Vatican says case ongoing but accusers have no right to know trial details
ROME — The letter from attorney Laura Sgro to the Vatican on Tuesday was prompted by a report Monday on the Italian blog Messa in Latino stating that the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik had been absolved in a canonical trial. Sgro sent a scathing denunciation of the Vatican’s legal system and demanded the Holy See clarify the status of the investigation, the Associated Press reported.
The Vatican has never publicly disclosed the alleged crimes that Rupnik faced in its in-house church tribunal, making it impossible from the public record to determine whether the reported absolution clears him of some charges while others continue to be examined. Sgro said her clients have no right to know any details of the proceedings.
Vatican officials confirmed Tuesday that the case is ongoing but provided no further information.
Rupnik, a Slovenian priest who was once among the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church, designed stylized mosaics that adorn churches and basilicas worldwide, including at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France and within the Vatican itself. The scandal became public in late 2022 when Italian blogs first reported allegations of misconduct by women and nuns dating to the 1990s. According to the Associated Press, those claims were “consistently dismissed by the Catholic hierarchy.”
The case has become one of the most sensitive for the Holy See amid suggestions that Rupnik was protected for more than three decades by his Jesuit superiors and the Vatican hierarchy, including Pope Francis.