“Any case like this may be very painful, [but]…. we have now not hidden anything,” says Arturo Sosa, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus, in a short interview with 7MARGENS and Rádio Renascença, two religious media outlets in Portugal, published on Dec. 7. This represents the primary public comments of the superior general regarding the allegations against the Slovenian artist Marko Rupnik, S.J.
Father Rupnik, whose mosaics decorate chapels within the Vatican, throughout Europe, in america and Australia, has been barred from hearing confessions or offering spiritual direction after what the Jesuits described as complaints about his ministry. The Society of Jesus released a statement on Dec. 2 responding to the allegations of abuse against Father Rupnik and describing the restrictions on his ministry.
“Any case like this may be very painful, [but]…. we have now not hidden anything,” says Arturo Sosa, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus.
Italian news outlets reported the complaints were accusations of spiritually and sexually abusing adult members of a non secular order of girls in Slovenia. Father Rupnik lives and works on the Centro Aletti, a global community of artists and theologians, each men and women, in Rome.
Father Sosa was in Portugal for five days visiting Jesuit apostolates. World Youth Day is scheduled to be held within the country in the summertime of 2023. This interview is reprinted with permission of 7MARGENS, with a translation by America.
The Society’s statement on the case got here out after the primary news. Why did it take so long to convey details about what happened?
First, I even have to say that for the Society of Jesus any case like this may be very painful. Second, we don’t must publicize every case. One in every of the things all of us have a right to, as people, is a certain privacy: you’ve gotten to make public statements when it’s public; when it’s not public, there may be nothing to do, and that doesn’t mean concealing. We haven’t hidden anything.
On this case, it seems to me necessary to emphasize a number of things. One, there are not any minors involved. In other words, this concerns matters between adults. Second, we didn’t receive the criticism directly. We received the request from the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to conduct an investigation because that they had received the criticism. Precisely so as not to cover it and to do it in essentially the most transparent way possible, we searched for investigators who weren’t from the Society of Jesus.
Afterwards, we delivered the report back to the C.D.F., which had requested this preliminary investigation. A preliminary investigation just isn’t a process that ends with a sentence, it’s an initial take a look at the case. We waited an extended time before we received the news from the Congregation that it had studied the case and the investigation, and that it handled what had happened 30 years ago and that, in response to the law, it had exceeded the statute of limitations. That’s the canonical part.
What happened next?
From the moment we received the request to do that investigation—we didn’t receive the criticism—we immediately took motion, proportional to the facts. Father Marko Rupnik was forbidden from hearing confessions, leading the Spiritual Exercises, providing spiritual direction and making any public statement, teaching, or any such activity that will have to be authorized by his local superior.
That’s what was done throughout this time, after we received the notification from the Congregation that the facts of this case had exceeded the statute of limitations. The measures were maintained, because we wish to go further into the matter, to see how we will help everyone involved.
However the statement makes no mention of the victims. Given the renown of Father Rupnik, was it not justified to publicize the case?
You have got to ask the victims. I cannot speak for somebody who doesn’t need to.
Why are the victims not mentioned within the statement?
Because there isn’t a process that claims that here there may be a victim and there a victimizer. It was beyond the statute of limitations. There isn’t any classification of victims, there may be a suspicion of facts that went beyond the traditional limits between adult people.
Was considered one of the measures taken Father Rupnik’s exit from the direction of Centro Aletti?
That happened much earlier. He left Centro Aletti greater than a 12 months ago [in 2020] for reasons internal to the organization of the middle, because he had been within the role an extended time and already had committed to many artistic projects.
He continues to travel and do various things. For instance, in February a retreat is planned on the Loreto shrine. Does that not enter into the planned measures?
I don’t think a retreat is planned, but he shouldn’t [do it]. He just isn’t under arrest, and no measure impinges upon his artistic work. He has very necessary artistic commitments. He can have fun the Eucharist, what he’s forbidden from is directing spiritual exercises or hearing confessions. Those are the measures, since it needs to be proportional to the facts.
He still has the identical mobility as any of us, for work reasons. He just isn’t constrained to those sorts of measures. Those to which he has been subjected he has complied with.
Can this case and others that occur not reduce the young people’s enthusiasm to affix the invitations of the church, similar to World Youth Day?
In some cases yes, in others no, I wouldn’t dare to make a general judgment. There are some individuals who have lost confidence within the church or the Society, others not. We pray the Lord’s Prayer day by day. And there we are saying that we wish to forgive.
All these cases are very painful. The behavior of many non secular was, in lots of cases, unacceptable, sinful. What does one do? One seeks a road that, whether it is sin, it must be forgiven. You apply all of the civil laws which are crucial, you apply all of the canon laws, but ultimately, what we wish with people—the victims and the perpetrators—is that they forgive each other. In other words, open up that process so that individuals may be reconciled.
You have got come to take the heartbeat of the Jesuits in Portugal. What conclusion do you draw?
Amongst young people, it is known that situations aren’t black and white, there are lots of things that may be done. Here in Portugal, the Jesuits’ work with young people is admirable, I think it’s a model for a lot of provinces. The contact I even have had with parish communities and the university community is encouraging.
Knowing the church all around the world, what’s your great concern?
The best concern is that we’re capable of bring to life this concept that we now call the synodal church, which was born on the Second Vatican Council, which was tried for a few years and which has now received great impetus from the Holy Father and other people within the church. [May we not] lose the chance, again, to convert the church into this people of God that walks along with humanity seeking justice and peace.
Includes reporting from the Associated Press.
