Originally published at The Crux
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Mosaic artwork decorating one of the world’s most famous healing shrines will be covered ahead of a papal visit later this month, a move long sought by abuse survivors and victim-advocates after the artist who designed the mosaics was exposed as a serial abuser.
Disgraced former Jesuit Marko Rupnik was expelled from his former religious order for disobedience in 2023 and later incardinated in the diocese of Koper in his native Slovenia, despite numerous “highly credible” allegations of serial psychological, spiritual, and sexual abuse against numerous victims, most of them women religious.
Rupnik was a celebrity figure for decades, during which he used his status and “creative process” to abuse dozens of women. Artwork by Rupnik and his students adorns shrines and chapels around the world, including in the Vatican.
The Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jean-Marc Micas, made the announcement in an interview published Thursday with French newspaper La Dépêche du Midi.
Micas said “all the artwork on the façade” of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary would be covered ahead of Leo’s Sept. 26-27 visit and will remain covered going forward.
The pontiff’s visit to the Marian healing shrine is part of a larger Sept.
