Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

A mosaic designed by Fr Marko Rupnik, inset, depicts Christ’s descent into hell and resurrection. Credit: Giovanna60/wikimedia. CC BY SA 3.0

THERE’S a great deal to dislike about the far-right LifeSite News: its homophobia, transphobia and its shameless peddling of conspiracy theories, to name just a few.

But, despite its constant railing against pornography, it remains the “go-to” site for its detailed and salacious reporting of sexual scandals.

Image via YouTube

Take, for example, a piece it ran about Jesuit Father Marko Ivan Rupnik, above, a Slovenian renowned for his “stunning” religious art who “spiritually and sexually” abused nuns.

Of all the reports I’ve read about Rupnik’s abuse of women who belonged to the Slovenian religious Loyala Community, the only outlet that that appears to have provided juicy details of the priest’s abuse was LifeSite, beneath the heading “Former nun details years of ‘satanic’ sex abuse by Jesuit priest Fr. Rupnik.“

After warning its readers that “the following article contains disturbing descriptions of blasphemy and sexual abuse,” it revealed that a former member of Rupnik’s Community—”Anna”— alleged that he encouraged her to have “threesomes with another sister from the community.”

Anna also stated that Rupnik’s art was firmly linked to his sexual desires:

It was a real abuse of conscience. His sexual obsession was not extemporaneous but deeply connected to his conception of art and his theological thinking.

Father Marko at first slowly and gently infiltrated my psychological and spiritual world by appealing to my uncertainties and frailties while using my relationship with God to push me to have sexual experiences with him.

She added that the Rupnik would:

Request for more and more erotic games in his studio at the Collegio del Gesù in Rome, while painting or after the celebration of the Eucharist or after confession. He had no restraints; he used every means to achieve his goal, even confidences heard in confession.

Excommunicated but still active

So, what happened to the randy Rupkin after the abuse allegations surfaced?

Well, he was excommunicated in 2020 for the canonical crime of abusing the sacrament of penance to abet his sexual misconduct.

In 2021 he was formally accused at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith of serially abusing Slovenian religious women in the 1980s and 1990s.

But, get this: Rupnik is still listed as a consultor—an officially appointed expert advisor—for several Vatican dicasteries, including those with oversight of clergy and liturgy.

Catholic outlet The Pillar reported:

The priest’s roles on those departments amplifies questions about whether he was actually placed under ministerial restrictions by his religious order as his crimes became known to the Vatican—and about whether Vatican officials should have intervened to limit his participation in Church leadership and governance.

In 2020, while subject to a penal process but before the penalty of excommunication was declared, Rupnik was invited to preach a Lenten retreat to the Roman curia. Since his conviction, he has traveled widely, received international awards for his work, and continued to release video commentaries on theological matters.

Should Rupkin’s art be vandalised?

Image credit: Jesuits.

After this latest abuse scandal was exposed, one priest—Father Patrick Briscoe—posed this question: “What do we do with Father Rupnik’s art?“

My first instinct is to strip it all. Remove every last tile. Hire jackhammers and drills and remove every trace. There’s something biblical about such a notion. In the Old Testament, the sins of an anointed priest demanded the sacrifice of a bull, and the blood of that sacrifice was carried into the tent of meeting and various sacred fixtures were anointed with the blood (cf. Lv 4).

But to strip it all betrays a fundamentally un-Christian notion. The damnatio memoriae is a decidedly pagan practice … But it might be more satisfactory to scar it. What if we removed a panel or two from the larger scenes? There would something fitting about the absence, a public reminder of the wounds caused by sexual abuse and the lies that surround it.

Briscoe added:

We could leave the art untouched of course, but then detail his biography in every place where his art hangs. We could install signs that explain his crimes and note them in brochures. It’s hard to imagine future studies of Catholic art both ignoring Father Rupnik’s contribution and remaining silent about his past.

The very worst thing is to say nothing at all. We’ve all seen the effect of the unuttered words in our churches these past decades.

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