CV NEWS FEED // The Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary in Lourdes, France, announced March 31 that it is covering its doors that display mosaics created by disgraced ex-Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, who has been credibly accused of sexually abusing numerous women and nuns.
The two side doors were covered March 31. Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes said in an interview posted to the Basilica website that the two main doors will be covered, just ahead of the beginning of the Lourdes pilgrimage season. He pointed out that March 28 marked “the Memorial Day of Prayer for the victims of sexual abuse committed in the Church of France.”
Bishop Micas, who last year said he personally was in favor of removing the mosaics out of respect for the victims of Fr. Rupnik, elaborated on the decision to cover the mosaics this month.
“You know my opinion on the presence of these mosaics on the doors of the basilica,” Bishop Micas said. “It seemed to me, along with my colleagues, that a new symbolic step should be taken to make entry to the basilica easier for all those who today cannot cross its threshold. Therefore, all the doors of the Basilica of the Rosary are being modified.”
The bishop noted that it is a Jubilee Year, so he has declared the sanctuary of Lourdes a site at which pilgrims can receive a plenary indulgence, and crossing through the entrance doors needed “to be symbolic of the moment.”
Commenting on his 2024 statement that it would be better for the mosaics to be removed, Bishop Micas said covering the mosaics is not a first step, but a second, in that process.
“The first [step] was to no longer light them up at night, during processions, since last July,” he said.
Moving forward, he said the next steps include a working group that is leading related discussions and supporting him in deciding what should be done about the mosaics.
“We prefer to move forward calmly rather than under pressure from various sources,” Bishop Micas said. “We are working for the long term, for the victims, for the Church, for Lourdes and its message for all.”
The Knights of Columbus announced in July 2024, that while awaiting the Vatican’s official decision on the abuse cases against Fr. Rupnik, they would cover mosaics by Fr. Rupnik that had been displayed at their Connecticut-based headquarters chapel and at Washington, D.C.’s Pope St. John Paul II Shrine. They noted that when the decision is issued, “a permanent plaster covering may be in order,” and the decision to cover the mosaics temporarily was primarily out of concern for the victims of sexual abuse.
The display of Fr. Rupnik’s mosaics, which have been repeatedly used by Vatican dicasteries and remain on display at several major Catholic sites around the world, have been a source of pain and scandal especially for sexual abuse survivors.
Bishop Micas first convened a commission about addressing the mosaics in early 2023, after he had heard testimony from an abuse survivor about the effects of seeing Fr. Rupnik’s mosaics at the Lourdes basilica, according to artnet. The commission was comprised of a prosecutor, a copyright expert lawyer, and church experts on issues related to sexual assault and art. The commission concluded in October 2023, not reaching a consensus on how to deal with the mosaics, although they all agreed Fr. Rupnik’s actions were “intolerable.” In a July 2024 interview with La Croix, Bishop Micas said the contentious responses in the debate on whether to remove the mosaics contributed to the decision to not remove them immediately.
Other Church leaders have been outspoken that the mosaics should not be publicly displayed or used. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, in June 2024 urged the Vatican dicasteries to not display Fr. Rupnik’s mosaics.
“Pastoral prudence would prevent displaying artwork in a way that could imply either exoneration or a subtle defense of alleged perpetrators of abuse or indicate indifference to the pain and suffering of so many victims of abuse,” Cardinal O’Malley said.
He emphasized to the dicasteries that it is crucial to “avoid sending a message that the Holy See is oblivious to the psychological distress that so many are suffering.”
In a June 28, 2024, interview with EWTN News in Depth, Father Thomas Petri, a moral theologian at the Washington, D.C.-based Dominican House of Studies, praised Cardinal O’Malley for speaking up about the situation.
Fr. Petri also explained why the outcry against Fr. Rupnik’s mosaics and “artwork” is a situation incomparable to decisions to display, for example, artwork by Caravaggio, a famous 14th-century Italian artist who had committed a murder.
“Marco Rupnik created his art in a very scandalous and sacrilegious way,” Fr. Petri said. “This is not a typical situation of simply a sinner, since we’re all sinners – it goes [back] to how the art was created. You know, I would not even call it sacred art at this point.”
Explaining the Caravaggio comparison, Fr. Petri said, “It’s apples and oranges. The difference here: yes, there are all sorts of sinners, who do all sorts of things, and can still do all sorts of good things and beautiful things for God… But in the case of Rupnik’s art, what we know and what the accusations are, is that he sexually abused consecrated women as the very process of creating the art. Which means that it was profane from the get-go.”
Covering the mosaics on the Lourdes basilica doors follows another recent step in Church leaders’ actions to support victims.
On March 26, the Jesuits announced their plans to offer compensation to abuse victims of Fr. Rupnik. CatholicVote previously reported that the delegate of the Jesuit Superior General, Father Johan Verschueren, officially reached out to the victims in writing — a gesture that is the first of its kind — and communicated the desire to carve “a path of reparation and healing.”
>> Disgraced former Jesuit Fr. Marko Rupnik allowed to occupy convent near Rome <<
The post Lourdes basilica covers doors featuring mosaics by disgraced former Jesuit appeared first on CatholicVote org.