Provincial Pavel Bačo relieved the head of the Aletti Centre and the superior of the Jesuit community in Olomouc of their posts at the end of May, the Province of the Order on Tuesday announced.
Bačo has only been at the head of the province since mid-May.
The new provincial also launched an investigation into the publishing house "Refugium", which is affiliated with the centre and publishes "religiously dubious writings" from the environment of the spiritual community "Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" (Služebníci Ježíšova Velekněžského Srdce, SJVS).
These are allegedly private revelations to the mystic Katerina Klosová.
The order has announced that it will initiate a canonical investigation into the SJVS and is asking the public for witness statements, but has also admitted its own misconduct: "As Czech Jesuits, we apologise from the bottom of our hearts to all those who have been spiritually harmed by members of our order in connection with the false mysticism of the SJVS and the Aletti Centre."
The statement clearly distances itself from the spiritual community.
"Although the SJVS community gives the impression that it comes from the environment of Czech Jesuits and their co-workers, the Czech Province of the Society of Jesus categorically distances itself from this community and the texts based on the alleged revelations to Katerina Klosová and does not wish to be associated with them in any way," the statement reads.
The work of the SJVS is not and never has been an area of work of the Jesuit Order.
The Jesuit Province sees sectarian behaviour in the community that creates division and discord: "It can therefore hardly be regarded as a work of the Holy Spirit".
Distancing itself from Rupnik's support
In particular, the province distances itself from the community's support of Rupnik: "We consider the defence of the former Jesuit Marko Rupnik, who is accused of inappropriate behaviour towards thirty people, to be completely unacceptable. We do not agree with the trivialisation of his misconduct and reject the vilification of those who have claimed to be Rupnik's victims, as has been repeatedly done in the incriminated books published by 'Refugium'."
According to the Olomouc Aletti Centre, its aim is to promote dialogue between faith and culture.
It refers to the Aletti Centre in Rome, where Rupnik ran his mosaic workshop. Following accusations, the Jesuits severed their ties with the Roman "Centro Aletti".
Rupnik has been accused of various forms of abuse for years. For example, he is said to have pressurised a woman from the Loyola community he founded into sexual intercourse and later absolved her of the violation of the vow of chastity in confession.
Rupnik's excommunication for this reason was cancelled shortly afterwards by the Dicastery of the Faith.
In mid-June 2023 he was expelled from the Jesuit order, after which Rupnik was was accepted into the Slovenian diocese of Koper where he comes from.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has been conducting proceedings against Rupnik.