Details of how the Pope's hand was forced on the Rupnik case, with the help of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

Let Rupnik go to trial: the Pope has finally decided

In September the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors reported to the pope serious problems in the management of Fr.'s case. Marko Rupnik and the lack of closeness to the victims. Consequently, the Holy Father asked the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to examine the case and decided to waive the statute of limitations to allow a trial to take place. The Pope is firmly convinced that if there is one thing the Church must learn from the Synod it is to listen with attention and compassion to those who suffer, especially those who feel marginalized by the Church." Something has moved in the case of the abusive ex-Jesuit priest Marko Ivan Rupnik, communicated in the bulletin of the Vatican Press Office on 27 October: as will be remembered, the sexual abuse of which he was accused by numerous victims had been declared (by the same Dicastery in October 2022) cannot be proceeded canonically as they have fallen into statute of limitations. The case had been dropped.

Cathcon note: The Commission's remit also cover vulnerable adults

Rupnik's incardination

The fact that the excommunication that had been imposed on him by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2020 for the acquittal of his accomplice had been revoked due to an alleged "repentance" had finally allowed him to obtain incardination from the diocese of Koper, in Slovenia, his diocese of origin, led by the bishop (now on the road to retirement) Msgr. Jurij Bizjak, a fact about which rumours were already circulating but which was made official by a statement from the Diocese itself (26/10). "The bishop of Koper – we read in the press release – welcomed him on the basis of the decree of dismissal from the Society of Jesus, his request for incardination in the Diocese of Koper, as well as the fact that the bishop of Koper does not have any evidentiary document that declare Rupnik guilty of the abuses of which he has been accused before a civil or ecclesiastical court." An initiative that sounded like a slap in the face of the numerous victims. Now, however, with the Pope's decision to derogate from the prescription, things change: Rupnik may be subjected to a canonical trial.

The move of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors

For a few weeks the Commission for the Protection of Minors had been trying to contact the five victims of abuse by the former Jesuit who had signed the open letter to Pope Francis published on 18 September on the website of the Co-ordination against abuse in the Church #Italychurchtoo (see Adista News n 32/23 and Adista Segni Nuovi n. 32/23). "My name is Patricia Espinosa and I contact you as a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons", began the e-mail received on 8 October. Irma Patricia Espinosa Hernández, member of the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minorum since 30 September 2022 – Mexican psychiatrist, expert in criminal psychology and evaluation of victims of sexual abuse and perpetrators of sexual crimes, director of the Faculty of Psychology of the UCLG (Catholic University Lumen Gentium ) –, explained that "the reason for this email is to share the concern of the Pontifical Commission regarding the treatment that you, and the other victims of the Rupnik case, have received during a trial that we know has been extremely painful and frustrating for you, for your families, for your loved ones and for an important part of the Church, regarding the listening, investigation, follow-up, support and communication that have been provided to you", trying to "review the processes and actions which were carried out in your particular case, to identify how all this may have affected the legitimacy of your complaint, your rights and the support and accompaniment that were not given to you". A question of procedures and protocols, therefore: "our work will focus exclusively on the review of the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of the attention paid to the victims (psychological, medical, spiritual, pastoral, legal), as well as on the canonically established procedure throughout the process."

In short, the Vatican e-mail clarified that the Commission does not have "the power to modify the existing sentence, nor to intervene in the decisions taken by the court and by the corresponding bodies", but intends to "ensure that the procedures for assisting the victims are fair, transparent and adequate to provide a safe and respectful environment for all those who are affected by abuse in its various forms, including sexual abuse, and who - trusting in the Church - have come forward to denounce their terrible experience". Since "there are many abuses of power, conscience and sexual abuse within the Church", "it is essential to review what is currently being done and compare it with the protocols and procedures currently in existence to identify weaknesses and propose adequate recommendations for future similar cases, trying to improve the system as a whole".

To this end, he proposed a meeting via Zoom at the highest level, in which, in addition to Espinosa, the President of the Commission would participate, Cardinal Sean O'Malley and the secretary Fr. Andrew Small. The agenda, requested by Fabrizia Raguso, one of the 5 victims invited to the meeting, and also arrived via email a week later, was rather vague: "Welcome and presentation of the participants, explanation of the objectives of the meeting, clarification of the objectives of the case policy review and feedback from victims, evaluation of the process by victims, collection and/or amplification of testimonies, agreements and next steps (methodology, follow-up, communication channels, timing), conclusions and closure". The suspicion that it was a "political" and abstract initiative, aimed at showing the outside world that the victims were being listened to, was strong: "The perception that remained with me of that contact – explains Fabrizia Raguso – is that it was the last possibilities they were looking for to redeem a process that we had already denounced in the letter, of absolute silence and indifference towards the victims. The messages always underlined that this contact was purely procedural: they asked us for help to understand how things had gone and in which aspects we had been neither supported nor helped. They always underlined that there would be no repercussions on the decisions already made, there was no possibility of reopening the proceedings on Rupnik and being able to change the final decisions. The Commission's only interest was to listen to us and be able to improve the protocol for identical cases." And how do you feel about this type of approach? "Some of the guinea pigs. First of all because it seemed very naive to ask us how we were treated given that in many cases and in many situations this has already been written, reported, described, there was no need for a specific meeting to take up these aspects which were already completely evident, considering also the disproportion between the accusations considered plausible and worthy of recognition, and the measures taken in relation to the Rupnik case, which have always aimed to find a loophole with respect to the possibility of subjecting him to a fair trial, as many claim and would like".

And then, the feeling that 2this time too it was a power play, just like the meeting that I and others had already asked Cardinal Braz de Aviz at the end of 2021 to denounce, when it was not yet spoken about publicly , that all the events that had led to an effective abuse of power in the Loyola community were also linked to the founder's cover-up of Rupnik's responsibilities." Even in that case "there was no concrete effect on the decisions made over time".

The meeting

The meeting took place on October 21st. One of the victims participated in this meeting (he asked us to remain anonymous), who spoke very directly to his interlocutors: "There is a contradictory discourse: on the one hand there is the denial from the judicial point of view of what Rupnik did, is done as if nothing had happened. On the other hand we have a hand extended to the victims by the Pontifical Commission. This contradictory discourse is the basis of the mental manipulation experienced by victims. I told the Commission this." Now, "what's the point of listening to the victims for the umpteenth time if justice isn't done?", she said. "If the victims are listened to, it is because there is a culprit, and if there is a culprit, justice must be done. Here too there is a strong contradiction, and this can no longer be tolerated. It is a striking sign of the church's profound uneasiness regarding the issue of abuse."

Moreover, the news of Rupnik's incardination in Slovenia came at a time when the Synod Fathers were distributing their "Letter to the People of God" (see in this same issue), in which they speak of those who have suffered because of the Church: "What greater contradiction is there than this? What game are we playing? It is a kind of schizophrenia'. A few hours later, the unexpected news of the waiver of the statute of limitations - which up to now the pope has granted almost exclusively for paedophilia cases, therefore to victims of minor age - finally opens a glimmer.

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