Vicariate of Rome “snubs” Rupnik's sex abuse victims

The photo of the meeting on 15 September between Pope Francis and Maria Campatelli, director of the Aletti Centre, amounts to a slap in the face for the victims of the now ex-Jesuit, Fr Marko Ivan Rupnik, and for all those who retain a sense of justice.

The poor women who fell into Rupnik's net, have never received such an honour, despite the fact that it was not only their person that was violated, but also their virginal consecration to the Kingdom of Heaven, in the service of the Church. Yet, the highest authority in the Church offered them no gesture of welcome, protection or justice to these daughters. On the contrary, the one who defended the abuser to the hilt and his continued disobedience to his legitimate superiors, was received. But, it is well known that there is a large part of the Jesuit world which believes that what counts most is the obedience to oneself, which can reach the point of completely obscuring Our Lord.

Then as if to add insult to injury, exactly two days after Campatelli's 'pilgrimage' to the Pope, the Vicariate of Rome, led by Rupnik's great friend, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, issued a Note on the outcome of the investigation conducted by Don Giacomo Incitti, Professor of Canon Law at the Pontifical Urban University, who was commissioned to shed light on "the ascertainment of the way the Association is run and the effective functioning of its governing bodies; the examination of the associative life in all its aspects, including the members' relations with the Founder and the group of leaders, as well as the relational dynamics among the members themselves”.

The verdict? The Aletti Centre is the antechamber to Paradise, the embodiment of the myth of the primitive apostolic community. "It is clear from this report that there is a healthy community life at the Aletti Centre, free of any particular problems. The Visitator was also able to ascertain that the members of the Aletti Centre, although embittered by the accusations received and the way they have been handled, have chosen to maintain silence - despite the vehemence of the media - in order to guard their hearts and not claim some irreproachable status with which to set themselves up as judges of others". In short, by dint of disobeying, covering up, abusing, one becomes a saint.

Nor does it end there. In fact, we learn from the Note that "the Visitator also dutifully examined the main accusations made against Fr Rupnik, especially the one that led to the request for excommunication. On the basis of the copious documentary material studied, the Visitator was able to find and has therefore pointed out seriously anomalous procedures, the examination of which has generated well-founded doubts even regarding the request for excommunication itself”. Who knows whether the copious material also included the experiences of those people who were able to literally appreciate Rupnik's 'spirituality' on their own flesh.

"I am shocked, as indeed are all of Rupnik's victims. The pope has never considered the victims. But he is very interested in the money and power of the Aletti Centre”, said one of the people deeply hurt by the duplicity of the ex-Jesuit and the way the superiors of the Society of Jesus handled the matter. These consecrated women who belong to the Loyola Community, or who have left it, are continuing to pay for the botched measures of the superiors, from which we understand how much they care about one single thing: preventing the truth from emerging and justice from being done.

It’s the reason on 21 June last, Bishop Daniele Libanori SJ, commissioner of the Loyola Community by order of the archbishop of Ljubljana, Msgr Stanislav Zore, issued a disciplinary decree against the foundress and superior of the Community, Sr Ivanka Hosta. Heavy accusations, as will be seen, which led to a simply surreal decision: to confine the nun to the community in Braga (Portugal) under the supervision of the local superior, Sister Federica Dotti, who is reported to be literally subjugated by Ivanka herself. The script of the fictitious restrictions on Rupnik is repeated, during which the Slovenian priest continued to do whatever he wanted.

The Decree denounces "the intermingling of internal and external forums in the governance of the Institute and the imposition of silence in the face of possible abuses that Fr Marko Rupnik SJ has carried out on some of them". These facts are "subsequent to 1993, which is unanimously indicated by the sisters as a ‘watershed’ year, distinguishing the government under Fr Marko Ivan Rupnik and the government under the exclusive competence of Sister Ivanka Hosta". In essence, the superior allegedly used her authority to interfere in the sisters' internal forum, thus violating one of the cardinal principles of Canon Law. In particular, the Decree states, "the sisters were forced to open their consciences exclusively to their local Superior, and moreover in written form. In this way, the Superior could and did make use of what was learned to guide the community, and furthermore, this information was then passed on to her (Sister Hosta)”. A network of domination over consciences, went so far as to publicly blame the sisters, based on what was learned in the internal forum.

Msgr Libanori also noted that Sr Ivanka had imposed "silence in the face of grievously improper relations held by Fr Marko Rupnik with some sisters in the years when the first nucleus of the Loyola Community was developing", which involved "real psychological, spiritual, and sexual abuse". Several nuns testified that the superior "knew about everything from the beginning (...) and that some counsellors also knew, keeping everything quiet and forcing the sisters to keep what had happened hidden". Facts of which some religious sisters of the Loyola Community had already informed the Pope in person in the summer of 2021, by sending him letters. They received no response from which is the problem of those who are not called Campatelli and are not friends with the Pope.

With both Rupnik and Ivanka Hosta, the 'administrative route' was carefully chosen, a convenient option to avoid a regular trial, the only path that could have led to more objective ascertainment of what happened, as well as Rupnik's entire network of friendships and cover-ups. The only certainty is the continued humiliation of these women, the total disregard for them, just as everyone is becoming intoxicated on the rhetoric of synodality and ministries to women.