ROME – An open letter signed by five alleged victims of Father Marko Rupnik, a former Jesuit and renowned Slovenian artist, asserts that recent events show pledges of “zero tolerance” for sexual abuse by church officials are merely a “PR campaign … followed only by frequently covert actions, which support and cover up for the authors of abuse”.
The signatories to the letter were objecting to a September 15 audience granted by Pope Francis to an Italian lay theologian and defender of Rupnik, followed by a September 18 statement from the Diocese of Rome saying the Centro Aletti founded by Rupnik fosters a “healthy community life” and raising doubts about the ex-Jesuit’s brief 2020 excommunication for using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he’d reportedly engaged in sexual activity.
