ROME – A month after announcing the expulsion of the artist-priest Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, accused of sexually abusing several adult women, on the grounds of disobedience, Pope Francis’s own Jesuit order confirmed the decision Monday.
Father Johan Verschueren, the permanent delegate of the Society of Jesus for houses, works and inter-provincial Jesuits in Rome, who oversaw the order’s investigation into allegations against Rupnik, made the announcement in a July 24 letter.
Verschueren said that since the 30 days under church law allowing Rupnik to appeal his June 14 decree of expulsion had passed, “We can declare today that he is no longer a Jesuit religious.”
