A priest has been accused of forming a “holy” trio with two nuns in order to imitate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Marko Ivan Rupnik, 68, is believed to have invited two nuns to join him in the act and allegedly used “psycho-spiritual” methods of control to coerce his victims into having sex with him and watching porn.
At the time of the alleged incidents, Rupnik was the spiritual director of a Slovenian convent.
The former nun who accused him, now 58, said she complained about the violations at the time but was ignored for years.
“Father Marko started slowly and sweetly getting inside my psychological and spiritual world, exploiting my uncertainties and fragility and using my relationship with God to push me into sexual experiences with him,” the former nun told the Italian investigative newspaper Domani on Sunday.
“It was a true violation of conscience,” she added.
From 1987 to 1994, when she was a sister at the convent, Rupnik groomed her and took her virginity before using bullying tactics to keep her silent.
She asserted Rupnik requested that she and another nun have sex with him in order to recreate the three-way relationship between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
She does not believe she is alone in experiencing clergyman abuse. She believes he abused up to 20 women.
“He should’ve been stopped 30 years ago,” said the nun.
The Jesuit order has called for other victims to come forward in response to the unnamed nun’s claims, saying, “You will be listened to with understanding and empathy.”
This latest accusation is just the most recent in a long line of allegations levelled against Rupnik.
Rupnik, a well-known artist in the Church, was accused of sexual misconduct in Slovenia in the 1990s, but the allegations were only recently made public.
In response to the allegations, the priest’s order stated that the Vatican investigated Rupnik but determined that the statute of limitations applied, which meant that too much time had passed from the alleged offence date for legal proceedings to begin, and that Rupnik would not be punished.
Days after the investigation, in May 2020, Rupnik was reportedly excommunicated – that is, he was barred from participating in Church services – for committing a serious sin in the Church: using a confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had sexual relations.
After Rupnik repented, the excommunication was lifted a month later.
Reverend Johan Verschueren, Rupnik’s boss, issued an appeal for additional information or claims against Rupnik on Sunday, December 18, 2022, saying he wanted to clarify some questions raised by the new allegations.
“My main concern in all of this is for those who have suffered, and I invite anyone who wishes to file a new complaint or discuss existing complaints to contact me,” he said.
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