The Rupnik Case: How is This Still Happening? by Stephen P. White

Last week, the Holy See announced that Pope Francis has decided to waive the statute of limitations on allegations against the former Jesuit and celebrity artist, Fr. Marko Rupnik. Rupnik, as you may recall, has been accused by more than two dozen women of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse over the course of several decades. The pope’s decision to waive the statute of limitations in this case is a welcome one.

The decision to waive the statute of limitations on these allegations would have been far more welcome, however, had the decision been made much sooner, if the case up to this point had been handled with a modicum of transparency, and if the concession to justice had not needed to be, as it were, extracted from the Holy Father by an outcry of indignation and righteous anger from the faithful and especially from many victims of clerical sexual abuse. ….