VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Catholic Vote [Madison, WI]
June 21, 2024
By CV News Feed
The 2024 Catholic Media Conference ended in Atlanta on a significantly sour note when Dr. Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, relentlessly defended the use and preservation of the art of the Jesuit priest and artist Marko Rupnik, despite repeated questions and objections from the audience composed mostly of Catholic journalists from the U.S. and Canada.
On Friday, June 21, Ruffini delivered the closing noon keynote conference at the Atlanta Marriott Buckhead & Conference Center, addressing uncontroversial issues regarding the importance of reaching out to a universal audience.
But it was during the following Q&A session when attending journalists focused most of their concerns and comments on what OSV News editor Paulina Guzik described as “the dicastery’s regular practice of posting art by Father Marko Rupnik — a Rome-based priest accused of sexually abusing multiple women — on the Vatican News website and social media, especially to illustrate church feast days.”
According to America Associate Editor Colleen Dulle, who posed the first question to the Vatican official, Ruffini affirmed that “while his department would not publish any new photos of the disgraced priest’s artwork, existing images of the art will remain on its website for now, with no plans for removal.”
Anticipating a decision on the matter “is not good,” Ruffini responded to the question posed by America, referring to the ongoing investigation by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith into allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse by Rupnik. America is a Jesuit magazine.
OSV News also quoted Ruffini pushing back at continued criticism by arguing that, “as Christian(s), we are asked not to judge,” and that “while the process of a Vatican investigation into Father Rupnik is still ongoing, ‘an anticipation of a decision is something that is not, in our opinion, is not good.’”
Despite the overwhelming testimony of dozens of religious sisters accusing Rupnik of systematic, premeditated sexual abuse under the guise of pseudo-spiritual rituals, Ruffini insisted that “there are things we don’t understand” about the disgraced Jesuit.
Many victims have lamented Rupnik’s longtime evasion of punishment and accountability due to his stature as a prominent Jesuit, his reputation as a world-famous religious artist, and his personal friendship with Pope Francis.
As CatholicVote has reported, the scandal around the Slovenian Jesuit reached a boiling point when an Italian blog revealed last October that Slovenian Bishop Juri Bizjaky accepted Rupnik, 68, as a priest in good standing in the Diocese of Kope.
Following the ensuing public outrage, on October 27, 2023, Pope Francis, who at that time was presiding over the Synod on Synodality, waived the statute of limitations and instructed the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to initiate a new investigation.
America‘s article noted that “Mr. Ruffini attended the CMA conference with Natasa Govekar, the dicastery’s pastoral-theological advisor, who has co-authored three books with Father Rupnik and is listed as a team member on the website of the Centro Aletti, the art institute Father Rupnik founded in Rome.”
When OSV News’ Guzik pointed out that Ruffini had made no mention of Rupnik’s victims in his comments, the Vatican official said that “(t)he closeness of the church to the victims and the closeness of the church to any victims is clear.” He added, however: “But it’s clear, also, that there’s a procedure going on, so we have to await the procedure.”
“We are talking about stories we don’t know. Who am I to judge the Rupnik stories?” he continued:
I answered about art on our website and in many centers around the world. This is another story. I feel as Christians we have to understand the closeness to the victims is important, but I don’t know that this [removing Father Rupnik’s art] is the way of union [with the victims].
Guzik quoted Ruffini arguing that “(r)emoving, deleting, destroying art has not ever been a good choice.”
Ruffini mentioned the “legendary Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known widely as simply Caravaggio, who in the course of his life killed a man,” Guzik reported. “Removing Father Rupnik’s art from public space is not a Christian response,” Ruffini said, according to OSV News.
Moreover, responding to the question first posed by America‘s Colleen Dulle, Ruffini mentioned that the Jesuit curia in Rome did not remove Rupnik’s art from their chapel.
“‘I think this is also something that can be inspiring in terms of being Christian,” Ruffini said, encouraging patience toward the decision of the Vatican bodies investigating the case,” OSV News also wrote. “’We are not talking about abuse of minors,’ Ruffini said. ‘We are talking (about) a story that we don’t know.’”
The Vatican official also argued that “there are people that (are) praying in sanctuaries of many churches all around the world” in front of mosaics created by Rupnik.
The most tense moment arrived towards the end of the interaction when, according to America, Ruffini rhetorically asked Guzik: “Do you think that if I put away a photo of an art from … our website, I will be more close to the victims? Do you think so?”
When an answer was loudly given in the affirmative by many in the audience, Ruffini responded defensively: “I think you’re wrong.”