeSiteNews here, while a pdf version of the pre-2022 timeline can be dowloaded here.
Life without restrictions but a history of alleged serial abuse
The Jesuits have compiled a 150-page dossier of reported instances of abuse that Rupnik is said to have committed from 1985 through 2018, the credibility of which is deemed by the priest’s former superior to be “very high.”
Additionally, Rupnik was automatically excommunicated in 2020 and found guilty of absolving in confession a woman with whom he had sexual relations by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s court. The penalty was swiftly revoked, leading to much speculation over whether Pope Francis personally intervened to lift the excommunication. The Pontiff has denied any involvement acting on Rupnik’s behalf, on the brief occasion he was asked about the Rupnik case by a journalist.
Rupnik was expelled from the Society of Jesus in July 2023 in disgrace, with the official reason given being his “refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” However, the Aletti Center issued a statement at the time attesting that Rupnik had already begun an application to leave the Jesuits as far back as January 21, 2023.
READ: Jesuits confirm expulsion of disgraced Fr. Rupnik after he accepted dismissal
Since 2019 – even prior to the details of his case becoming known in late 2022 – Rupnik had been placed under increasingly strict restrictions by the Jesuits on his public ministry and movement. They included having to “avoid private, in-depth spiritual contacts with persons” and being “forbidden to confess women, and to give spiritual direction to women,” but were considerably expanded over time to include his physical movements and his artwork.
Rupnik repeatedly and consistently ignored the restrictions, with Father Johan Verschueren, S.J., his former superior, stating earlier in 2023 that the priest was not cooperating with the Jesuit’s own investigation into this alleged abuse. Verschueren added that Rupnik’s actions “[tend] to exclude the criminal relevance,” thus further freeing the alleged abuser priest from any civil penalties.
But this reporter received confirmation from the Jesuit curia in Rome that upon Rupnik’s expulsion from the order, all restrictions which he had been living under ended, meaning that he was able to enjoy a fully free and active life.
Continued promotion
In October last year, it was revealed that Rupnik had been incardinated into the Slovenian Diocese of Koper, without any restrictions on his ministry. The news broke that Rupnik had requested to be incardinated into the diocese, with the diocese confirming to LifeSiteNews that the priest “was received into the Diocese of Koper at the end of August 2023.”
On the grounds that Rupnik “had not been sentenced to any judicial sentence,” the diocese stated that “until such time as the above sentence is pronounced on Rupnik, he enjoys all the rights and duties of diocesan priests.”
Indeed, the news came shortly after the Diocese of Rome attempted to rehabilitate Rupnik by casting doubt on the process of his automatic excommunication. As a conclusion of a canonical investigation into Rupnik’s Aletti Center, the Diocese of Rome argued the Aletti Center was home to “a healthy community life without particular critical issues,” even though it was a center of Rupnik’s alleged abuse.
The diocesan report also appeared to defend Rupnik from the allegations made against him. It stated how the pontifical visitor to the Aletti Center found “severely anomalous procedures” leading to “well-founded doubts about the request for [Rupnik’s] excommunication.”
In contrast, one of Rupnik’s alleged victims, Gloria Branciani, gave detailed descriptions of the instances of abuse that Rupnik performed on her, stating that such events – which included threesomes “in the image of the Trinity” – took place “even in his room at the Aletti Center.”
But following the instant and widespread consternation in the Catholic world at the news of Rupnik’s incardination with a diocese in his native Slovenia, Pope Francis announced that he had asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) to “review” the case into the disgraced priest. The move was widely labelled as a desperate attempt to save face on the part of the Pope.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Rupnik saga is that it is marked throughout with allegations of ecclesial inaction and papal coverup.
READ: Alleged victims of Father Rupnik call for ‘truth and justice’ as answers demanded from Vatican
Since the case became public in December 2022, Pope Francis has been accused of being intimately involved. Prior investigations into Rupnik had been dropped in October 2022 by the DDF, and according to Messa in Latino, this was directly due to Pope Francis not lifting the statute of limitations.
Francis had invited the priest to give a Lenten homily to the Curia in March 2020, just weeks after the DDF judges “unanimously” ruled Rupnik had incurred his automatic excommunication due to having absolved a sexual accomplice in confession. The Pope is accused of intervening for Rupnik by lifting, reportedly “within hours,” the excommunication which Rupnik incurred for that offense.
He is further accused of ignoring a number letters sent to him by alleged Rupnik victims.
As noted, Francis has denied intervening for Rupnik.
However, Rupnik’s artwork – which Branciani attests is intimately connected to his alleged abuse – remains regularly promoted and used by the Pope, the Vatican, and numerous shrines throughout the world. Branciani wrote in 2022 that Rupnik’s “sexual obsession was not extemporaneous but deeply connected to his conception of art and his theological thinking.”
READ: Lourdes bishop says he hopes to decide on removal of Rupnik mosaics by spring
Rupnik saw his images promoted by Pope Francis in June 2023 and by a variety of Vatican offices, including the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality office in September 2023. The images still remain in regular use by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication and are used by the Vatican online for liturgical reflections for various feasts. This results from a July 2023 decision by the dicastery which saw no problem with the images.
In late December 2022, Rupnik was still listed as a consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, though he has since been removed. He was listed as a consultant at the Congregation for Clergy in 2020 – amid the excommunication trial – and for a number of years he published a weekly homily on the congregation’s website.
