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A Slovenian priest said to be close to the Pope has been accused of inviting two nuns to participate in a ‘Holy Trinity’ trio.
Marko Ivan Rupnik, 68, was accused by a former nun of using his ‘psycho-spiritual’ control over her some three decades ago to have sex, including group sex, and watch pornographic films.
At the time of the allegations, Rupnik, known in the church for his artwork, was the spiritual director of a convent in Slovenia and the former nun, now 58, described how her complaints against the priest were ignored.
Rupnik is now at the center of the scandal that has engulfed the Jesuits, a Catholic order of priests and brothers, of which Pope Francis is a member.
Marko Ivan Rupnik, 68, (pictured) was accused by a former nun of using his ‘psycho-spiritual’ control over her some three decades ago to have sex, including group sex, and watch pornographic movies.
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Rupnik (right, greeting the pope in January) is now at the center of the scandal that has engulfed the Jesuits, a Catholic order of priests and brothers, of which Pope Francis is a member.
The former nun told the respected Italian investigative newspaper Domani on Sunday in explosive testimony: “Father Marko began to slowly and gently enter my psychological and spiritual world, exploiting my uncertainties and fragility and using my relationship with God to push me to have sexual experiences with him. .’
The nun claimed that Rupnik had groomed her, had sex with her and harassed her into silence during her time at the Slovenian convent between 1987 and 1994.
She claimed that Rupnik had asked her and another nun to have sex with him, saying they would replicate the three-way relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirits.
He said he believed Rupnik had abused up to 20 women.
She detailed years of sexual abuse and spiritual manipulation by Rupnik and said she made repeated efforts to hand him over only to confront Jesuits and other superiors who routinely protected Rupnik at their expense.
“It was really an abuse of conscience,” the nun said.
She said her first complaint about his behavior dates back to 1994 in Slovenia, but that it was ignored as Rupnik’s community, first in Slovenia, then in Rome, grew and gained an international following.
At the time of the allegations, Rupnik (pictured left), known in the church for her artwork, was the spiritual director of a convent in Slovenia and the former nun, now 58, described how her complaints against the priest were ignored
Meanwhile, other sisters suffered similar harm, he said, describing the use of pornography, humiliation and multiple partners “in the image of the Trinity” in Rupnik’s spiritual and sexual abuse.
“They should have stopped him 30 years ago,” the woman told Domani.
His allegations forced Pope Francis’ Jesuit order on Sunday to ask more victims to come forward with complaints against Rupnik.
It emerged that Rupnik has essentially been bailed out by the Vatican twice despite devastating testimony from women who said he sexually and spiritually abused them.
The Jesuits called for new evidence against Rupnik and offered a timeline on his case in an effort to quell the scandal.
The Slovenian priest is relatively unknown among ordinary Catholics, but he is well known in the hierarchy because he is one of the most sought after artists in the church. His mosaics decorate chapels, churches and basilicas around the world.
The closed Basilica of Lourdes is pictured on May 8, 2020 in Lourdes, southwestern France. Mosaics by the Reverend Marko Ivan Rupnik decorate several churches and chapels, including the Basilica of Lourdes.
The scandal erupted last week after the Jesuits admitted that he had been excommunicated for having committed one of the most serious crimes in the Catholic Church: using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had had sexual relations.
He was declared excommunicated in May 2020, but the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith lifted the excommunication later that month after he repented, an unusually quick turnaround for such a serious violation.
A year later, the same Congregation decided not to prosecute him for another accusation of spiritual and sexual abuse of a former nun, declaring that the statute of limitations had expired.
The Congregation, which routinely waives the statute of limitations, is headed by a Jesuit prefect, has a Jesuit sex crimes prosecutor and a former number 2 who lived in the Rupnik Jesuit community.
The congregation has not responded to requests for information on the case, which has highlighted the Vatican’s general refusal to consider the spiritual and sexual abuse of adult women a crime that must be punished.
Rather, the Vatican has long regarded such abuse as a mere lapse in priestly chastity that can be forgiven, regardless of the trauma it causes victims.
The scandal has been heightened by conflicting accounts from the Jesuits.
After the first allegations in the 2021 complaint aired on Italian blogs and websites this month, the Jesuits issued a statement referring only to the 2021 case. But when questioned by the AP at a Christmas reception, the superior Jesuit Rev. Arturo Sosa admitted that Rupnik had previously been excommunicated for the crime related to the confession.
Sosa said Rupnik’s ministry had been restricted and he was prohibited from hearing confessions, giving spiritual direction or leading spiritual exercises. However, Rupnik is scheduled to perform spiritual exercises from February 13 to 17 at the Loreto Marian Shrine on Italy’s Adriatic coast, according to Loreto’s website.
On Sunday, Rupnik’s immediate superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren, said he wanted to try to clarify some of the questions that were raised about the case. In a statement, he called for anyone with old or new allegations to come forward.
“My main concern in all this is for those who have suffered, and I invite anyone who wants to make a new complaint or wants to discuss complaints already made to contact me,” he said.
He said that complaints would be accepted in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and German.