Former Jesuit Rupnik, accused of abusing women, welcomed into Slovenia diocese
The Diocese of Koper confirmed in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Oct. 26 that the Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik was accepted as a priest there in August.
Rupnik was taken in because he had been expelled from the Jesuits and because the diocese hadn't received any documents showing that Rupnik had "been found guilty of the alleged abuses before either an ecclesiastical tribunal or civil court," it said.
The scandal has been a headache for the Vatican and Pope Francis himself due to suspicions Rupnik received favorable treatment from the Holy See since Francis is a Jesuit and other Jesuits head the sex crimes office that investigated the priest and declined to prosecute him for abuse.
The Catholic Church has long responded to women who report priests for abusing their authority by blaming the women for seducing the churchmen, portraying them as mentally unstable or minimizing the event as a mere "mistake" or "boundary violation" by an otherwise holy priest.
More recently, Francis was seen as being part of an apparent attempt by Rupnik's supporters to rehabilitate the priest's image. In a widely publicized audience, Francis received a close collaborator and strong defender of Rupnik's who has denounced what she called a media "lynching" of him.
In a statement last month, the Vicariate of Rome, which Francis heads, cast doubt on the Vatican's lone punishment of Rupnik – a 2020 declaration of excommunication that was removed two weeks later. Women who alleged they were abused by Rupnik said the statement revictimized them.
https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatica...ia-diocese
The Diocese of Koper confirmed in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Oct. 26 that the Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik was accepted as a priest there in August.
Rupnik was taken in because he had been expelled from the Jesuits and because the diocese hadn't received any documents showing that Rupnik had "been found guilty of the alleged abuses before either an ecclesiastical tribunal or civil court," it said.
The scandal has been a headache for the Vatican and Pope Francis himself due to suspicions Rupnik received favorable treatment from the Holy See since Francis is a Jesuit and other Jesuits head the sex crimes office that investigated the priest and declined to prosecute him for abuse.
The Catholic Church has long responded to women who report priests for abusing their authority by blaming the women for seducing the churchmen, portraying them as mentally unstable or minimizing the event as a mere "mistake" or "boundary violation" by an otherwise holy priest.
More recently, Francis was seen as being part of an apparent attempt by Rupnik's supporters to rehabilitate the priest's image. In a widely publicized audience, Francis received a close collaborator and strong defender of Rupnik's who has denounced what she called a media "lynching" of him.
In a statement last month, the Vicariate of Rome, which Francis heads, cast doubt on the Vatican's lone punishment of Rupnik – a 2020 declaration of excommunication that was removed two weeks later. Women who alleged they were abused by Rupnik said the statement revictimized them.
https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatica...ia-diocese
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
