Another investigation of Father Rupnik concluded: “There are no special critical factors”

In recent years, information has come to the public that Father Rupnik systematically and for a long time abused the nuns of the Loyola community in Ljubljana. Reports of abuse also appeared in some other places where he worked. Based on the allegations, the Diocese of Rome ordered an investigation into the mosaic workshop of Rome’s Aletti Center, which is also a spiritual center. The latest investigation is said to have identified no “specific critical factors”. According to the Italian news agency Ansa, the Roman vicariate is “saving the existence” of the Aletti Center.

In the light of the accusations against the Jesuit priest and artist, Father Marko Rupnik, who is accused of psychological and sexual abuse of nuns, the Diocese of Rome has completed the investigation in Rome’s Aletti Center. The investigation did not find any “specific critical factors”.

“It is clear that a healthy community life is taking place in the Aletti Center without any particular critical factors,” according to the Italian news agency Ansa and the weekly Druzina, the Roman Vicariate announced in a report published today at the end of the canonical visitation or investigation ordered by the cardinal in January Angelo De Donatis.

The Aletti Center is a public association and meeting place for believers in Rome, connected to the Diocese of Rome, which was founded in 1992 by Rupnik himself and led for more than a decade. According to the statements of the victims, the abuses also took place in the Aletti Center.

According to the diocese, it was the task of the visitor by Giacomo Incittiotherwise a priest and professor of canon law at the Pontifical Urbaniana University, “to verify the dynamics of the association, the functioning of its governing bodies and the factual validity of the concerns raised by some bodies”.

“The Roman Vicariate saves the existence of the Aletti Center”

The visitor, who already presented the final report of the investigation on June 23, also examined the main accusations against Father Rupnik, especially the one that led to his excommunication or exclusion from the Jesuit order. He found serious irregularities in the procedures, the examination of which raised reasonable doubts even about the very request for excommunication, the Family writes.

As stated in the message of the Diocese of Rome, Incitti explicitly pointed out these irregularities when presenting the report. Due to the seriousness of his findings, Cardinal De Donatis “forwarded the report to the competent authorities”.

According to Ansa, the Roman vicariate thus “saves the existence” of the Aletti Center, primarily through the initiative to rehabilitate its founder Rupnik.

Systematic abuses

Father Rupnik is accused of several sexual abuses of nuns of the Loyola community in Ljubljana, where he worked. Accusations against him were filed the year before, but the competent church authority found that they had expired and closed the case. Then, last year, the statements of several nuns about systematic and long-lasting abuse came to the public.

The Jesuit order forbade Rupnik any public artistic activity, especially in religious buildings. He had already been banned from all forms of public priestly engagement and public communication. He was also not supposed to leave the Italian land of Latium. The Vatican already excommunicated Rupnik, an otherwise renowned sacral artist, in 2019 because he absolved the sin of a woman who had sexual relations with him. But this measure was soon abolished because Rupnik confessed his sin and repented for it.