ROME – Seven months after the Vatican reversed its previous course and opened a canonical inquiry into accusations of long-term abuse committed by the famed Slovenian priest and artist Marko Rupnik, a high-ranking official has said the case, while delicate, is in its advanced stages.

Speaking to journalists on 29 May during a panel on the abuse crisis in Italy, Irish Monsignor John Joseph Kennedy, when asked about the status of the inquiry into former Jesuit cleric Marko Rupnik, said his department is “working on it, we are at a fairly advanced stage”.