Cardinal Fernández: Rupnik judges chosen

The Vatican has been criticized for its handling of the Rupnik case

Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández announced Thursday that a panel of judges for the canonical trial of mosaic artist Fr. Marko Rupnik has been chosen.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk.

Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said July 3 that the panel was “made up of judges who are all independent and external to our dicastery.”

“The idea was, if possible, to eliminate the idea that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith or the Holy See had any interest or were subjected to pressure,” he said. “People were chosen who would not give rise to any suspicion."

Rupnik, a former Jesuit from Slovenia, is the creator of mosaics installed in dozens of high-profile chapels in Europe — including the Vatican — Latin America, and the U.S.

Rupnik has been accused of sexually abusing approximately 30 religious sisters. Some of the allegations involve claims of blasphemous acts of sexual abuse in the context of designing and creating works of art. Rupnik was previously convicted by the DDF of sexual crimes related to the sacrament of penance and briefly excommunicated.

In a January interview, Fernández was asked if the Vatican was acting with urgency to resolve the Rupnik case, after commentators criticized the pace of the investigation.

He said: “I think of many other cases, including others that are worse but less publicized. We cannot think of a new law for just one case, because that would limit the vision and harm the work's objectivity.”

He added: “With regards to the Rupnik case, the dicastery finished the stage of gathering information, which was in very different places, and conducted a first analysis. Now, we are working to constitute an independent tribunal that goes to the last stage through a penal judicial procedure.”

At the July 3 Vatican press conference, Fernández was also asked about the potential start date of the trial.

He said: “There are technical times, such as notification to the victims. We are working with the necessary confidentiality.”

When asked about the excommunication imposed and revoked on Rupnik for confessing an accomplice in a sexual sin, Fernández said that such excommunications and fast revocations “happen much more often than one can imagine, sometimes even on the same day.”

When pressed about the disgraced Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, Fernández only said “he couldn’t answer every question,” before leaving.

Zanchetta resigned in 2017 as Bishop of Orán at the age of 53 — 22 years before the normal age — under a cloud of suspicion. After being formally accused of sexual abuse of seminarians in Argentina, Zanchetta fled to the Vatican and was appointed assessor at the Administration for the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.

Zanchetta eventually returned to Argentina to face trial and was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse of seminarians in 2022.

The Vatican has been repeatedly criticized for its handling of the Rupnik and Zanchetta cases.

While the Vatican acknowledged allegations of sexual abuse against Zanchetta in 2019 and said a canonical investigation was underway to examine the allegations against the bishop, the conclusions of that investigation have not been announced and no canonical sanctions have been imposed on the bishop despite his civil conviction.

After being expelled from the Society of Jesus, Rupnik was incardinated in the Slovenian Diocese of Koper.

Pope Francis originally declined to lift the statute of limitations for a canonical trial when new allegations surfaced in 2022. But the statute of limitations was lifted the following year after the public outcry following Rupnik’s incardination in Slovenia.