(RNS) — The Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic men’s organization with 2.1 million members, announced it will cover mosaics by well-known artist the Rev. Marko Rupnik while the Vatican investigates sexual abuse allegations against him.
The mosaics, in the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., and the Holy Family Chapel at the Knights’ New Haven, Connecticut, headquarters, will be covered in cloth for now, but the organization said it may cover the mosaics in plaster after the conclusion of the investigation by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, according to a press release on Thursday (July 11).
Patrick Kelly, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, said in a statement that the decision to cover the mosaics came after “an extensive process,” where the organization consulted victims of sexual abuse, people who minister to victims, moral theologians, art historians, bishops and other clergy and individual pilgrims.
“There was a strong consensus to prioritize the needs of victims, especially because the allegations are current, unresolved, and horrific,” Kelly said. “The art we sponsor must therefore serve as a steppingstone — not a stumbling block — to faith in Jesus Christ and his Church.”
Rupnik, a former Jesuit, has been accused by more than 20 women of sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse. Gloria Branciani, a former religious sister who says Rupnik sexually and spiritually abused her, has described his abuse as intertwined with his artistic process.
One year ago, the Jesuit order expelled Rupnik, whose mosaics are in churches all over the world, after he refused to atone for his alleged behavior and work toward a process of reparation with the women accusing him, but he was accepted into the Koper Diocese in his home country of Slovenia afterward.
There are many mosaics by the Rev. Marko Rupnik in the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Lawrence OP/Flickr/Creative Commons)
The case has prompted outrage throughout the Catholic world because Rupnik had been excommunicated briefly in 2020 for absolving during confession a woman who had engaged in sexual activity with him. The Vatican later decided not to waive the statute of limitations and did not investigate allegations of sexual abuse of adult women by Rupnik received in 2021, prompting some to accuse the Vatican of showing Rupnik preferential treatment because of the pope and Rupnik’s shared Jesuit roots.
The Knights of Columbus are among many Catholic entities debating what to do with their Rupnik mosaics in light of the allegations and the pending investigation at the Vatican.
In his statement, Kelly referenced the decision by Lourdes, France, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas to no longer illuminate Rupnik’s mosaics at evening prayer at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. Micas said he thought that the mosaics would eventually need to be removed but that he had “decided not to remove them immediately, given the passions and violence the subject incites.”
The Lourdes decision came after the head of Vatican communications, Paolo Ruffini, defended his dicastery’s continued use of Rupnik’s mosaics in their communications, telling U.S. Catholic media professionals, “As Christian(s), we are asked not to judge.” Cardinal Seán O’Malley, who leads the Vatican abuse prevention commission, sent a letter to all Vatican departments less than a week later asking them not to use the artwork of alleged abusers.
“We were also particularly grateful for the thoughtful decision of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, which both informed and confirmed us in our own decision-making,” said Kelly. “Shrines are places of healing, prayer and reconciliation. They should not cause victims further suffering,” he continued.
The Knights also announced several measures to “express the Knights’ solidarity with victims of sexual abuse,” including distributing education materials about their decision-making around the mosaics; a prayer in all Masses at the shrine for the victims of sexual abuse; and commemorating at the shrine the feast days of saints who have connections to sexual abuse survivors, like St. Josephine Bakhita.