ROME, Italy – The Roman Catholic Jesuit order mentioned on Thursday it had expelled Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, an internationally-known spiritual artist accused of sexual, psychological and religious abuse.
An announcement mentioned Rupnik, whose case has shaken the Vatican and the worldwide spiritual order of which Pope Francis is a member, was dismissed for his “obstinate” refusal to obey the Jesuit superior common, Father Arturo Sosa.
About 25 individuals, principally former nuns, have accused Rupnik of assorted forms of abuse, both when he was a religious director of a group of nuns in his native Slovenia about 30 years in the past or after he moved to Rome to pursue his profession as an artist.
Repeated makes an attempt to succeed in Rupnik via his college for spiritual artwork in Rome have been unsuccessful and he didn’t responded to telephone messages searching for remark. His whereabouts have been unknown, though he was believed to be in Rome.
The order mentioned Rupnik, who has not publicly responded to the allegations, has 30 days to attraction the choice.
Rupnik has specialised in mosaics and got here to prominence when the late Pope John Paul II commissioned him to revamp a chapel within the Vatican between 1996 and 1999. He has since designed chapels world wide.
Allegations in opposition to Rupnik started surfacing in Italian media late final 12 months, after which the Jesuit headquarters acknowledged that he had been banned in 2019 from listening to confessions and main religious retreats.
One ex-nun informed the Italian investigative newspaper Domani how he used what she known as psychological management over her.
She mentioned he pressured her into sexual acts, and deployed “cruel psychological, emotional and spiritual aggression” to “destroy” her, significantly after she refused to have three-way intercourse.
The Jesuits and the Vatican’s doctrinal division have come underneath criticism for his or her dealing with of the case. The order disclosed underneath media strain final 12 months that the Vatican investigated Rupnik and dominated that a number of the alleged abuse fell past the statute of limitations.
Last December Sosa, the Jesuit chief, mentioned nothing had been hidden in regards to the case. But the order subsequently disclosed that Rupnik had earlier been briefly excommunicated by the Vatican.
That case concerned the “absolution of an accomplice” in confession, referring to when a priest has intercourse with somebody after which absolves the particular person of the sin.
The info launched by the Jesuits to date has not proven any transfer to defrock him. — Reuters
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
