NEW YORK (AP) — Pope Francis’ Jesuit religious order is making a broad gesture of reparations to some 20 women who say they were sexually, psychologically and spiritually abused by a famous ex-Jesuit artist and have been waiting for justice for years from the Vatican.
A top Jesuit official in Rome, the Rev. Johan Verschueren, said Wednesday he had sent a letter outlining the offer to 20 people who say they were abused by the Rev. Marko Rupnik. The Slovenian artist is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church and his mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.
The Jesuits expelled Rupnik from their order in 2023 after more than two dozen women came forward to say he had sexually, spiritually or psychologically abused them over 30 years, some while they were collaborating with him on artworks. He remains a priest and his supporters have denied he did anything wrong.
The women had made the claims against him years ago, but Rupnik long escaped punishment, both because the women were not minors at the time of the alleged abuse and because of his exalted status in the church and at the Vatican, where even Pope Francis’ role in the case came into question.
Jesuits say they now have confidence healing is possible
With the case languishing at the Vatican, Verschueren wrote to the 20 alleged victims on Tuesday lamenting that Rupnik had refused to engage in a path of truth and reparation and that the institutional church for years had refused to hear their claims or provide justice.
He said now, the Jesuit order had “confidence that a process of healing and inner reconciliation is possible, provided that there is also a path of truth and recognition on our part,” according to excerpts of the letter cited by a lawyer for some of the women, Laura Sgro.
In an email to The Associated Press, Verschueren confirmed that the letters invited victims “to know what they would need now, and how we can meet that need,” Verschueren said.
He described the gesture as “an extended hand” offered on an individual, anonymous and case-by-case basis.
“Any path to reparation will totally depend on the person invited. The concreteness of that will follow later,” he said, adding that the Jesuits too need to learn from the victims so that such abuse is not repeated.
Often such gestures from the church involve economic assistance, in the forms of spiritual or psychological help, as well as financial compensation or even help finding work.
Sgro thanked Verschueren and the Jesuits for what she called a “clear, strong and concrete gesture” of reparation. She called for the Vatican’s dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which is handling the Rupnik investigation, to finally prosecute him and “restore dignity to the victims.”
“There really can be no more delay now; justice just has to be done,” she said.
Suspicions of favoritism put Francis under pressure
The Rupnik scandal first exploded publicly in late 2022 when the Jesuit order admitted that he had been excommunicated briefly in 2020 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 the Vatican initially refused to prosecute other allegations of abuse, arguing the claims were too old. Under pressure because of suspicions he had protected his fellow Jesuit, Francis ultimately waived the statute of limitations so that the Vatican could open a proper canonical trial.
Francis in a 2023 interview with the AP denied he had intervened in the case, other than procedurally.
While the investigation has been completed, no tribunal has yet been convened to hear the case.
The head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, told reporters last week that he was having a hard time confirming external judges to hear the case. The case is highly sensitive, given suggestions of favoritism for the pope’s friend, and has raised questions about what to do with the dozens of basilicas around the world that feature the artist’s distinctive mosaics.
“We’ve made a list (of possible judges) and we have started talking to them because you have to find judges who have certain characteristics for such a mediatic thing,” Fernández said.
To date Rupnik hasn’t responded publicly to the allegations and refused to respond to his Jesuit superiors during their investigation. His supporters at his Centro Aletti art studio have denounced what they have called a media “lynching.”
