Patricia Duarte, the spokeswoman, made clear that the Sanctuary repudiates “the acts committed by Rupnik” and will no longer feature Rupnik’s images in promotional materials.
Some of Rupnik’s alleged victims have welcomed the decision by the Knights of Columbus to cover Rupnik’s mosaics at the St. John Paul II National Shrine, as well as the decision by the bishop of Lourdes not to illumine the Rupnik mosaics at the Marian shrine there.
Last October, amid an outcry, the Pope waived the statute of limitations in the Rupnik case, allowing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to investigate multiple charges of sexual abuse against the former Jesuit.
The priest is now a priest in good standing in a Slovenian diocese.
In March 2020, Father Rupnik was invited to take the place of the Preacher of the Papal Household in preaching a Lenten sermon to the Roman Curia - despite Rupnik’s canonical conviction, two months earlier, of the offense of absolving an accomplice in a sexual sin.
Rupnik was subsequently excommunicated, and the excommunication was swiftly lifted.