The pattern of behaviour shown by Jesuit leadership in the management of the high-profile Rupnik scandal has centuries of institutional practice behind it. That’s according to Ulrich Lehner, a prominent historian at the University of Notre Dame, who has just published a German-language study of the Jesuits’ historical handling of abuse in their ranks.
In a broad-ranging conversation with Crux in March, Lehner explained that in fact, what may appear to be a relatively recent development in the life of the Church is really the current chapter in a long-running crisis, the roots of which go down through the last several centuries and almost certainly even further.
