(RNS) — The Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic males’s group with 2.1 million members, introduced it’s going to cowl mosaics by well-known artist the Rev. Marko Rupnik whereas the Vatican investigates sexual abuse allegations towards him.
The mosaics, within the Saint John Paul II Nationwide Shrine in Washington, D.C., and the Holy Household Chapel on the Knights’ New Haven, Connecticut, headquarters, shall be lined in fabric for now, however the group mentioned it could cowl the mosaics in plaster after the conclusion of the investigation by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Religion, in accordance with a press launch on Thursday (July 11).
Patrick Kelly, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, mentioned in a press release that the choice to cowl the mosaics got here after “an intensive course of,” the place the group consulted victims of sexual abuse, individuals who minister to victims, ethical theologians, artwork historians, bishops and different clergy and particular person pilgrims.
“There was a robust consensus to prioritize the wants of victims, particularly as a result of the allegations are present, unresolved, and horrific,” Kelly mentioned. “The artwork we sponsor should subsequently function a steppingstone — not a stumbling block — to religion in Jesus Christ and his Church.”
Rupnik, a former Jesuit, has been accused by greater than 20 ladies of sexual, psychological and religious abuse. Gloria Branciani, a former spiritual sister who says Rupnik sexually and spiritually abused her, has described his abuse as intertwined together with his inventive course of.
One 12 months in the past, the Jesuit order expelled Rupnik, whose mosaics are in church buildings everywhere in the world, after he refused to atone for his alleged habits and work towards a strategy of reparation with the ladies accusing him, however he was accepted into the Koper Diocese in his house nation of Slovenia afterward.
There are lots of mosaics by the Rev. Marko Rupnik within the Saint John Paul II Nationwide Shrine in Washington, D.C. (Photograph by Lawrence OP/Flickr/Inventive Commons)
The case has prompted outrage all through the Catholic world as a result of Rupnik had been excommunicated briefly in 2020 for absolving throughout confession a girl who had engaged in sexual exercise with him. The Vatican later determined to not waive the statute of limitations and didn’t examine allegations of sexual abuse of grownup ladies by Rupnik acquired in 2021, prompting some to accuse the Vatican of displaying Rupnik preferential therapy due to the pope and Rupnik’s shared Jesuit roots.
The Knights of Columbus are amongst many Catholic entities debating what to do with their Rupnik mosaics in mild of the allegations and the pending investigation on the Vatican.
In his assertion, Kelly referenced the choice by Lourdes, France, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas to now not illuminate Rupnik’s mosaics at night prayer on the Sanctuary of Our Girl of Lourdes. Micas mentioned he thought that the mosaics would ultimately should be eliminated however that he had “determined to not take away them instantly, given the passions and violence the topic incites.”
The Lourdes choice got here after the top of Vatican communications, Paolo Ruffini, defended his dicastery’s continued use of Rupnik’s mosaics of their communications, telling U.S. Catholic media professionals, “As Christian(s), we’re requested to not decide.” Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who leads the Vatican abuse prevention fee, despatched a letter to all Vatican departments lower than every week later asking them to not use the art work of alleged abusers.
“We had been additionally significantly grateful for the considerate choice of the Sanctuary of Our Girl of Lourdes, which each knowledgeable and confirmed us in our personal decision-making,” mentioned Kelly. “Shrines are locations of therapeutic, prayer and reconciliation. They need to not trigger victims additional struggling,” he continued.
The Knights additionally introduced a number of measures to “categorical the Knights’ solidarity with victims of sexual abuse,” together with distributing training supplies about their decision-making across the mosaics; a prayer in all Lots on the shrine for the victims of sexual abuse; and commemorating on the shrine the feast days of saints who’ve connections to sexual abuse survivors, like St. Josephine Bakhita.
