Rupnik: twenty-two letters added to the canonical case file

Twenty-two previously unpublished letters, written at Easter 2000 by women of the Loyola Community and addressed directly to Fr Marko Rupnik, have been added to the file of the canonical trial opened at the Vatican. Of some forty women of the community invited to write on the occasion of the Jubilee, at the request of their superior, Sister Ivanka Hosta, twenty-two reported abuse. The letters are kept in the community's archives, now in the custody of the Archdiocese of Ljubljana.

“At Easter 2000, our superior forced us to write a letter to Marko Rupnik describing our relationship with him, what he had done to us, and then to forgive him,” testifies a former member of the community.

The sixth commandment excepts neither person nor office; it binds the priest more closely still, to whom it has been entrusted to dispense the mysteries of God and to hear consciences. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, expounding this precept, condemns all impurity and holds the graver the fault that abuses sacred authority and the trust of souls. And Our Lord pronounced upon him who scandalizes the little ones a word beyond appeal: it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea. Forgiveness, finally, is a free act of charity: extorted by authority to cover the fault and silence the victim, it ceases to be forgiveness; it makes penance serve impunity and lays a second wrong upon those who imposed it.

The examination of the case is proceeding. Fr Rupnik, a former Jesuit, is accused of having abused more than two dozen women over several decades; he denies any wrongdoing. Briefly excommunicated in May 2020 for absolving an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment, a sentence lifted at once, he saw his case declared time-barred in October 2022, then the prescription lifted in October 2023; a panel of judges was appointed in July 2025, and his congregation had already dismissed him in 2023.

On 15 December 2023, by decree of the competent dicastery, the dissolution of the Sisters of the Loyola Community was ordered within one year. A diocesan inquiry into the centre he directed had, in 2023, concluded to “a healthy community life.” On 22 July 2026, the Holy See denied as “completely unfounded” rumours of an acquittal and recalled that “the examination of the case is still ongoing.” The day before, the lawyer for five accusers had written to the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that her clients said they felt “abandoned and betrayed.”

We do not prejudge the sentence, which belongs to the judges. But the rule by which a priest will be judged depends neither on the age nor on the renown of the accused: it is the one the Church has always held.

Sources. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on the sixth commandment and the sacrament of Penance; St Matthew, XVIII, 6 (Vulgate).