The Vatican said on Wednesday that the church trial against former Jesuit priest Marko Ivan Rupnik is still under way, rejecting a report that he had been acquitted. It also defended the secrecy around the case, saying confidentiality was needed to protect the process and everyone involved.
The case has become one of the Holy See’s most sensitive matters after women and nuns accused Rupnik of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse dating back to the 1990s. The scandal has also raised questions about whether he was protected for years by Jesuit superiors and the Vatican hierarchy, including under Pope Francis.
An Italian blog had reported on Monday that an acquittal verdict had been reached. But the Vatican press office said that claim was “totally unfounded” and said judges were continuing to “examine documentation provided by the dioceses involved, the Jesuits, the parties concerned, and from the press”.
Rupnik, a Slovenian artist whose mosaics decorate Vatican chapels and churches and basilicas around the world, came under public scrutiny in late 2022 when Italian blogs first reported the allegations. The claims by women and nuns had, according to the report, long been dismissed by the Catholic hierarchy. The Vatican has traditionally treated sexual relations between a priest and an adult as sinful but consensual, and classifies it as a crime only if the adult “habitually lacks the use of reason”.
The Jesuits have said Rupnik was briefly excommunicated in 2020 for committing one of the Catholic Church’s gravest offences by using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity. The Vatican later declined to pursue other complaints, saying the allegations were too old and involved adult women rather than minors. The Jesuits expelled Rupnik from their order in 2023, and Francis later lifted the statute of limitations on the older claims so that the Vatican could open a formal canonical trial.
Rupnik remains a priest, and his supporters have denied wrongdoing. Maria Campatelli, director of the Rome-based Aletti Center founded by Rupnik, has said the allegations were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of media “lynching”.
The blog report led Laura Sgro, the lawyer for five women who have accused Rupnik, to sharply criticise the Vatican’s internal canonical system, under which victims have no right to information about an investigation. In a letter on Tuesday to the head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, which appointed the external judges hearing the case, she said no one had replied to two years of emails and requests for basic updates. She said the report that Rupnik had been cleared had deeply “discouraged and saddened” her clients because they had never been interviewed by the tribunal about their allegations.
Responding on Wednesday, the Vatican press office said no information could be shared about the proceedings in order to respect the process and avoid harm to those involved. It added: “Should the panel determine that it requires further information, it will take the necessary steps on its own initiative to obtain it,” a remark that suggested the women could still be heard. The Vatican also said a canonical trial deals only with matters within the church, follows canon law and is not meant to replace civil or criminal justice outside the church.
Under canonical abuse procedures, victims are treated as third-party witnesses. They cannot take part in the secret proceedings, cannot see case files and have no right to know whether an investigation has begun or what stage it has reached. A reform introduced by Francis in 2019 allows victims to be told only the final outcome. Accused priests also have limited rights in such trials and have long complained about secrecy and the lack of safeguards available in civil or criminal courts. International commissions and inquiries into clergy abuse have repeatedly criticised the church’s procedures, saying the secrecy and opacity retraumatise victims. Under canon law, the stated aims of the system are to restore justice, reform the offender and repair scandal. The Vatican’s statement on Wednesday, however, made clear that the trial against Rupnik is continuing and that no verdict has yet been reached.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
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