Marko Rupnik By Centroaletti - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikipedia
CV NEWS FEED // The Vatican has ordered the dissolution of a religious community co-founded by disgraced former Jesuit and accused abuser Fr. Marko Rupnik, according to a Slovenian archdiocese’s announcement this week.
The Archdiocese of Ljubljana announced that the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life issued a decree to the sisters of the Loyola Community, stating that their community was to be dissolved “due to serious problems concerning the exercise of authority and the way of living together.”
The dissolution must take place within a year, according to the archdiocese’ December 15 announcement.
Rupnik co-founded the Loyola Community in the 1980s with Sister Ivanka Hosta in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Loyola community’s head office is in Apnenik, Slovenia, and the community’s general office is in Rome.
Rupnik was the Loyola Community’s chaplain until he left for Rome in 1993, where he opened an art and theology school called the Aletti Center.
According to the Catholic News Agency, “Several sisters left the community with Rupnik [in 1993], following him to Rome… The priest artist has also been accused of engaging in sex acts with consecrated women at the center.”
CatholicVote reported on October 25 that Rupnik had just been reinstated as an active priest in his home diocese of Kope, a situation that “sparked a new wave of indignation.” The report added that Rupnik’s artwork “still appeared on a Vatican website as recently as late September.”
“Several nuns from the Loyola community, a congregation Rupnik helped found in his native Slovenia, have accused [Rupnik] of sexual abuse,” the CatholicVote report added. In 2019, Rupnik was excommunicated “for the serious canonical crime of absolving victims of his sexual abuse in sacramental confession.”
The excommunication was revoked “after Rupnik admitted to the crimes and repented. Shortly thereafter, however, further complaints surfaced regarding additional abuses committed by Rupnik,” CatholicVote reported:
The Society of Jesus initially took precautionary measures by barring Rupnik from hearing confessions, giving spiritual direction, or conducting spiritual exercises. In addition, Rupnik could not appear in public without the permission of the local superior.
After Rupnik violated all these measures, the Society of Jesus issued a decree on June 9 expelling him from the Jesuits “due to stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.”
However, neither the Jesuits nor the Vicariate of the City of Rome, where he was exercising his artistic and spiritual ministry, moved to expel him from the clerical state.
According to Druzinia, a Slovenian Catholic magazine, a month before Rupnik’s official expulsion from the Jesuits, he wrote to Bishop Bizjak and asked him to accept him “ad experimentum” (temporarily, as an experiment) in his home diocese…
A few days after receiving Rupnik’s letter, on June 20, 2023, the bishop of Koper accepted Rupnik’s request.
Two days after CatholicVote reported that Rupnik had been reinstated in his home diocese, the Vatican announced it would reopen the case against Rupnik, allowing an investigation to continue.
On October 27, the Vatican announced that “the Holy Father asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to review the case, and decided to lift the statute of limitations to allow a process to take place.”
CatholicVote noted that the October 27 “statement marks a significant change in the Vatican’s position on the case.”
