Originally published at The Crux
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The news this past week put the opacity of canonical criminal proceedings squarely in the spotlight, when the Vatican was forced to deny rumors a disgraced former Jesuit and one-time celebrity artist had been acquitted in his secret Church trial.
The case of Father Marko Rupnik – who somehow remains a priest apparently in good standing, though he now serves a diocese in his native Slovenia – doesn’t only highlight the problems of secrecy in criminal proceedings at Church law.
The Rupnik affair also illustrates how the abuse of adults – usually women – isn’t being addressed properly.
The Rupnik case in brief
Rupnik has been investigated several times, by different Church authorities, and each investigation has uncovered and confirmed gruesome evidence of the priest’s crimes against dozens of women over a period of thirty years.
Some of Rupnik’s accusers have told Crux Now the Jesuits had heard from them of Rupnik’s depredations as early as the mid-1990s, but the priest continued to earn art commissions and accolades, and to enjoy the favor of his Jesuit superiors and the Vatican.
The Slovenian priest is also accused of using his “creative process” to manipulate his victims spiritually, psychologically, and sexually.