READ: Vatican to continue promoting Rupnik’s images despite link to his alleged sex abuse
However, he remains listed as a consulting member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
In order to fully outline the events relating to Rupnik since December 2022, along with the nature of continued promotion he has received in that time amid increasing scandal, LifeSiteNews has compiled a timeline below. A pdf version of the timeline can be downloaded here.
Timeline after Rupnik case became public in December 2022
- Dec. 2022: Details of Rupnik’s alleged abuse and separate excommunication for absolving a sexual accomplice in Confession break into the media at start of the month.
- Dec. 3, 2022: Jesuit Curia states Rupnik is under restricted ministry, after DDF received complaint about him in 2021. DDF dropped prior investigation in October 2022 due to statute of limitations.
- Dec. 14, 2022: Jesuit Curia confirms Rupnik was excommunicated “two years” prior.
- Dec. 18, 2022: Alleged victim Gloria Branciani publishes pseudonymous article with explicit detail of Rupnik abuse.
- Dec. 19, 2022: Auxiliary of Rome, Bishop Libanori, revealed to have written to priests saying that allegations against Rupnik are true. He was involved in prior investigations into Rupnik.
- Dec. 23, 2023: Diocese of Rome pens statement defending Rupnik from media attacks.
- Jan. 4, 2023: Pope Francis is accused of ignoring letters from four alleged Rupnik victims, sent to him in 2021.
- Jan. 6, 2023: Rupnik’s native Slovenian Jesuit province issues statement: “We believe in the sincerity of the nuns and other victims who have spoken out about their suffering and other circumstances regarding emotional, sexual and spiritual abuse by our confrere.”
- Jan. 16, 2023: Diocese of Rome begins quiet investigation into Rupnik’s Rome-based Aletti Center.
- Jan. 21, 2023: Jesuits place more restrictions on Rupnik as 15 new alleged male and female victims come forward.
- Jan. 25, 2023: Pope Francis denies intervening for Rupnik, saying he only made one intervention in the case – to keep the same judges to hear different allegations against Rupnik.
- March 2023: Vatican News (under purview of Dicastery for Communications) uses Rupnik images for liturgical feast this month.
- March 5, 2023: Rupnik violates restrictions on him, concelebrating public Mass in Rome.
- March 31, 2023: Shrine of Lourdes says Rupnik’s images at shrine under review.
- April 14, 2023: Rupnik revealed to be breaking his Jesuit vows due to majority-ownership of art company turning over millions.
- June 2023: Vatican News uses images of Rupnik for three liturgical feasts this month.
- June 1, 2023: Vatican publishes video of Pope Francis promoting a Rupnik image.
- June 9, 2023: Rupnik revealed to be breaking restrictions imposed on him by making foreign trips.
- June 14, 2023: Jesuits announce Rupnik is expelled, effective within 30 days, citing “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”
- June 17, 2023: Rupnik’s Aletti Center issues statement defending Rupnik.
- July 3, 2023: Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication officially decides to keep using Rupnik’s images. Branciani had said his art is intimately linked to his abuse. Dicastery uses image for liturgical feast this month.
- July 24, 2023: Rupnik officially expelled from Jesuits. His former superior Father Johan Verschueren, S.J., defends Rupnik’s images.
- Aug. 2023: Vatican News uses Rupnik images for liturgical feasts this month.
- Aug. 24, 2023: Vatican issues photos of Pope Francis in private audience, featuring Rupnik image hanging in his apartment.
- Sept. 15, 2023: Key Rupnik aide and Aletti Center Director Maria Campatelli received by Pope Francis in private audience. Official pictures released online.
- Sept. 18, 2023: Diocese of Rome publishes investigation results praising Aletti Center (where Rupnik allegedly abused people) saying community life is “healthy.”
- Sept. 19, 2023: Following diocesan report into Aletti Center, alleged Rupnik victims pen open letter accusing Pope of shallow “publicity campaign” for his supposed “zero tolerance” of abuse.
- Sept. 19, 2023: Rupnik reported to still be a welcome and “frequent fixture” at the Aletti Center.
- Sept. 27, 2023: Synod on Synodality website removes a Rupnik image from site after outrage online. Another Rupnik image is kept.
- Oct. 25, 2023: Jesuit Curia confirms that Rupnik’s restrictions ended once he left Jesuits.
- Oct. 27, 2023: Pope Francis asks DDF to “review” Rupnik after the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors said “there were serious problems in the handling of the Fr. Marko Rupnik case and lack of outreach to victims.”
- Dec. 2023: Vatican News uses Rupnik images for liturgical feasts this month.
- Dec. 15, 2023: Vatican orders Rupnik’s former Loyola Community to be disbanded within one year, citing “serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of life together.”
- Jan. 24, 2024: Vatican Secretary of State and concelebrating clerics use vestments featuring Rupnik image during Mass in Rome.
- Feb. 2024: Bishop of Lourdes announces Rupnik images at the Marian shrine still under review, with a decision expected by the summer.
- Feb. 21, 2024: Alleged Rupnik victim Gloria Branciani gives press conference in Rome, calling for “truth and justice” from the Vatican in the case. Following the event, the Vatican announced the DDF had “widened the scope” of its October 2023 investigation into Rupnik to “identify what procedures will be possible and useful to implement.”
- March 2023: Vatican News uses Rupnik images for liturgical feast this month.
- March 7, 2024: Knights of Columbus still “carefully considering” future of Rupnik images at their chapels, including at the Washington, D.C., Shrine of John Paul II. In June 2023 they announced they were “considering” the same question.
- March 9, 2024: Aletti Center staff member confirms to Vatican journalist Michael Haynes that Rupnik is still based at the center in Rome.