Prominent Jesuit priest and artist disciplined after abuse allegations

The Roman Catholic Jesuit order said it disciplined a prominent priest and artist who reportedly sexually and psychologically abused nuns in his native Slovenia three decades ago.

The Jesuits issued a statement about Father Marko Ivan Rupnik following Italian media reports last week that several nuns had accused him of abuse in the early 1990s when he was their spiritual director at a convent in Slovenia.

Rupnik faces restrictions including not being allowed to hear confessions or preside at spiritual exercises.

The priest is well known in the Church as a mosaics master who designed chapels around the world, including one in the Vatican and in the St. John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C.

The statement from Jesuit headquarters in Rome said the order had carried out an investigation into Rupnik after the Vatican’s doctrinal department received a complaint last year about “the method by which he carried out his ministry”.

It gave no details of the allegations except to say that no minors were involved.

via Reuters