The Catholic order of Jesuits on Tuesday announced fresh restrictions against a Slovenian priest and world-renowned mosaic artist accused of sexual and psychological abuse, after receiving further complaints.
Marko Rupnik, 68, had already been banned from giving confession and is now prohibited from any public artistic exercise, particularly in religious buildings such as chapels or churches.
The Jesuit order, of which Pope Francis is a member, revealed late last year that it had sanctioned Rupnik over claims of abuse against members of a community of adult religious women in Slovenia in the early 1990s.
In a statement on Tuesday, it said it was prompted to take further action after new complaints.
Dating from the mid 1980s to 2018, they include complaints of spiritual and psychological abuse as well as sexual harassment, including from within the Slovenian community and an artistic centre in Rome, it said.
“Many of these people (who made complaints) have no knowledge of each other and the facts narrated concern different periods,” it said.
It added that therefore, “the degree of credibility of what is reported or witnessed seems very high”.
The nature of the complaints would “tend to exclude” a referral to Italian judicial authorities, the order said, but internal proceedings are underway that could result in further “disciplinary measures”.
Rupnik has yet to comment on the allegations, and did not respond to the internal inquiry, according to Johan Verschueren, a senior Jesuit official in Rome.
The Jesuits — one of the main Roman Catholic orders, founded in 1540 — also revealed last year that Rupnik had been briefly excommunicated in 2020 for absolving someone for having sexual relations with him.
The sanction was removed after he acknowledged his wrongdoing and formally repented, the order said. –Agence France-Presse
