The Vatican Press Office’s denial of Father Rupnik’s acquittal, accused of sexually abusing at least twenty nuns, raises new questions. No one doubts that Father Rupnik, a former Jesuit, has a protection system that may be manipulating a trial about which nothing is known. A statement from the Holy See Press Office categorically denied the news published by the blog MessainLatino.it that Father Marko Rupnik had been acquitted in the criminal trial being held in the Vatican, but it at least had the merit of shedding some light on a process that, at this point, smells like a farce.
A case that has never stopped raising suspicions
The famous priest, expelled from the Society of Jesus in 2023, is accused of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse against at least twenty religious sisters during the 1980s and 1990s. These accusations were deemed credible by the then auxiliary bishop of Rome, Daniele Libanori, also a Jesuit, who launched an investigation into the complaints against Rupnik. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith archived the case in October 2022 because the crime had expired. It later emerged that in 2020 the same Congregation had excommunicated Father Rupnik for absolving an accomplice in confession, an excommunication that Pope Francis immediately revoked.
In October 2023, Pope Francis himself was forced, following the victims’ testimonies and under pressure from the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, chaired by Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, to lift the statute of limitations and ask the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, now in the hands of the «faithful» Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, to organize the trial.
Three years of delays and opacity
Almost three years have passed and the only thing we have seen so far is the continuation of a system of protection and cover-up of Father Rupnik at the highest level, a situation that was almost a fact during the pontificate of Pope Francis, but which now increasingly tarnishes that of Leo XIV.
The Vatican Press Office offers an official version according to which «reports of any deliberation by the judges following the case of Father Marko Ivan Rupnik are completely unfounded: the evaluation of the case is still ongoing and the court is examining the documentation from the dioceses involved, from the Jesuits, from the interested parties and from the press.» This explanation raises new questions and gives the impression of prolonging the delaying tactics seen so far, in the hope that, with the passage of time, attention will diminish and Father Rupnik will emerge unscathed.
Broken promises and a trial that never arrives
After the reopening of the Rupnik case in October 2023, in March 2024 the secretary of the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, stated that the investigation was «delicate,» but was in a «fairly advanced stage.» A year later, in March 2025, a Vatican source claimed that Rupnik would be tried for the crimes of «spiritual abuse» and «false mysticism,» and that a verdict was expected «in the not too distant future.»
In January 2025, Cardinal Fernández had downplayed the seriousness of the Rupnik scandal by stating, regarding the lengthy investigation, that there are «many other cases, some perhaps more serious but less well known.» Without specifying which cases he was referring to, he added that «the dicastery has concluded the information-gathering phase, which was carried out in various places, and has conducted an initial analysis. We are already working to establish an independent tribunal that will proceed to the final phase of the criminal process.»
In July 2025, Fernández finally announced that the five judges in the Rupnik case had been selected, although their official appointment would still be delayed until October 2025. The names of these judges and the criteria followed for their appointment are unknown, demonstrating an opacity and lack of transparency that once again contradicts the repeated statements about the seriousness with which the Church claims to address the fight against abuse.
Leo XIV inherits an unresolved case
On November 4, Pope Leo XIV, responding to a question about the Rupnik case, asked for patience because «judicial processes take time. I know it is very difficult to ask victims for patience, but the Church must respect the rights of all people.»
We do not know if he would repeat the same words today, almost nine months later. Given the events, everything suggests that the system of cover-up and favoritism involving several prelates remains in force. The Vatican Press Office’s statement sounds like a mockery, and the absolute secrecy—including the names of the judges—under which this trial is reportedly being conducted only fuels suspicions.
Perhaps the news of the acquittal is not true, but, considering how things have gone so far, it would not be surprising if the case ended that way.