[ad_1]
ROME, Dec. 15 (AP) News that the Vatican twice let a prominent priest go without abusing its authority over adult women exposes two major weaknesses in the Holy See’s policy of abuse: sexual and spiritual abuse of adult women. Misconduct is rarely punished, and secrecy still reigns supreme, especially when powerful priests are involved.
The Jesuit order, to which Pope Francis belongs, was forced to admit on Wednesday that its initial statement about the reverend Marko Ivan Rupnik, an internationally recognized religious artist, was incomplete. Rupnik was accused in 2021 of unspecified problems “in the manner in which he carried out his duties,” but the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Doctrine determined the allegations were too old to prosecute, the order said.
But when questioned by reporters, the Rev. Arturo Sosa, a senior Jesuit general, acknowledged that the congregation had sued Rupnik in another case before 2019, citing him as the most serious crime within the church. One of the offenses ended with a conviction and provisional deportation. Family canon: He used the confessional to excuse a woman he had a previous sexual relationship with.
The case, which began in 2015 while Rupnik was in Rome, also includes an unprosecuted false occultism charge, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak about the case.
Responding to questions from The Associated Press, Sosa said Rupnik quickly admitted to the crimes associated with the plea and formally repented, and the congregation immediately lifted his excommunication.
Although the Jesuits prohibited Rupnik from hearing confessions or giving spiritual guidance, the restrictions on his ministry did not prevent him from celebrating Mass or preaching. He continued to write and create his art without the public, the dedicated women in his community, or even his own Jesuits knowing the truth.
Rupnik is unknown to most Catholics, but he was a giant in the Jesuit and Catholic hierarchy, as he was one of the Church’s most popular artists. His mosaics depicting biblical scenes adorn the cathedral in Lourdes, France, the Vatican’s own Redemptoris Mater chapel and the John Paul II Institute in Washington, and will adorn the new cathedral in Aparecida, Brazil. He designed the Vatican logo for the 2022 World Conference on Families and described the religious inspiration behind it in a Vatican News TV interview.
When the 2021 case became public this month, Jesuits called on the Vatican to shed more light on why Rupnik was not sanctioned by the Holy See after being charged.
After fine-tuning procedures for punishing child-abusing priests, the Vatican updated laws last year to criminalize abuse of power against adults and in 2020 revealed the once-powerful former Cardinal Theodore McCarry How Theodore McCarrick sexually abused his adult seminarians.
But new revelations about Rupnik suggest that Catholic priests who abuse their positions of power to sexually, mentally or psychologically abuse adult women are rarely subject to canon sanctions, even though priests are estimated to be four times more likely to have sex with women than minors.
Sara Larson, executive director of Awake, an American grassroots organization that seeks to educate, advocate and support survivors of Catholic abuse, said there seems to be a reflexive belief that all sexual contact between adults, except physical violence, It’s all voluntary. Yet the #MeToo movement has made clear that power differentials often make meaningful consent impossible.
“When a priest has spiritual authority over someone, it’s impossible to have real consent,” Larson said in a phone interview. “We recognize that sex between a doctor and patient or a therapist and client is an act of power. We treat such sexual encounters as a crime. Sex between a priest and someone who sees him for spiritual care is really no different.”
However, when women report priests abusing authority over them, the hierarchy often accuses the women of seducing the priest, or downplays the incident as just a “mistake” or “boundary violation” by a holy priest, without taking into account Devastating aftermath Such abuse can be traumatic for women, Larson said.
For example, Sosa never uses the word “victim” when describing the women injured by Rupnik. Instead, he reiterated that Rupnik had made “mistakes” and that the Jesuits were committed to helping “heal wounds.”
“We want to go beyond the issue of justice and be with those … who were brought to do this wrong, and also those who have been hurt by this act, to heal,” he said.
The scandal involving Rupnik erupted last week when three Italian bloggers — the Latino Silere non Possum, Left.it and Messa — began exposing allegations of mental, psychological and sexual abuse against Rupnik, a group of women living in Jesuit communities Be like a nun. Belonging to his native Slovenia in the 1990s.
Sosa said Wednesday that the 2021 complaints date from that period, and that the Episcopal Church has determined the offenses are too old to prosecute. He revealed that Rupnik was forced to leave the Slovenian community due to unspecified “conflicts” among local women. A group of people followed the priest to Rome, where he founded the Jesuit Areti Center, an art studio and research center focused on the influence of culture on the Christian faith.
There has been no explanation yet why the congregation, which routinely waives the statute of limitations for abuse-related crimes, decided not to waive it this time around, especially in light of previous convictions. The office, now known as the Ministry of the Doctrine of the Faith, was headed by a Jesuit with a Jesuit sex crimes prosecutor, the No. 2 at the time living at the Aletti Center in Rupnik.
Sousa was asked how much Francis knew about Rupnick’s case, or if he had interfered. Sousa said he did not know, but “it is conceivable” that the rector, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, would inform the pope.
To Doris Reisinger, the handling of the Rupnik case sounded all too familiar. She reported that a priest had sexually abused her in connection with the confession when she was a nun. The Vatican found in 2019 that her claims lacked “absolute moral certainty” and pardoned the priest, who happened to be working for the Holy See at the time of the charges.
“There is no transparency, no sympathy for Rupnik’s victims, and most importantly, and most egregiously, really, a seemingly deliberate silence on recent cases and excommunications,” Reisinger said in an email Say. “Personally, it makes me sick.” (AP)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
[ad_2]
Source link