Lawyer in sensitive Vatican abuse case issues scathing critique of church's secretive legal system

The Vatican has never said what alleged crimes Rupnik faced in its in-house church tribunal, so there was no way to know if he had possibly been absolved of some charges while the investigation continues into others. Vatican officials said Tuesday the case was ongoing.

The Rupnik scandal has become one of the most sensitive matters for the Holy See in recent years, given suggestions that the Slovenian priest was protected for over three decades by his Jesuit superiors and the Vatican hierarchy, up to and including Pope Francis.

Rupnik had been one of the most celebrated contemporary religious artists in the Catholic Church, designing stylized mosaics that decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at Lourdes and the Vatican.

The scandal exploded in late 2022, when Italian blogs first reported claims of misconduct against him by women and nuns dating back to the 1990s that had been consistently dismissed by the Catholic hierarchy.

A case that becomes a headache for the Vatican

The Jesuits admitted that he had been excommunicated briefly in 2020 for having committed one of the Catholic Church’s most serious crimes: using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity.

But the Vatican later refused to prosecute claims of other women against him, arguing they were too old and involved adult women, not minors, at the time of the alleged abuse.

The Jesuits expelled Rupnik from their order in 2023 after more than two dozen women came forward to say he had sexually, spiritually or psychologically abused them over 30 years, some while they were collaborating with him on artworks.

He remains a priest and his supporters have denied he did anything wrong. Maria Campatelli, director of the Rome-based Aletti Center that Rupnik founded has said the claims against him were "defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of media “lynching.”

Under pressure from suspicions he had protected his fellow Jesuit, Francis in 2023 waived the statute of limitations on the older claims so that the Vatican could open a proper canonical trial.

It took the Vatican two years to appoint judges. Late last year, Pope Leo XIV confirmed that the trial had opened. While identifying the women who accused Rupnik as “victims,” he urged them to be patient.

“Processes for justice take a long time and I know it’s very difficult for the victims to ask that they be patient but the church needs to respect the rights of all people,” Leo said Nov. 4. “The principle of innocent until you’re proven guilty is also true in the church. And hopefully this trial that is just beginning will be able to give some clarity and justice to all those involved.”

The case that will impact Francis' legacy

Given the sensitivity of the case, and how its outcome will likely impact Francis’ legacy, any news about the Rupnik trial has been closely followed by victims and their advocates.

Sgro, the lawyer for the five victims, took issue with the church’s secretive approach to the case and refusal to confirm or deny the blog report.

In a letter to the head of the Vatican office that handles sex abuse cases, Sgro complained that no one from the Vatican had ever responded to her calls or emails seeking information about the case, and that her clients had never even been interviewed.

“How can what is happening be reconciled with the concepts of law, truth, justice, and fairness? With the words that the Holy Father constantly speaks on behalf of the victims of abuse?” Sgro wrote Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican's doctrine office.

“I therefore ask you once again, Your Eminence, to answer some simple, basic questions regarding a criminal trial involving victims who first filed complaints more than thirty years ago: Has the trial begun? If so, what is the current status of the case? Who are the judges? What has become of my clients’ requests to be admitted as injured parties in the trial? Why were these women not called to testify?”

No rights for victims in canonical trials

In canonical abuse investigations, victims are mere third-party witnesses to their cases. They cannot participate in any of the secret proceedings, they have no access to case files and no right to know if a canonical investigation has been started, much less its status.

Only due to a Francis reform in 2019 are victims allowed to know the ultimate outcome of their case, but nothing else.

The lack of rights owed to victims in canonical trials has been repeatedly condemned by international commissions and inquests into clergy abuse that have found that the church’s procedures retraumatize victims through their secrecy and opacity. Part of the problem is that canon law was never meant to address the needs of abuse survivors or to help them heal. The official goal of the system is institution-centric: to restore justice, reform the offender and repair scandal.

French experts who conducted a broad review of the French clergy abuse scandal said in 2021 that with its problematic canonical investigations, the Vatican was in breach of its obligations as a U.N. observer state and member of the Council of Europe, which requires upholding the basic human rights of victims.

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