(OSV News) — In an open letter addressed to Pope Leo XIV, five alleged victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Slovenian Father Marko Rupnik said the silence and lack of information regarding the artist’s canonical trial added to their suffering.
The letter, which was shared with OSV News Sept. 23 by their lawyer, Laura Sgro, said the “prolonged silence” they have experienced was “a further and ongoing form of violence that bears down like a heavy boulder on the violence we have already endured.”
“Sexual, physical, psychological, and spiritual violence; an enduring violence inflicted upon the soul, to which is now added this new and agonizing violence of silence and abandonment by the justice system,” the alleged victims said.
The letter was signed by Gloria Branciani, Mirjam Kovac, Sister Samuelle, Vida Bernard and an anonymous alleged victim using the pseudonym “Pia.”
Pope Leo is scheduled to arrive Sept. 26 in Lourdes, the site of the apparitions of Mary to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 and the location of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, one of three basilicas on the grounds.
The basilica once displayed mosaics Father Rupnik created and installed in 2008 to mark the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.
Bishop ordered mosaics at Lourdes be covered
However, in the wake of the ongoing canonical trial against the priest, who is accused of sexually and spiritually abusing more than two dozen women over several decades, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes ordered the mosaics above the entrance to be covered in March 2025.
In August, Bishop Micas told the French daily La Dépêche that the mosaics on the basilica’s facade would be covered before the pope’s Sept. 25-28 visit to France. David Torchala, spokesman for the basilica, confirmed to OSV News that the work of covering all of the Slovenian priest’s mosaics was completed.
Since the allegations were revealed, calls to remove the priest’s artwork have grown, including from alleged victims who said the mosaics were a painful reminder of the abuse they suffered.
In their letter, the women said they decided to write to the pope ahead of his visit to Lourdes, where he “will meet victims of abuse like us, in a place where Father Rupnik’s mosaics will no longer be visible on the basilica’s facade.”
Bishop Micas’ decision to cover the mosaics was an “exceptionally strong and courageous act that we deeply appreciated, not least because we have never felt an atmosphere of solidarity toward us; on the contrary, we have always been fiercely opposed and thwarted,” they wrote.
Learned only from press reports canonical proceedings had begun
The survivors said that they learned from press reports the canonical proceedings against Father Rupnik had begun and that requests for updates by Sgro to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “to provide at least a modicum of clarity” went unanswered.
The last official update on the trial was in July, after the Vatican was forced to respond to a report by an Italian blog that a verdict had been reached and that Father Rupnik was acquitted.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the report was “completely unfounded” and that the canonical proceedings were still ongoing.
“During the proceedings, as with any judicial process, no information regarding the ongoing investigation may be shared in any way out of respect for the process itself and to avoid causing harm to all those involved in the matter, as has occurred in recent days,” Bruni said.
Additionally, the women said they have been accused publicly “as harlots, liars, and accused of taking money to incriminate Father Rupnik, of having enriched ourselves through this horrific ordeal.”
“Abused and reviled, we therefore continue to suffer violence amidst the grave-like silence and indifference of those called upon to decide our lives,” the letter stated. “Sadly, the very violence that we still endure publicly does nothing but discourage those who — having suffered the same treatment as we did — might be contemplating coming forward to report it.”
Public ridicule and defamation of survivors
The public ridicule and defamation of survivors, coupled with the dicastery’s silence about the cases, the women added, conveys the message that “it is useless to report abuse to ecclesiastical authorities, because nothing happens anyway, no one will pay, and victims will never receive justice.”
“Because we, Your Holiness, have lost all trace of justice, and because a trial conducted in oblivion offers no guarantees to anyone — neither to the accused nor to the victims — and is irreconcilable with the very concepts of law, truth, justice, fairness, and mercy that you, Your Holiness, hold dear,” they wrote.
Stating that they would not abandon their pursuit of justice “until the gravity of what occurred is acknowledged and the person responsible is punished,” the alleged victims told Pope Leo that they would “like to be considered a resource, not an obstacle.”
They also expressed their trust in the pope to exercise his “supreme power of judgment and grace” and to grant their request, which “is that of every abuse victim who seeks the recognition of truth through a fair trial.”
“We need the truth, Your Holiness,” the survivors wrote. “But just as we do, the Church needs it profoundly as well.”
Junno Arocho Esteves is an international correspondent for OSV News. Follow him on X @jae_journalist.
