Marko Rupnik, SJ, remains an official advisor to several Vatican departments, even after he was excommunicated for a major canonical crime, and is accused of spiritually and sexually abusing consecrated women.

Newsroom (31/12/2022 7:27 AM, Gaudium Press) — Fr. Rupnik was declared excommunicated in 2020 , for the canonical crime of abusing the sacrament of penance to abet his sexual misconduct.

In 2021, he was formally accused at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of serially abusing Slovenian religious women in the 1980s and 1990s. However, Rupnik is still listed as a consultor – an officially appointed expert advisor – for several Vatican dicasteries, including those with oversight of clergy and liturgy.

The priest’s roles in those departments amplify questions about whether he was placed under ministerial restrictions by his religious order as his crimes became known to the Vatican — and whether Vatican officials should have intervened to limit his participation in Church leadership and governance.

In 2020, while subject to a penal process (but before the penalty of ex-communication was declared), Rupnik was invited to preach a Lenten retreat to the Roman Curia. Since his conviction, he has travelled widely, received international awards for his work, and continued to release video commentaries on theological matters.

In 2019, Fr. Rupnik, a famous religious artist and prominent member of the Society of Jesus, was accused of attempting to sacramentally absolve a sexual partner — one of the most serious crimes in canon law. According to some Italian media sources, the charges stem from sexual contact with a religious novice in 2015.

The priest faced an extrajudicial penal process authorized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the faith. In 2020, he was found guilty of a graviora delicta – a major crime in Church law – and declared excommunicated.

The ex-communication was remitted soon after it was declared.

According to a timeline released by the Society of Jesus, Rupnik’s religious superiors were aware of that allegation against the priest at least by 2019.

But in official Vatican records for 2020, Rupnik was listed as a consultor to the Congregation for Clergy, which moderates programs for seminary formation around the world, handles special cases for the laicization of clerics, and reviews on appeal a range of governance issues in dioceses.

Also in 2020, Rupnik held the position of consultor at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and at the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.

Rupnik was again listed as a consultor to those departments in 2021 and 2022.

In 2021, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith received claims that Rubnik had serially abused – spiritually, sexually, and psychologically – members of a Slovenian religious community in the 1980s and 1990s, when he served as a chaplain for the group. Those allegations, which include abuse of the sacrament of penance, did not lead to a canonical trial, owing apparently to the canonical statute of limitations, according to the Society of Jesus.

But the bishop who investigated those claims insists the allegations are true. One woman described her alleged experience as a “descent into hell.”

Despite his official role at Vatican dicasteries, the Society of Jesus insists Rupnik’s ministry was “restricted” in 2019, and has remained restricted since that year.

Rupnik is listed on official Holy See records as serving at the now-renamed Dicastery for Clergy alongside such influential figures as Fr. Hans Zollner, SJ, the prominent member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, and the Jesuit canon lawyer Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis earlier this year.

Earlier this year, the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization became part of the new Dicastery for the Evangelization, following curial reforms by Pope Francis — it has been styled the “preeminent” dicastery in the Roman curia.

The priest’s continued role at the Dicastery for Divine Worship, which oversees the liturgical life of the Church, is also likely to raise concerns.

According to one of his alleged victims, Rupnik’s alleged abuse was heavily laden with spiritual imagery; the woman claims Rupnik used images from the Eucharist and of the Holy Trinity to coerce her sexually.

In a recent interview, the alleged victim said the priest abused his position as a spiritual director to groom and coerce her into acts of sexual depravity. 

•  Raju Hasmukh with files from The Pillar