“We must avoid sending the message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many people suffer. » These are the words of Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, regarding the frequent use of the works of Marko Rupnik by the Vatican, and in particular its dicastery for communications, to illustrate content Catholic online.
In recent months, Vatican News, the Vatican news site under the supervision of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Communication, has in fact regularly used the works of the priest-mosaicist to illustrate online articles on major Catholic holidays, great saints, etc. The works of the Slovenian mosaicist, dismissed from the Society of Jesus in June 2023, were also frequently posted on social networks by Vatican News. And this despite the request of several women claiming to be victims of Marko Rupnik, who had publicly expressed their trauma each time they saw the Holy See promoting these mosaics.
This position taken by Cardinal O’Malley directly contradicts the statements of the prefect of the communication dicastery Paolo Ruffini who, a few days earlier, during a trip to Atlanta, had declared: “Do you think that if I remove the photo of a work of art from my website, I will be closer to the victims? I think you are wrong. » He was responding to a journalist who asked him about the impact of the photographs of Rupnik’s works used by Vatican News on his victims.
Basilica of Lourdes, chapel of the Pope in the Vatican…
The 69-year-old Slovenian priest, with an international artistic reputation – he is notably the author, with his artists’ studio, of the facade of the basilica of Lourdes, the Pope’s chapel in the Vatican, the basilica of Fatima in Portugal – is the target of dozens of complaints from women, including nuns, accusing him of rape, touching and control, against a backdrop of erotic-mystical justification and within the framework of confession. Already in 2020, the priest was briefly excommunicated for “absolution of the accomplice” (he had given absolution to a woman he had attacked during a confession in 2015).
The Vatican had invoked the statute of limitations to close the case in 2022 without a canonical investigation, with Father Rupnik only seeing disciplinary sanctions imposed. “preventive” by his order, the Society of Jesus. But in 2023, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors had drawn the pope’s attention “on serious issues” in the treatment of Marko Rupnik, whose light sanctions did not correspond to the seriousness of the testimonies of which the Catholic institution was aware. After months of wait-and-see, the Holy See announced last October that Pope Francis “asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to reexamine the case and decided to lift the statute of limitations to allow a trial to take place.”
“Pope Francis urged us to be sensitive”
It is in this context that the publication of Cardinal O’Malley intervenes, addressed to the dicasteries of the Roman Curia to express “hope” that during the period of investigation which may eventually lead to a trial, “ pastoral prudence will prevent the display of works of art in a way that might imply either exoneration, or acknowledgment of a crime, or a subtle defense” alleged perpetrators of sexual violence.
“Pope Francis has urged us to show sensitivity and solidarity towards those who are victims of all forms of abuse. I ask you to keep this in mind when choosing the images that will accompany the publication of messages, articles and reflections through the various communication channels at our disposal,” recalled Cardinal O’Malley. An appeal that sounds like a reframing, if not at least like a tension on the subject, with the Vatican’s communication department, whose prefect also considered a few days ago that the destruction of the works of the mosaicist accused of multiple rapes and influence was not a “Christian response”.
Because, more broadly, it is the future of Rupnik’s works, all over the world, which is now at the center of all debates. Five women who accuse Marko Rupnik of sexual assault asked the Catholic Church on Friday June 28, via a letter signed by their lawyer Me Laura Sgro, for the removal of the mosaicist’s works, exhibited in various places of worship around the world. The Italian capital has no less than 43 chapels or churches adorned with the work of the mosaicist and its Aletti center, a workshop placed under the protection of the diocese of Rome. Places of worship to which must be added three others, located directly on the territory of the Vatican. That’s a fifth of Rupnik’s 231 works around the world. The Lourdes sanctuary must soon make its decision on the fate reserved for the mosaics by Marko Rupnik which adorn the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire basilica.
If the plaintiffs recognize that “ The question of the separation of the author’s life and his works is complicated,” They justify their request with testimonies which allegedly reveal the fact that “many women having suffered irreparable injuries (…) revive » their trauma in contact with these mosaics. Furthermore, they plead in their letter, of which Agence France-Presse obtained a copy, “It has emerged that during the creation of some mosaics, at least one sister was subjected to sexual harassment” on scaffolding, while other alleged victims claim to have been assaulted while serving as models for the priest.
