By Philip Pullella
ROME (Reuters) – The Catholic Jesuit order says it has disciplined a prominent priest and artist who allegedly sexually and psychologically abused nuns in his native Slovenia three decades ago.
The Jesuits issued a statement on Father Marko Ivan Rupnik following Italian media reports last week that several nuns accused him of abuse in the early 1990s when he was their spiritual director at a convent in Slovenia.
Rupnik faces restrictions, including not being allowed to hear confessions or preside over spiritual ceremonies.
The priest is well known in the Church as a mosaic master who has designed chapels around the world, including one in the Vatican and the National Shrine of St. John Paul II in Washington.
The statement from the Jesuit headquarters in Rome said the order had carried out an investigation into Rupnik after the Vatican’s doctrinal department received a complaint last year about “the method by which he carried out his ministry.”
No details were given about the allegations, except to say that no minors were involved.
The order handed over the results of the investigation to the Vatican, which ruled that the “facts in question” were beyond the statute of limitations and closed the investigation in October, the statement said.
Attempts to contact Rupnik at his religious art school in Rome were met with no response.
The Jesuit statement said the order had imposed the restrictions on Rupnik when the investigation began last year, and the order had decided to keep them in place despite the Vatican closing the case.
The statement made no mention of the specific allegations made by the nuns in the Italian press reports.
(Reporting by Philip Pullella)
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