VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Catholic World Report [San Francisco CA]
March 21, 2024
By Christopher R. Altieri
CWR asked several high-ranking officials at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications whether there have been discussions regarding the use of Rupnik’s artwork, and if so, who has made which decisions.
Victims and advocates are running out of patience with Pope Francis and the Vatican, as official Vatican outfits including the communications dicastery continue to make use of artwork produced by a disgraced former Jesuit, Fr. Marko Rupnik, who is now a priest of Koper diocese in his native Slovenia, though he reportedly resides in Rome.
Vatican Media used a Rupnik studio image to illustrate their brief on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, causing an international uproar.
“It’s so injurious,” Antonia Sobocki of the UK-based LOUDFence survivor advocacy group told CWR on Thursday.
“I cannot think of a less appropriate artist to choose to illustrate this feast day than a serial rapist like Marko Rupnik,” Sobocki—herself a survivor of familial abuse—said March 19th on social media. “Please,” she said, “just make this stop.”
Rupnik is alleged—by numerous “highly credible” accusers, according to one senior Jesuit investigator—to have spiritually, psychologically, and sexually abused dozens of victims over three decades, most of them women religious.
According to several victims’ accounts, the abuse Rupnik perpetrated was integral to his “creative process” and central to his art, something that victims and advocates say magnifies the already appalling trauma of seeing it in use.
When Church outfits use Rupnik’s art—and the Vatican is hardly alone in continuing to do so—it compounds the hurt.
“I don’t know what to say to victims in that situation,” Sobocki told CWR, “except that ‘I am the Church too and I see you’.”
CWR asked several high-ranking officials at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications whether there have been discussions regarding the use of Rupnik’s artwork, and if so, who has made which decisions.
Natasa Govekar, who heads the theological-pastoral department, did not reply to calls or electronic text messages. Govekar is also a native Slovenian with close ties to Rupnik. She has written at least one book with the disgraced former celebrity artist.
Massimiliano Menichetti, the head of Vatican Radio—Vatican News, also did not reply to CWR’s electronic queries or answer this journalist’s call.
Andrea Tornielli, Vatican Media’s editorial director, did not reply to CWR’s e-queries either, and declined this journalist’s call.
The silence of the Vatican regarding the reasons for their continued use of works designed by Rupnik and his studio is making it hard for victims, advocates, and observers not to think the worst.
“The only explanation for it is that someone who doesn’t give a damn, or who thinks Rupnik’s behavior is no big deal, decides to use it,” Sobocki said of the Vatican’s continued use of Rupnik’s work.
The official management of the Rupnik case continues to be a cause of consternation.
Rupnik is now a priest of Koper diocese in his native Slovenia and reportedly at large in Rome, where he remains listed as in charge of the mosaic art workshop and theological laboratory at the Centro Aletti art institute he founded in 1993.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) declined to prosecute Rupnik, citing the expired statute of limitations on Rupnik’s alleged crimes.
Observers were flummoxed and voices from across the spectrum of opinion in the Church were incensed at the refusal to lift the statute of limitations. There was mountainous evidence already collected and ample opportunity for defense. There was no discernible reason not to lift the statute bar in Rupnik’s case.
Rupnik was eventually expelled from the Jesuits for “disobedience” but was not called to answer at Church law for his abusive behavior. When news broke that Rupnik would be welcomed by the Koper diocese as a priest in good standing, international outrage exploded into incandescent fury.
Increasingly intense media pressure and the extraordinary intervention of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors led to Pope Francis reversing course and waiving the statute of limitations on Rupnik and returning his case to the DDF for re-examination.
Nearly half a year has gone by since those developments, but there has been no word from the Vatican on progress in the case.
Sobocki is hanging on, but barely, and she says she’s not alone.
“I’m trying very hard,” Sobocki said, “but it significantly challenges my charity. As a survivor myself—a lot of survivors will tell you they are literally hanging on by their fingertips—that they, we stay Catholic despite the Church, not because of it when we see things like this—like Rupnik’s art on display.”
Sobocki told CWR she can’t imagine why Pope Francis—why anyone in the Vatican in a position to do it—wouldn’t put a stop at least to the use of Rupnik’s art.
“I think that Pope Francis is a committed, decent man, but I don’t understand this.” Sobocki in fact met Pope Francis in September 2023, when she presented the work of her LOUDFence survivor support and advocacy organization to officials in the Vatican.
“When I met [Pope Francis],” Sobocki said, “I had the impression of a kind parish priest, but I don’t understand this.”
“I don’t want to bash Pope Francis,” Sobocki explained. “I’m just trying to understand it.”
“What does Marko Rupnik have on these people,” Sobocki wondered aloud, “that they should continue to use his art?”(Editor’s note: This article has been edited to clarify that Fr. Marko Rupnik is listed as in charge of the mosaic art workshop and theological laboratory at the Centro Aletti.)
Christopher R. Altieri is a journalist, editor and author of three books, including Reading the News Without Losing Your Faith (Catholic Truth Society, 2021). He is contributing editor to Catholic World Report.