«Abuses of conscience, power, spiritual, psychic, physical and often even sexual». Two former nuns of the Loyola Community, Gloria and Mirjam, alleged victims of the Jesuit and artist Marko Rupnik, in order to tear the "veil of silence" around the figure of the powerful former Slovenian spiritual father, have decided to come out into the open and openly denounce the violence in a press conference.
Gloria in particular described "the abusive context" set up by Rupnik who, after a series of approaches as a spiritual father, had over time managed to plagiarize her to the point of "forcing me into sexual relations, even threesomes". «One fact», Gloria said, «was the most difficult, a fact that highlights the fulcrum of the union of sexual abuse and theological and artistic thought, because at a certain point Rupnik told me that he felt in prayer that our relationship was not exclusive but had to be in the image of the Trinity, therefore we had to invite another sister to live sexually with us ." «Even to convince me to have real pornographic relationships – he added – he began to take me to two cinemas in Rome, on the Salaria and on the Nomentana, and it was clear that he was a regular at these places».
On the case only recently, with a twist, Pope Francis asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the matter by derogating from the statute of limitations to allow a trial to take place. And today the Vatican press office reiterated that «in recent months, following the assignment received from the Pope at the end of October, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has contacted the institutions involved in various capacities to receive all available information relating to the case ». Furthermore, the press room again announces that «after having broadened the scope of the research to entities not previously contacted and having just received the last elements in response, it will now be a matter of studying the documentation acquired in order to identify which procedures will be possible and useful to implement» .
In short, Rupnik could end up on trial in the canonical forum, even if "the risk of prescription is there", highlighted the lawyer of the two former nuns, Laura Sgrò, since the facts date back to the 80s and 90s. Even more so, the two alleged victims ask to be heard, "we are waiting", they say, even if addressing Pope Francis directly, today which marks the fifth anniversary of the summit he himself wanted on child abuse, they complain: " So far we have found ourselves faced with a rubber wall." "May the wall crumble - they therefore ask - and may the Pope not reduce us and all the other victims to silence" . According to Mirjam and Gloria , there were at least "about twenty" women involved in abuse within the community out of a total of 40 members.
«Rupnik - explained Gloria who met him as a young medical student in Rome - was able to manipulate many people around him by creating a very large context network» which in fact protected him all this time. Lawyer Sgrò spoke about Rupnik under three profiles: «He is now a diocesan priest, until June 2023 he was a Jesuit; secondly, he is a world-famous artist and thirdly he is also an entrepreneur, the business register says so." Sgrò mentioned the "over 200 places in the world that present Rupnik mosaics" including the sanctuaries of Fatima, Częstochowa, but even the Redemptoris mater chapel in the Vatican.
(Unioneonline/D)
