As accusations of sexual abuse have mounted against Father Marko Rupnik, his art has increasingly come into question and under the microscope. This has included attentive observers noting a curiosity – the face of the artist himself, along with two of his closest friends and allies, appears in an obscure section of perhaps his most famous work.

Rupnik’s giant mosaic in the Vatican’s Redemptoris Mater Chapel, sometimes dubbed the “Sistine Chapel” of the late Pope John Paul II, was installed by the Rupnik-founded, Rome-based Centro Aletti in 1999, and blends eastern and western motifs in depicting the history of salvation.

In a small corner of the sprawling work, three figures are depicted in white robes who, upon examination, turn out to be the late Czech Cardinal Tomáš Špidlík, Rupnik’s great patron, shown holding a set of books; Nataša Govekar, a member of the Centro Aletti, who today serves as a department head in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communications, depicted with a laptop; and Rupnik himself, holding a painter’s easel.