Five women accusing a prominent Slovenian priest and artist of sexual assault in the early 1990s asked the Catholic Church on Friday to remove his works from places of worship around the world. Marko Rupnik, a world-renowned theologian and mosaic artist, is accused of psychologically and sexually abusing at least 20 women over a period of nearly 30 years, including within the now-dissolved community he led in Ljubljana.
However, his more than 200 works, visible in Lourdes, Fatima, Damascus, Washington and even the Vatican, “are exhibited in places where every believer gathers in prayer (…) and cause trouble in the souls of the faithful”, plead five women in a letter addressed to the bishops, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. They “request that the works created by Father Marko Rupnik be removed from your dioceses”, specifies the letter signed by their lawyer, Laura Sgro.
The complainants – an Italian, a French, a Slovenian and two women wishing to remain anonymous – had until then relied on ecclesiastical authorities to decide on the removal of the works, recognizing that “the question of separation from the life of the author of his works is complicated. But the testimonies highlighted the fact that “many women who suffered irreparable injuries […] “relive” their trauma in contact with these mosaics, underlines the letter.
Furthermore, “it appeared that during the creation of certain mosaics, at least one sister was sexually assaulted” on scaffolding, while other alleged victims claim to have been assaulted while they served as a model for the priest.
According to the American Jesuit magazine America, the prefect (No. 1) of the dicastery (ministry) for communication at the Vatican, Paolo Ruffini, defended the preservation of these mosaics last week. “As Christians, we must understand that proximity to the victims is important, but I don’t know if (removing Rupnik’s art) is a way to unite (with them),” he said at a conference in Atlanta. “Removing, deleting, destroying art is never a good choice.” Asked by AFP, the Vatican did not respond.
The Jesuit Order, from which Pope Francis comes, excluded Marko Rupnik in June 2023. The Vatican had invoked the statute of limitations to close the case in 2022 without a canonical investigation, Father Rupnik seeing only restrictions imposed by the Society of Jesus to his ministry. But in 2023, the pope lifted this requirement to allow the procedure to proceed.
