CV NEWSFEED // Catholic journalist, editor, and author Christopher Altieri is asking the question, “so what?” in response to the Vatican’s recent decision to feature the artwork of disgraced Jesuit priest and artist Marko Rupnik, an “inveterate creep and professional pervert,” in its illustration of St Joseph’s feast in its liturgical calendar.
“Well,” Altieri began in his fiery March 19 op-ed: “Marko Ivan Rupnik […] is a disgraced celebrity artist-priest and sometime retreat leader credibly accused of spiritually, psychologically, and sexually abusing more than two dozen victims—most of them women religious—over the course of three decades, much of it spent right in Rome.”
The Vatican has incurred significant scrutiny in recent years over its perceived support of Rupnik despite continued assurance of its concern for victims of clergy abuse.
“It makes good sense,” said Altieri, for the Vatican to reconsider publicly supporting Rupnik’s art, “even if you don’t care a whit about the victims—Rupnik or anyone else’s—who are traumatised every time they see Rupnik’s stuff, not to mention the faithful who are scandalised and appalled.”
Despite his history of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse, Rupnik maintains control over his art studio, Centro Aletti, which is just “a stone’s throw from the Basilica of St Mary Major, where Pope Francis says he’d live if ever he should retire,” Altieri pointed out, adding: “If that seems fitting, well, there you go.”
As Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported last month, two of Rupnik’s victims recently spoke out against the disgraced priest, describing their experience with him. One victim, Marjiam Kovač testified that 20 sisters out of her community were “exploited for abuses of various kinds, of conscience, of power, spiritual, psychic, physical, and often even sexual.”
Rupnik incurred an automatic excommunication in 2019 for committing the grave canonical crime of absolving victims of his sexual abuse in sacramental confession. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (DDF) absolved Rupnik after he admitted to the offence and “repented.” Rupnik’s order, The Society of Jesus then barred him as a precaution from hearing confessions and appearing in public. After Rupnik violated these stipulations, the Society of Jesus expelled him, “due to stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”
Subsequently, last year, Pope Francis delivered an impromptu address at the Synod of Bishops in October, which sparked outrage. In the speech, he denounced clericalism as a “whip” and “scourge” against the Church, and further rebuked traditional latin mass priests for visiting the ecclesiastical tailors in Rome and trying on vestments.
The Holy Father’s clericalism comments received backlash as they came approximately 24 hours after news broke that Rupnik would be incardinated into a Slovenian diocese and allowed to freely exercise his priestly ministry. The DDF quickly reversed the decision following the public outcry, opting instead to reopen Rupnik’s case, but the sentiment of Vatican approval for the former Jesuit remains.
“Church types all around the world are dithering over what to do with their Rupnik pieces and installations. Not one of them has been taken down, as far as I can tell,” Altieri continued, noting famous examples such as the Apostolic Palace, Lourdes, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC, and the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the bishop of Lourdes recently revealed that he will make a decision about whether to remove the mosaics done by Rupnik by this spring.
“To be perfectly frank,” Altieri wrote, “it is getting more and more difficult to imagine how the Vatican types from Pope Francis on down could possibly mean it when they say they do care about victims or about justice for them in the Church.”
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