(OSV News) – The Vatican has pushed back against reports that former Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik has been acquitted in his Vatican criminal trial. In a July 22 statement, the Vatican said rumors of an acquittal are "completely unfounded" and confirmed the canonical trial is still under review. Officials said judges continue examining evidence from dioceses, the Jesuits, alleged victims and media reports.
The press release came a day after Laura Sgrò, a civil and canon lawyer who represents five women who have accused Father Rupnik of abuse, rebuked the Holy See's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, saying she and her clients have no information about the case, and they had not been informed whether the trial even began.
'Review of the case is still ongoing'
On July 20, Italian website Messainlatino.it reported that Father Rupnik, a well-known mosaic artist accused of abusing several women, may have been acquitted.
"INCREDIBLE! We have learned from persistent and highly authoritative sources that the criminal trial underway in the Vatican against Father Marko Ivan Rupnik has concluded in his favor," the website said.
On July 22 Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office said in a statement to journalists that "With regard to certain reports that have appeared in the media in recent days, I reiterate that the news concerning any decision by the judges presiding over the case of Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik is completely unfounded," and that "the review of the case is still ongoing, and the panel is examining documentation provided by the dioceses involved, the Jesuits, the parties concerned, and from the press."
The statement answers not only recent media inquiries – including one OSV News sent July 21 to DDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández – but also questions posed in Sgrò's letter.
Sgrò told OSV News July 21 that she had not received confirmation from the Vatican as to whether the trial had begun. She sent a letter, dated July 21 and obtained by OSV News, to Cardinal Fernández asking for this or any other information. The July 22 Vatican press statement confirmed for her and her clients that the trial is indeed underway.
In its July 22 press release, Bruni said that "During the proceedings, as with any judicial process, no information regarding the ongoing investigation may be shared in any way out of respect for the process itself and to avoid causing harm to all those involved in the matter, as has occurred in recent days. Should the panel determine that it requires further information, it will take the necessary steps on its own initiative to obtain it."
'Right to know'
After the February 2019 safeguarding summit organized in the Vatican by Pope Francis, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta told the National Catholic Reporter that "victims who bring a claim forward have a right to know how it is handled."
"We have a law and we have a system which empowers people to disclose abuse or misconduct, but you also have the right to know what happens with their reports," he said. Since 2018, Archbishop Scicluna has served as adjunct secretary of the DDF.
Seven years after the summit, Pope Leo XIV, during the Jan. 7-8 first extraordinary consistory in Rome, strongly condemned the Church's failure to welcome survivors of sexual abuse, calling it a "scandal" that deepens their suffering.
The door of the Church "was closed" and the victims "were not welcomed," the pope told the cardinals.
The abuse itself "causes a deep wound that perhaps lasts a lifetime," the pope said, "but many times the scandal in the Church is because the door was closed and the victims were not welcomed, accompanied by the closeness of authentic pastors."
In her letter to Cardinal Fernández, Sgrò said her clients feel "abandoned and betrayed" and "victims, once again, of a system that has never welcomed, protected, or comforted them."
Sgrò said she has heard nothing from the DDF since July 2025, when the Vatican officially named the judges overseeing Father Rupnik's canonical trial. In her letter to Cardinal Fernández, Sgrò claimed that victims have not been heard by the judges, nor received any communications, and that the lawyer had previously written to the prefect "several times, without receiving any response."
Pressed for answers
The disgraced Slovenian priest and artist, whose workshop has created prominent mosaics for over 200 sanctuaries and churches worldwide, is accused of sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing more than two dozen women.
On July 21, OSV News sent a request for comment to Cardinal Fernández and Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, asking the status of Father Rupnik's case, what has happened since Cardinal Fernández's personal announcement regarding the establishment of the panel of judges in July 2025, and whether the trial began.
OSV News also asked the DDF whether the abolition of the statute of limitations, granted by Pope Francis, applies to all the crimes in question or only to "delicta graviora," and whether Father Rupnik's trial is a judicial process, or proceeding only by extrajudicial decree, meaning through administrative channels.
"Delicta graviora" (Latin for "more grave crimes" or "most serious offenses") is a technical term in canon law that denotes a specific category of canonical offences reserved to the competence of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith because of their exceptional gravity.
They include crimes against the faith (heresy, schism and apostasy), certain offenses against the Eucharist and the sacrament of penance, and sexual offenses against minors and people who habitually lack the use of reason. Sexual misconduct involving adults with full use of reason is generally not classified as such, unless it involves a crime against the sacrament of penance, canon lawyers who spoke to OSV News said.
While neither the DDF prefect nor the Holy See Press office directly answered OSV News' questions, Bruni's July 22 statement said, "This canonical criminal proceeding is of a judicial nature and, as previously stated, is not subject to the statute of limitations for any offenses and may determine guilt or innocence in accordance with Canon Law."
The statement added that "Canon Law has the authority to judge and impose penalties regarding matters within the Church, while the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains subject to the laws of the countries where any offenses may have been committed, and the statute of limitations for such offenses is determined by the laws of each country, independent of ecclesiastical authority."
'Further violence against my clients'
In her letter to Cardinal Fernández, Sgrò said she experienced what she viewed as a lack of communication as "further violence against my clients, whose wounds are still raw and not even minimally healed."
"How can this be reconciled with the concepts of law, truth, justice, and fairness? With the words that the Holy Father continually uses on behalf of victims of abuse?" she asked.
