Jesuit barred from artistic activity after new abuse claims

ROME — Pope Francis’ Jesuit religious order has decided to prohibit a prominent Jesuit artist whose mosaics decorate churches around the globe from pursuing his artistic activity after 15 more people came forward with fresh accusations against him of spiritual, sexual and psychological abuse. Marko Ivan Rupnik following a third church investigation into allegations he used his exalted status as one of the Catholic Church’s preeminent religious artists to manipulate adult women into sexual activity. Verschueren briefed AP and La Repubblica newspaper ahead of the release Tuesday of conclusions of a new investigation into Rupnik opened in December, after the Jesuits reluctantly admitted Rupnik had been declared excommunicated in 2020 for having committed one of the gravest crimes in church law -- using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity — but had repented and had the sanction quickly removed. In addition to the abuse investigation, a theologian was brought in to study Rupnik’s writings and found some potentially “transgressive” problems with conferences Rupnik gave on sexuality in the 1980s and 1990s, Verschueren said.