VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández has said the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has completed its investigation into the Father Marko Rupnik case and is currently setting up an independent tribunal to take it forward.

In a Jan. 23 interview with Spanish publication Alfa y Omega, the prefect of the DDF said the dicastery “had completed the stage of gathering the information, that was in very different places, and has made a first analysis.” 

“Now we are working to constitute an independent tribunal that goes to the last stage through a penal judicial procedure,” he added. “In cases like this it is important to find the most suitable people, and to get them to agree.”

Former Jesuit Father Rupnik, a Slovenian artist, faces multiple accusations of spiritual, psychological and sexual abuse, and abuse of conscience of women religious under his charge. The findings initially emerged from an investigation by the Society of Jesus in 2019.

The Slovenian priest, who was expelled from the Jesuits in June 2023 for stubbornly refusing to obey his superiors, had already also been investigated by the DDF in 2019-2020 which led to his excommunication in January 2020 for absolving in the confessional an accomplice of a sin against the sixth commandment. However, the excommunication was swiftly removed. 

Four months later, Pope Francis asked or approved of Father Rupnik to temporarily preach that year’s Lenten homilies at the Vatican. 

Further allegations came to light of Father Rupnik having abused at least 41 women following two more investigations in 2021. 

But in October 2022, the Vatican declined to carry out a canonical process related to the allegations due to the statute of limitations. After a public outcry, Pope Francis opened the ongoing DDF investigation in October 2023, but it was criticized last October by Rupnik’s alleged victims who called for a swifter response and greater transparency from the Vatican. 

Despite the allegations against him, Father Rupnik continues to live an unrestricted life as a priest and resides at the Aletti art center he founded in Rome. He was incardinated in the Slovenian Diocese of Korper in 2023 following his expulsion from the Jesuits. 

Although some of his artwork has been taken down in different parts of the world, the Vatican continues to display his art on its website and in official communications, and some of it continues to be on show in Pope Francis’ personal apartment in the Vatican.

Cardinal Fernández said in the interview that the Rupnik case is “just one of many” such cases of “spiritual abuse” whereby spirituality has been used as an excuse or motivation for sexual relations, and that some other cases “might be more serious but less publicized.” 

“Various dicasteries frequently receive reports or complaints about situations where spiritual elements were used as an excuse or motivation for sexual relations — between a priest and a catechist, for example,” he said. “In these cases there is a manipulation of people who entrust themselves to a spiritual guide and at the same time a manipulation of the spiritual beauty of our faith in order to procure sex.”

He pointed to weaknesses in canon law in dealing with such cases of “spiritual abuse” which has historically been classed as “false mysticism.” The cardinal said ensuring canon law has greater “precision” in dealing with such cases so they can be effectively criminalized is one of the tasks of a study group he helped set up last October and chaired by Archbishop Filippo Iannone, prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. 

The Argentine cardinal said he hoped the eventual criminalization of “spiritual abuse” would show “the maternal care of the Church” as well as “help to avoid that dangerous form of clericalism that leads some priests to believe that they are authorised to do anything because of the ‘sublimity’ of their consecration.” 

“In that sense, I believe we are at a turning point,” he said. 

“In any case,” he added, “we must also be careful that it does not produce an undesired effect of mistrust of all things spiritual, as has happened in history with the condemnation of certain spiritual movements.”

Asked what message he would like to send to those who have suffered from such abuse, Cardinal Fernández said:

“I find it particularly sad that someone has made them suffer by making use of such beautiful and sublime things. It may have been malice and perversion, or illness, or the poor spiritual and human formation they received. Either way, it is a painful wound in the Body of Christ.”