The Catholic Church has a problem with its nuns. While in recent years the awareness of the drama of ecclesial pedophilia has led to the approval of new laws to prosecute it and try to prevent it, almost everything remains to be done when it comes to uncovering the abuses suffered by many nuns.
The veil that surrounds cloistered convents and female ecclesiastical communities favors these abuses, which very rarely come to light.
Expelled from the Society of Jesus in June last year, Rupnik has not abandoned the priesthood by incardinating himself in the diocese of Koper, in his native Slovenia.
The welcome given to him by the local bishop shows the influence that this priest continues to have, whose great skill as an artist would have allowed him to enjoy cover-up by the ecclesiastical hierarchy for decades.
And its famous mosaics can be seen in temples around the world, such as the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican, the cathedral of La Almudena in Madrid or the French sanctuary of Lourdes.
The tiles of his creations, however, are seen with different eyes after learning the testimony of his victims.
'From this abuse of conscience, spiritual, physical and sexual abuse was later born': Branciani
“I met Rupnik in the late 80s when he was already a well-known priest. I was then an excellent medical student, but I had little self-esteem and little self-confidence. He gradually entered my inner world using my desire to delve deeper into spiritual life and my interest in art. Through manipulation, he managed to have greater and greater power over me. From this abuse of conscience spiritual, physical and sexual abuse were later born.”Branciani said a few weeks ago in a moving press conference in Rome.
I was disoriented and perplexed, but I was naive and thought that this physical relationship was going to end soon, as soon as I achieved the spiritual growth with which he justified those gestures.
With the authority that being his confessor and spiritual father gave him, Rupnik managed to “total control of my person” which made it easier for the episodes of sexual violence to occur.
“I was disoriented and perplexed, but I was naive and thought that this physical relationship was going to end soon, as soon as I achieved the spiritual growth with which he justified those gestures.”.
The priest even associated abuse with mass and confession: “He told me that he kissed me like the altar is kissed when the Eucharist is celebrated.”.
These episodes that occurred in Rome escalated when Branciani moved to Slovenia with Rupnik to join the Loyola Community.
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“The most violent physical abuse took place in his car, as he asked me to accompany him around the country during his pastoral commitments. This is how I lost my virginity”, this former nun recalled through tears, to whom the priest demanded that they form a trio with another nun..
He encouraged me to have a pornographic relationship because for him it was a form of art and the path to reaching a collective orgy.
“She told me that she had felt in prayer that our relationship should not be exclusive and that, in the image of the Trinity, we should invite another sister to live the sexual experience with us. The most tragic thing is that the other sister and I were incapable of trusting each other about what we were experiencing with him. He managed to isolate them from each other. He had managed to empty us inside, we were as if anesthetized”Branciani recalls.
Before he managed to leave the Loyola Community in 1994, there was more abuse from Rupnik.
“He encouraged me to have a pornographic relationship because for him it was a form of art and the path to reaching a collective orgy. He claimed that only the pornographic sexual act was important”.
During that period, the priest forced the nun to accompany her to several porn cinemas and asked her to “increasingly aggressive sexual performances” while painting the face of Jesus in some chapels where he worked.
The Rupnik case is not an isolated episode in the world
Branciani's case is not an isolated episode. Other nuns have reported similar cases in various religious congregations and countriesalso in Spain, where the Franciscan theologian Javier Garrido was recently convicted by the Tribunal de la Rota, the ecclesiastical appeals court, for abuse of two nuns.
“Church institutions must take responsibility for their abusive members and not cover up, move the person, hide, or fail to take responsibility. It must also be ensured that victims can speak, be heard and receive justice. And everything we can work on prevention will always be little,” says Spanish Jesuit María Luis Berzosa, who has extensive experience in accompanying abused nuns.
In his opinion, there is still “a long way to go” in the Church, although there is “greater awareness and sensitivity” regarding this problem, which has led to the creation of “safe environments” and offering “spaces and direct attention to the victims”.
The serious difficulties that religious women have in being able to overcome traumas
Berzosa warns of the various difficulties in overcoming these traumas: “One of them is the imposition of silence. Not being able to speak, you cannot touch the wound, which becomes encysted. Another very strong one is that mixture of false spirituality that the abuser sometimes uses when 'impersonating God' to give commands to his victim.”
In addition to some laudable accompaniment initiatives like this, in the area of prevention, the joint seminars organized by the unions of general superiors of the male and female congregations stand out.
There is still a long way to go in the Church, although there is greater awareness and sensitivity to this problem.
In the last course, held in November, “the various types of abuse, their civil and canonical aspects, were discussed, and there were testimonies from survivors,” explains Patricia Murray, executive secretary of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG).
This body, which brings together more than 1,900 leaders of female congregations to which some 650,000 nuns belong, has appointed an external consultant to analyze in depth four of its religious institutes, so that a practical manual can then be prepared with which promote “a culture of care.”
“The UISG always encourages sisters to report abuse of any kind. The procedure for reporting abuse is clear, as is the care and pastoral accompaniment necessary after that devastating experience,” says Murray.
The Church reopened a trial against Rupnik at the request of the Pope
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), The Vatican “ministry” in charge of investigating cases of sexual abuse of minors or vulnerable adults reopened the trial against Marko Rupnik in October last year at the request of Pope Francis.after it was archived earlier when the accusations were considered time-barred.
That initial decision led to criticism of both the Vatican and the Society of Jesus for the alleged cover-up with which they tried to protect the Slovenian priest.
Laura Sgrò, Gloria Branciani's lawyer, who denounces the abuses to which Rupnik would have subjected her, regretted the silence in which the process is taking place in the Vatican, demanding “transparency” and full accountability of the senior officials of the Vatican. Catholic Church that would have covered the priest and artist for years.
DARIO MINOR – TIME – ROME
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