Alleged Victims of Sexual Harassment by ex-Jesuit Marko Rupnik Speak Out

"Abused twice". The women who, at various times, claim to have been victims of sexual harassment by ex-Jesuit Marko Rupnik come forward shocked after the unique rehabilitation of the Vicariate of Rome. Without even openly mentioning the victims (as if they never existed), they even doubted both the internal investigations carried out by the Jesuits (which led to Rupnik's expulsion from the Society of Jesus) and those of the Congregation of the Faith (which in 2020 issued a decree of excommunication as confirmed by the Black Pope, the head of the Jesuits, Father Sosa, in an interview some time ago with the Associated Press). In the face of a bad story of manipulations and violence on women who gravitated in the artistic and theological circles founded by Rupnik, developed in stages between Rome and Slovenia, there is someone who even involves the direct papal role, considering that it is difficult that the Vicariate has published a rehabilitation statement without the approval of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis. And it is in this context that the victims signatories of an open letter addressed to the pontiff, to Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, to Cardinal Angelo De Donatis express their pain for that unique rehabilitation: "we have been abused a second time". "It leaves us speechless, without a voice to shout our dismay, our scandal". "There is no place in this Church for those who remember uncomfortable truths". Harsh words followed by a summary reconstruction of the facts and the denunciation of the rhetoric of a Church that claims to fight abuse, to be consistent and transparent but then in front of the mosaicist priest friend of the Pope and Cardinal Angelo De Donatis chooses another road. Here are some passages: "We have no other words, because all the suffering of the victims we have exposed as an open wound, and certainly disgusting... And the victims have therefore been censored for not being discreet, but having exposed something repugnant: their pain, the manipulation of those who have circuited them in the name of Christ, of spiritual love, of the Trinity. They have exposed their pain because the manipulation and abuses have forever wounded their dignity. All they have received and continue to receive is silence. Especially the victims of the abuse of power by Ivanka Hosta (who for thirty years has covered the nefariousness of Rupnik, and has reduced to spiritual slavery those who opposed her designs of revenge) have been waiting for a definitive, clear, maternal answer for more than a year. But they have only received silence. And with this report published today, which absolves Rupnik of all responsibility, ridicules the pain of the victims, but also of the whole church, mortally wounded by so much flaunted arrogance" it reads. The victims then point out that while the Pope has not only never received them and they have not even been mentioned by the Vicariate of Rome, on the contrary, a formal conversation was granted by Francis, with a photo opportunity, to Maria Campatelli, the theologian who runs the center founded by Marko Rupnik (Centro Aletti), always a champion of the correctness of the ex-Jesuit and convinced assertor of his innocence. "That conversation granted by the Pope to Campatelli, in such a familiar atmosphere, was thrown in the face of the victims (these and all victims of abuse); a meeting that the Pope has denied them. He has never even responded to four letters from as many religious and former religious of the Loyola Community who had them delivered to him in July 2021. The victims are left in the voiceless cry of a new abuse. In the statement issued by the Vicariate - probably provided with the imprimatur of Santa Marta - it is assured that in the Aletti center community life is healthy and free of particular criticisms, that "the Apostolic Visitor has dutifully examined also the main accusations that have been made to Rupnik, especially the one that led to the request for excommunication. Based on the copious documentary material studied, the Visitor was able to ascertain and therefore reported seriously anomalous procedures whose examination has generated well-founded doubts also on the same request for excommunication. In consideration of the gravity of such findings, the Cardinal Vicar has referred the report to the competent authorities".