ROME — The attorney representing five women who allege sexual and spiritual abuse by a former Jesuit priest and renowned religious artist delivered a sharp criticism on Tuesday of the Vatican’s opaque legal process, which denies her clients any insight into the proceedings.
In a letter to the Vatican, lawyer Laura Sgro sought clarification on the status of the investigation into Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik, following a Monday report by the Italian blog Messa in Latino that he had been cleared in a canonical trial.
The Vatican has never disclosed the specific allegations Rupnik faced in its internal ecclesiastical tribunal, making it impossible to determine whether he may have been cleared of certain charges while other aspects of the investigation remain open. Vatican officials confirmed on Tuesday that the case is still active.
The Rupnik affair has emerged as one of the most delicate issues confronting the Holy See in recent years, amid allegations that the Slovenian priest was shielded for more than thirty years by his Jesuit superiors and the broader Vatican leadership, including Pope Francis.
Rupnik was once regarded as one of the Catholic Church’s most prominent contemporary religious artists, known for his stylized mosaics adorning churches and basilicas worldwide, including those at Lourdes and the Vatican.
The scandal surfaced in late 2022 after Italian blogs began publishing allegations of misconduct against him by women and nuns dating back to the 1990s, claims that had long been dismissed by Catholic authorities.
The Jesuits acknowledged that he was briefly excommunicated in 2020 for committing one of the gravest offenses in Catholic doctrine: using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship.
Nevertheless, the Vatican subsequently declined to pursue additional allegations from other women, contending that the claims were time‑barred and involved adult rather than minor victims.
In 2023, the Jesuits expelled Rupnik from their order after over two dozen women accused him of sexual, spiritual, or psychological abuse spanning three decades, including incidents that occurred while they collaborated on artistic projects.
He continues to hold priestly status, and his defenders maintain his innocence. Maria Campatelli, director of the Rome‑based Aletti Center founded by Rupnik, characterized the accusations as “defamatory and unproven,” describing them as a media‑driven lynching.
Amid allegations that he had shielded a fellow Jesuit, Pope Francis in 2023 lifted the statute of limitations on the older claims, enabling the Vatican to initiate a formal canonical trial.
The Vatican required two years to appoint the judicial panel. Late last year, Pope Leo XIV announced that the trial had commenced, referring to the accusing women as “victims” while urging them to exercise patience.
Because of the case’s sensitivity and its potential bearing on Francis’s legacy, every development in the Rupnik trial has been monitored closely by the victims and their supporters.
Sgro, counsel for the five victims, objected to the Church’s secretive handling of the matter and its refusal to either confirm or deny the blog’s report.
In a letter to the head of the Vatican office responsible for sexual abuse cases, Sgro lamented that she had received no response to her phone calls or emails requesting information, and that her clients had never been interviewed.
“I therefore ask you once again, Your Eminence, to clarify a few basic questions concerning this criminal trial involving victims who first lodged complaints over thirty years ago: Has the trial commenced? If so, what is its current status? Who are the judges? What has become of my clients’ requests to be admitted as injured parties? Why have these women not been summoned to testify?”
In canonical abuse investigations, victims serve only as third‑party observers; they are barred from participating in the confidential proceedings, cannot access case files, and have no entitlement to learn whether an investigation has been initiated, let alone its status.
Only because of a 2019 reform instituted by Pope Francis are victims permitted to learn the final outcome of their case, while remaining excluded from all other details.
The denial of rights to victims in canonical trials has repeatedly drawn criticism from international commissions and inquiries into clergy abuse, which have found that the Church’s secretive procedures retraumatize survivors. A core issue is that canon law was not designed to meet the needs of abuse survivors or facilitate healing; its official aim is institutional — to restore justice, reform the offender, and mitigate scandal.
French experts who conducted a comprehensive review of the French clergy abuse scandal concluded in 2021 that, given its problematic canonical investigations, the Vatican is violating its obligations as a United Nations observer state and member of the Council of Europe, both of which mandate the protection of victims’ fundamental human rights.
