Centroaletti / Wikimedia Commons
The Vatican under Pope Leo XIV has removed from the Vatican News website a piece of artwork by accused serial predator Marko Rupnik – marking a seeming reversal after officials had dismissed complaints about the controversial artist’s materials appearing on Vatican sites.
Catholic writer Amy Welborn was one of several who noticed over the weekend that a Rupnik mural was featured on the Vatican News webpage dedicated to the feast of Mary, Mother of the Church (the Monday after Pentecost).
Welborn soon reported, however, that the page – operated by the Vatican Dicastery of Communications – had been stripped of the mural, which was replaced by a more traditional artwork.
Catholic journalist Cecilia Cicone recalled how, in the recent past, a Vatican official had shocked and dismayed Catholics by gruffly dismissing the concerns of sexual abuse victims about the ongoing use of Rupnik art at the Vatican.
In an exclusive report for CatholicVote, Cicone wrote in June of last year about Dr. Paolo Ruffini’s infamous response to complaints about the artworks. Ruffini was appointed prefect of the Dicastery of Communications by Pope Francis and still serves in that role.
At the Catholic Media Conference in Atlanta, “the Italian prefect made one point abundantly clear: the Vatican would not be removing the artwork of credibly accused serial sexual abuser Fr. Marko Rupnik from its website,” Cicone wrote.
“While he was speaking,” she recounted, “I made the connection that it was Ruffini who had made the decision to continue using Rupnik’s art in Vatican communications, despite repeated calls for the art to be removed from Church communications out of respect for victims.”
When Ruffini allowed time for questions, Cicone knew it was “inevitable that someone would confront Ruffini about his failure to listen to victims.”
“What happened next was a whirlwind,” she continued. In response to the “inevitable question,” posed by an America Magazine journalist, “Ruffini gave a scattered response, repeating several times that there was a juridical process that needed to be followed and, echoing the words of Pope Francis ‘Who am I to judge?’, claimed that removing the art was not the merciful, Christian response.”
“The tension in the room was palpable as I, and many others, looked around the room trying to make sense of what we were hearing,” Cicone wrote. “Surely, the man responsible for communications on behalf of our Holy Father was not warning us against condemning sexual abuse?”
When another journalist pointed out “that Ruffini had not mentioned anything about Rupnik’s victims in his initial response,” the prefect “immediately got defensive, saying that it is ‘clear’ that the Church is close with victims, then posed a possibly rhetorical question in return,” Cicone recounted. “He asked if Guzik, and the audience, really believed that removing Rupnik’s images from the Vatican website would be an act of solidarity with victims.”
“Many of my colleagues,” Cicone wrote, “nodded and audibly said ‘Yes.’”
“Seated … well within Ruffini’s line of sight, I exaggeratedly nodded my head,” she added, “praying that he would see me, that he would see that he was hurting victims, that maybe he would see how his failure to consider victims in his work was causing scandal.”
But his response was unsympathetic. “‘Really?’ Ruffini confidently chastised the crowd. ‘Well, I think you’re wrong. I think you’re wrong.’”
Cicone, a survivor of sexual abuse herself, was rattled by that exchange in 2024.
One year later, however, she praised the swift removal of Rupnik art in response to complaints as “nothing short of a miracle.”