The scandal-plagued priest Father Marko Rupnik, accused of serial abuse of multiple forms, is reportedly set to be acquitted at the close of a Vatican investigation which was instigated over two and a half years ago.

In a brief report published on Monday afternoon, Messa in Latino (MiL) stated that Father Marko Ivan Rupnik could soon be acquitted at the close of his Vatican trial. The reliably sourced Italian outlet wrote:

“We have learned from persistent and highly credible sources  that the criminal trial currently underway in the Vatican against Father Marko Ivan Rupnik has reportedly concluded with a favourable outcome for him.”

Rupnik, the former Jesuit and internationally prominent artist, has been at the centre of scandal in Rome and the Vatican in recent years, after serial allegations of sexual, spiritual, physical and psychological abuse were lodged against him by numerous individuals.  

He has been accused of abusing many religious sisters who were part of the order he co-founded in his native Slovenia: the Loyola Community. The priest is also alleged to have committed serial abuse of religious women at his Rome-based art studio and at his former office near the Jesuit headquarters in the city.  

Rupnik is alleged to have abused over half of the 40 members of the Loyola Community, and since his case gained public interest in 2022 at least 15 more alleged victims have come forward to testify against him.  

Quite separately, Rupnik was automatically excommunicated in 2020, after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) ruled that he was guilty of absolving in Confession one of his sexual accomplices. That penalty was very speedily lifted, with leading reporting from MiL pointing the finger at direct intervention by Pope Francis to lift the excommunication.  

News of the priest’s alleged abuse broke into the public sphere in late 2022, and since then dogged the latter years of Francis’ papacy, especially when reports uncovered the extent of Rupnik’s influence in the Vatican and the papal favour he personally received.  

Given a long background of intervention by shadowy Vatican figures to defend the priest, MiL told this correspondent that news of Rupnik’s likely acquittal was leaked today “to ensure that the Vatican can’t cover it up.”

At the time of publication, neither the DDF Prefect Cardinal Fernández, nor the DDF disciplinary section secretary Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, has responded to requests for comment from The Catholic Herald.

Throughout the nearly three years since the DDF opened his case, sparing details have emerged about what exactly Rupnik is being tried for. There has been no suggestion from the DDF or any officials that Rupnik’s alleged abuse is being examined separately according to the various forms it took. But nor has

In March last year a Vatican source attested that Rupnik would soon be tried under the DDF’s then-incoming norms concerning crimes of spiritual abuse for the charges of “spiritual abuse” and “false mysticism”, with the sentence expected in “the not too distant future”. However such norms had not even been finalised when the investigation was reopened in 2023, and such a trial would ignore the multiple other kinds of alleged abuse.

In October 2025 the Vatican announced that five judges had been appointed to the case, after Cdl. Fernández had stated in July that judges had been chosen. Some weeks later in November, Leo XIV said the trial had recently started, but cautioned that “processes for justice take a long time”.

Background

In October of 2022, a former case by the DDF against Rupnik was dropped due to time limitations – something which MiL stated was directly due to Pope Francis: “Despite this, it seems that, due to the Holy Father’s intervention, the process did not take place precisely because it was ‘time-barred’ [bound by the statute of limitations.]” Francis later denied any such involvement, attesting that he had intervened but once in order to assist the DDF investigate Rupnik.  

Rupnik was expelled from his former Jesuit order in July 2023. His former superior Fr. Johan Verschueren has stated that the credibility of allegations against Rupnik is “very high”, and the Jesuits have compiled a 150-page dossier detailing alleged abuse committed by Rupnik between 1985 and 2018.

Such is the level of credence given by the Jesuits to the allegations against Rupnik that the Order has already begun a process of reparation to alleged victims while lamenting the Vatican’s own inaction. Starting in March 2025, the Jesuits have been engaging with alleged victims, with Verschueren telling this correspondent: “We have so much to learn from them, and to do better in the future, to avoid any kind of abuse within the Society of Jesus.”

However despite the scrutiny surrounding him, Rupnik’s departure from the Jesuits arguably gave him greater personal freedom and he was then incardinated into the Diocese of Kloper in Slovenia.  

It was only in light of the immense public outcry following that latest promotion of Rupnik that Pope Francis tasked the DDF to reopen an investigation into the priest in October 2023 and to lift the statute of limitations. According to the Holy See, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors informed Francis of “serious problems in the handling of the Fr. Marko Rupnik case and lack of outreach to victims.” The statement was understood by many as a desperate attempt by the Vatican to save face, although viewed as too little, too late.

Since that day – 27 October, 2023 – there have been no substantial updates from the Holy See. At various times DDF officials have attested the case is ongoing, or in an “advanced” stage, but nothing has emerged. Cardinal Fernández has also defended the slow development by saying that other cases are worse but less publicised.  

Rupnik – longtime director of the Rome-based Aletti Center – is alleged to have linked his art to his abuse. Alleged victims claimed that the prolific artist made sexual advances during painting sessions, after Mass, or after hearing confessions in the Aletti Center. Rupnik has also been accused of forcing the women to engage in “threesomes” in imitation of the Trinity, involving “drink[ing] his semen from a chalice at dinner”.

Such alleged victims have further attested that Rupnik raped women under his charge and suggested one woman get an abortion after he raped her. They added that Rupnik worked on his unique icons while sexually excited and naked from the waist down.

Throughout the affair, the Vatican has come under scrutiny due to apparent inaction and at worst direct cover up on Rupnik’s behalf. Demonstrating the influence he enjoyed, the regular usage of his images on the Vatican’s online portals throughout the controversy and beginning of the trial was understood as being due to an Aletti Center colleague who leads a department in the Dicastery for Communication. {Leo XIV swiftly ordered the Dicastery to stop using these images after his papal election.}

Should the Holy See’s trial against Rupnik acquit him then it would greatly fuel mistrust of the Vatican’s ability to handle abuse cases, and many have warned it could be taken as a significant black mark on Pope Leo’s own time in office.

Michael Haynes is an English journalist in the Holy See Press Corps. He serves as Vatican Correspondent for the Catholic Herald, while readers can follow him at Per Mariam and on X @MLJHaynes.

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