ZENIT News / Rome, 22.02.2024).- It was the month of February 2019, when Presidents of all the Episcopal Conferences worldwide, as well as General Superiors of Religious Congregations met in the Vatican to address the issue of sexual abuses of minors by members of the clergy. The summit took measures on responsibility, the rendering of accounts and transparency. Examples of this was the promulgation of new laws, the abolition of papal secrecy in this area, etc.
Five years later, precisely on the morning of February 21, when a press conference took place at the headquarters of the National Federation of the Italian Press in Rome, two women, former members of the Loyola Community, founded by the priest and former Jesuit Marko Ivan Rupnik, spoke up.
The two women are Gloria Branciani and Mirjam Kovac, when for the first time they showed their face to denounce the famous artist publicly. Gloria is Italian and Mirjam is Slovenian. Accompanied by their lawyers, they both talked about the physical, sexual and psychological abuses of which they were victims. Gloria said that she has “forgiven herself and forgiven Rupnik,” but she wants “the truth to be known and the evil suffered.”
The Holy See Press Office answered journalists with a brief statement on the matter:
“Over the last months, following the order received from the Pope at the end of October, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has contacted the institutions involved in various capacities in the matter, to receive all the information available on the case.
Having extended the radius of search to realities not contacted before and having just received the latest elements by way of answer, an attempt will now be made to study the documentation acquired, to identify what procedure will be possible and useful to undertake.”
At the end of October 2023, Pope Francis lifted the prescription to the Rupnik case, shortly after a Bishop had accepted the incardination of the former Jesuit. In December 2023, the Holy See made known the dissolution of the Loyola Community. One way or the other, a criticism arose in the press conference of the one who had lifted Rupnik’s, excommunication, something that only the Pope, or someone in his name, can do.
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