Vatican doctrine czar says judges being appointed for Rupnik case

ROME – Nearly two years after lifting a statute of limitations to allow a canonical procedure to begin against Slovene Father Marko Rupnik, the Vatican’s doctrine chief says the case is progressing and judges are being appointed.

While the case involving Rupnik, a former Jesuit and famed artist accused of sexually abusing around 40 adult women, is “reserved” and detailed information is unavailable, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández said the relevant information has been collected and studied.

Fernández, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), which is overseeing the Rupnik case, said his department “did the study, and it gathered all of the information, because it wasn’t easy to gather everything from here and from there, everywhere, but it gathered it, organized it, read it, did all of the work and now it must create a tribunal for the process.”

“Now we must find judges; we’ve made a list,” he said, saying they require judges “with certain characteristics, for something so mediatic.”

The Rupnik case has dominated Church headlines since allegations against the famed artist, one of the Church’s most prolific and sought-after muralists whose work decorates shrines and chapels around the world, including the Vatican, for the past two years, after allegations went public.

After the DDF initially refused to waive a statute of limitations allowing a canonical procedure against Rupnik, the pope personally waived it in October 2023, with top officials in the department’s disciplinary section, which handles cases of clerical abuse, saying nearly a year ago that the inquiry was in advanced stages.

Fernández told journalists Friday that he believes they have found judges to evaluate the case, usually consisting of a panel of three, but some are unsure and need time to think about it before saying yes or no to what is arguably one of the DDF’s most sensitive and high-profile current tasks.

The judges approached, Fernández said, are external to the DDF and “must do their work and conclude.”

He did not indicate how many judges have already accepted the task, or when their work will conclude and when a verdict might be expected.

Asked about a study launched at his request to clearly define the crime of “spiritual abuse” and codify it in Canon Law, Fernández said the study is ongoing, but is unlikely to be applied to the Rupnik case.

One of the most disturbing aspects of Rupnik’s alleged abuses is the assertion that he used false mystical visions and spiritual symbols to justify his abuse and style it as a mystical experience drawing him and the women he allegedly abused closer to God.

Fernández said Friday he asked that a study be done to “definitively clarify” a canonical crime of spiritual abuse containing these elements, “but I don’t know how much time it will take because I’m not doing it.”

“Others are doing it, especially in Legislative Texts, because it’s their task,” he said, referring to the Vatican department tasked with overseeing Church law.

This department accepted the task “and they saw that there was a need to do this work, and I see that they have put a lot of passion into this work, they are convinced that they need to do it well, and they are working,” Fernández said, but added, “When they will finish, I don’t know.”

Fernández spoke to the press ahead of the March 21 presentation of the book, Viva la Poesia, by Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, undersecretary for the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education and a close papal friend who travels with Pope Francis on all of his foreign trips.

The presentation of the book, consisting of a collection of speeches and texts by Pope Francis on poetry and literature, took place Friday, and was moderated by Andrea Monda, director of the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the “substitute” of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, a position akin to the pope’s chief of staff, was also present.

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