"Since yesterday," she said in her July 21 letter to the DDF prefect, "rumors have been circulating that Fr. Rupnik has been acquitted of the charge of violence. There has been no confirmation from accredited sources, but not even a denial" at that time, adding that the five women she represents "are deeply disheartened and saddened."
"They have never received any news, not even from me, about this trial, about which everything is whispered and certainly nothing is known," she added.
Sgrò said in the letter that her questions were "basic and minimal" when "faced with a criminal trial involving victims who first reported more than thirty years ago."
"Has the trial begun? If so, what is the current state of play? Who are the judges? What happened to my clients' requests to be admitted as injured parties in the trial? Why were these women not heard as witnesses?" Sgrò asked the day before the press release from the Vatican.
While some of her questions were answered by the Vatican's press release, it did not directly state whether the alleged victims would be admitted as injured parties in the trial.
According to Cannon 1729, "In the penal trial itself an injured party can bring a contentious action to repair damages incurred personally from the delict."
Jesuits expelled priest in 2023
Fr. Rupnik was briefly excommunicated by the Church in 2020 for absolving in the sacrament of reconciliation an Italian novice with whom he had had sex. The excommunication was lifted after the priest repented.
The Jesuits disclosed in December 2022 that it had suspended the Slovenian artist after allegations of abuse had surfaced. In June 2023, Fr. Rupnik was expelled from the Jesuits for refusing to obey restrictions imposed upon him related to the sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of some two dozen women and at least one man over the course of 30 years.
Despite the credibility of the accusations and his dismissal from the Jesuits, the Diocese of Koper in the priest's native Slovenia announced it had incardinated Fr. Rupnik.
After the diocese confirmed in October 2023 that the priest had been there since August, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had lifted the statute of limitations in the case, allowing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to proceed in its investigation.
In a statement published in October 2023, the Vatican said the decision was made after "the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors brought to the pope's attention that there were serious problems in the handling of the Fr. Marko Rupnik case and lack of outreach to victims."
Meanwhile, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Koper, where Fr. Rupnik was incardinated in August 2023, told OSV News in February 2025 that the priest "continues his work all over the world."
At the beginning of June 2025, in a quiet but powerful move, Vatican News began removing artwork by Fr. Rupnik from its website. His mosaics, long used to mark major feast days online, were recently replaced or left blank – a shift many survivors say was long overdue.
Canon law developments
OSV News asked several canon lawyers, who preferred not to be named, under which canons Fr. Rupnik could be tried. The most probable is Canon 1395, which deals with sexual offences committed by clerics, particularly violations of the Sixth Commandment ("You shall not commit adultery").
A cleric "who continues in some other external sin against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue which causes scandal, is to be punished with suspension. To this, other penalties can progressively be added if after a warning he persists in the offence, until eventually he can be dismissed from the clerical state," the canon says.
Canon law experts told OSV News that of the most significant aspects of Pope Francis' 2021 reform of Book VI of the Code of Canon Law, which addresses penal law, was to update the law to explicitly criminalize sexual abuse of adults committed through coercion or abuse of authority.
"A cleric who by force, threats or abuse of his authority commits an offence against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue or forces someone to perform or submit to sexual acts is to be punished" with "just penalties, not excluding dismissal from the clerical state if the case so warrants," it reads.
According to a fundamental principle "lex retro non agit" – "the law does not act retroactively" – new laws and regulations should not apply to actions, events or legal relationships that occurred before those laws were enacted. Canon law experts told OSV News that Fr. Rupnik therefore cannot be tried under "abuse of his authority" – a line added under Pope Francis' reform.
Working group on spiritual abuse
In November 2024, the DDF further announced that Pope Francis had approved the creation of a joint working group between the DDF and the Dicastery for Legislative Texts under the leadership of now-Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops Archbishop Filippo Iannone. The mandate was to study how "spiritual abuse" could be defined and punished in canon law, and to present concrete proposals.
Earlier that same year, in February 2024, the Vatican's doctrinal head told OSV News his office is working to "raise awareness and prevent" the use of Catholic spirituality as a means of abuse.
"Today we are more attentive than before to the possibility of mystical or spiritual elements being used to take advantage of people and even abuse them," Cardinal Fernández said.
The cardinal described such tactics as "false mysticism," and he said his dicastery is "studying how to warn of the risks in time and how to stop them."
'The Church needs transparency'
Almost two years after the commission has been officially established, very little detail has been released about draft texts.
However, in October 2025 Cardinal Fernández stated that the working group had been "working fruitfully" and requested that Archbishop Iannone remain its head even after his transfer to a major dicastery, specifically to preserve continuity.
No proposed canon or draft legislation has been published, and there is no announced timetable for promulgation. So while Fr. Rupnik's case might have inspired the commission, the laws established will not be valid for his trial.
Canon lawyers who spoke with OSV News stressed that spiritual abuse is a "complicated matter" to prove during a trial.
Referring to the rumors spread about the possible acquittal of Fr. Rupnik, Sgrò told Cardinal Fernández in her July 21 letter, "I haven't heard a single good word about this proceeding, and this alarms and saddens me."
"The Church, like the victims, needs transparency, justice, and truth," Sgrò urged, asking the prefect "to keep me informed, as much as possible, of what is happening, so as not to further embitter already deeply torn hearts."
She said her clients "should be considered a resource and not an obstacle on the path to the truth" and that "they have no intention of giving up on justice or taking a step back when they see the wrong they have suffered acknowledged."
