VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Over 500 days since Pope Francis was effectively shamed into opening an investigation into Father Marco Rupnik, alleged victims of the priest have revealed shocking new details of the abuse they accuse him of.
Painting his notorious icons naked from the waist down, raping the women under his charge, and telling one former nun to get an abortion in case she became pregnant after raping her: such are some of the shocking and disturbing claims made by alleged victims of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik during a recent television appearance this weekend.
The notorious ex-Jesuit needs no introduction to the Catholic world – sadly. His case was catapulted into the Catholic world by a handful of Italian outlets in December 2022.
As extensively reported at LifeSiteNews, Rupnik has been accused of sexually, spiritually, psychologically and physically abusing numerous people, including nuns and male victims. The credibility of the well-documented allegations of Rupnik’s serial abuse is deemed to be “very high” by his former superiors.
READ: Is Fr. Rupnik, accused of sexual abuse, now staying in a convent with nuns outside Rome?
The former Jesuit was also excommunicated for absolving a sexual accomplice in confession but subsequently had the penalty very swiftly revoked – with much speculation over whether Pope Francis personally intervened to lift the excommunication.
After international outcry over Rupnik’s continued status as a priest seemingly in good standing – and after a media storm over revelations Rupnik was incardinated into a Slovenian diocese in October 2023 – Pope Francis swiftly announced that he had tasked the Vatican to “review” the case.
Now, however, three of Rupnik’s alleged victims have presented new details in a primetime slot on Italian TV on Sunday night. Below is by no means a full presentation of the explicit details: readers can watch the show or read the press release to discover more of Rupnik’s alleged sexual attacks.
Gloria Branciani, a former member of Rupnik’s religious community, expanded on her former testimony, presenting disturbing claims. She has already stated that Rupnik’s alleged abuse is intrinsically connected to his notorious artwork, but now added that Rupnik would invite her to watch him paint whilst he was naked from the waist down and sexually excited:
He invited me very often because he said that I could model him. I can tell you that when he also painted, perhaps naked from the waist down, he was excited; therefore, his painting was linked precisely to physical excitement. At the end of the first confession, he hugged me for a long time.
Branciani added that, as she has already attested, Rupnik would psychologically manipulate her and belittle her in the community if she refused to indulge his sexual requests.
Describing in notable detail Rupnik’s increasingly varied and sometimes violent alleged abuse against her, Branciani recounted that the priest “forced” her to indulge his sexual desires.
READ: Alleged victims of Father Rupnik call for ‘truth and justice’ as answers demanded from Vatican
Confirming what has already been alleged, Branciani noted that Rupnik would explain these forced sexual encounters as being in line with the Trinity: “He said that we had to invite another sister to live sexually with us and that she would act as a trait d’union between us as the Holy Spirit did the union within the Trinitarian relationship. So a three-way sexual relationship.”
When she refused, Rupnik reportedly accused Branciani of being selfish.
After being forced into sexual intercourse with Rupnik, Branciani recounts he told her to have an abortion if she became pregnant:
‘Full intercourse only happened once, one of his attempts, he threw himself on me and I stopped him and said “but I could also get pregnant” and he said “but if it’s all a game, you can also have an abortion like a game”. I was just devastated so I didn’t even react anymore,’ she says.
Another of Rupnik’s alleged victims, has echoed this in prior testimony, saying that Rupnik began abusing her when she was just 16. Rupnik reportedly stated this was “for her own good.” After being psychologically pressured into joining his Loyola Community, Rupnik “began to sexually exploit me as he pleased,” she said, providing explicit details of the continued abuse. She added that Rupnik encouraged her to have “threesomes” in imitation of the Trinity, and how this would involve having to “drink his semen from a chalice at dinner.”
Another alleged victim, Sister Samuelle, told how Rupnik would invite her to late night liaisons in his room while warning her not to let anyone see her. She alleges that that Rupnik attempted to develop a sexual relationship with her, blowing kisses at her at table and playing with her underwear while putting his hand on her back.
500 days of silence
The airing of their allegations on national TV comes amid growing frustration and the Vatican’s lengthy process in the Rupnik investigation. For starters, the investigation only came about after Pope Francis was effectively shamed into opening one amid international outcry at Rupnik’s being incardinated into a Slovenian diocese with no restrictions on his actions.
Yet now, over 500 days later, no official updates have been given.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, whose CDF is leading the investigation, said in January that it was proceeding but that there are other cases “more serious” but less publicly known.
READ: Why does Pope Francis want Fr. James Martin, Rupnik colleague in the Vatican communications office?
The CDF’s Disciplinary Section, lead by Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, has particular responsibility for the affair. Speaking about the investigation into Rupnik last May, Kennedy said it was “delicate” but at a “fairly advanced stage.” A further 10 months has passed since then.
More recently, a Vatican source attested that Rupnik will soon be tried under the CDF’s incoming norms concerning crimes of spiritual abuse. “The sentence is expected in the not too distant future,” the source told OSV News.
This seems still wildly unsatisfactory. Firstly for the fact that Rupnik is now being tried under norms which have not yet been finalized, and which were not even talked about when his investigation was begun in 2023.
But chiefly it appears to mean that no action is being taken regarding the other aspects of his alleged serial abuse – the sexual, physical and psychological.
For a priest who has received persistent protection and promotion at the highest levels of the Diocese of Rome and from the Pope himself, such light-handed treatment should hardly be surprising.
Yet it remains a terrible reality that will have devastating consequences on the Church and Rupnik’s alleged victims.