Sexual abuse scandal triggers Vatican takedown of Rupnik’s religious art

The Vatican has removed artwork by disgraced former Slovenian Jesuit Marko Ivan Rupnik from its official websites after some of the alleged victims of his sexual and emotional abuse have called for his mosaics to be removed from churches around the globe.

The digital images of his art were until now frequently used by Vatican News to illustrate articles of liturgical feast days, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

Several of Rupnik's critics have pushed for the removal of his works, including head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Cardinal Sean O'Malley.

O'Malley was received by Pope Leo XIV last week, and Rupnik's artworks were removed from the Vatican website a few days after their meeting, the Austrian press agency APA reported, quoting the Austrian Catholic press agency Kathpress.

Since the sexual abuse scandal involving Rupnik erupted in late 2022, there have been calls for his art to be removed from churches.

While the mosaics have been removed or covered at some places, including Lourdes, the opponents of those actions argue that Rupnik has not yet been proven guilty and that artists' personal life should not be equated with their art.

Nuns from the Loyola community in Slovenia accused Rupnik of sexually and psychologically abusing them in the 1990s. Two nuns who recounted the abuse publicly in Rome in February 2024 said he abused about 20 of a total of 40 nuns in the community.

The community, which Rupnik led, was later dissolved by the Vatican. The Jesuit order expelled Rupnik in 2023 while he remains a priest and denies the accusations.

The Holy See's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith determined after an investigation that the accusations had become statute barred.

However, in October 2023, Pope Francis asked for the case to be reviewed. The dicastery concluded its investigation this year, and Rupnik is expected to be tried in the Vatican.

An artist specialising in mosaics, Rupnik rose to prominence when the late Pope John Paul II commissioned him to redesign a chapel in the Vatican between 1996 to 1999.

His mosaics in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel won him the 2000 Prešeren Prize, Slovenia's top accolade in the arts, and there have been calls for him to be stripped of the award, but this is not possible under the existing law.