Leo XIV at Lourdes: All Rupnik Mosaics Will Be Covered

Covered? Just remove the abusive monster's "art"! It's ugly anyway. I won't even display it on Musings of an Old Curmudgeon; it's hideous.

From Aleteia

The imposing artworks at the shrine will be hidden for the Pope's upcoming September visit and remain covered as a commission decides their permanent fate.

uring Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit to Lourdes at the end of September, the shrine will cover all of the mosaics by Marko Rupnik that adorn the facade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. The spaces will be decorated specifically for the Holy Father’s visit. Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes announced the measure to the local newspaper La Nouvelle République des Pyrénées on August 20. He added that the artworks will remain hidden even after the Pope’s departure.

“The Holy Father coming to Lourdes is the occasion for taking a step forward on this subject,” Bishop Micas said. “All the works on the facade will be covered and then decorated in connection with Leo XIV’s apostolic journey.”

This change will not be limited to the few days the sovereign pontiff is present. Bishop Micas clearly indicated that the artworks will not be unveiled once Pope Leo XIV has left.

“The mosaics will remain covered after the Holy Father’s pilgrimage, at the end of which a new process of reflection is going to begin,” he said. “The current commission will be enlarged, notably mixing artists and theologians, in order to reflect on the future of the facade of the basilica.”

Putting victims first

Behind this decision is a painful issue that has occupied the shrine for several years. Marko Rupnik and his workshop created these mosaics in 2008 for the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions. However, the internationally renowned Slovenian priest and mosaicist has been accused by numerous women, primarily religious sisters, of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse dating back to the 1990s. Following a canonical investigation, he was permanently expelled from the Society of Jesus in July 2023. He has also been banned from all public artistic activity.

The presence of his artwork in a shrine that welcomes millions of pilgrims each year — including many ill, vulnerable, and wounded individuals — has become particularly sensitive.

“My role is to ensure that the shrine welcomes everyone, and most particularly those who suffer,” Bishop Micas explained. “Among them, there are people who are victims of abuse and sexual assault, children as well as adults. However, since the revelations of the serious accusations targeting Father Marko Rupnik, it has become difficult, even impossible, for these victims to come.”

For the bishop, the core vocation of Lourdes requires putting these individuals first. “The tried and wounded persons who have need of consolation and reparation must hold the first place at Lourdes,” he noted. “It’s the grace proper to this shrine: Nothing must prevent them from responding to the message of Our Lady inviting them to come there in pilgrimage.”

A process underway since 2023

This latest decision, announced ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit, marks a new step in a process that began in 2023 when a commission was created to discern the future of the mosaics. In the summer of 2024, Bishop Micas decided to stop highlighting the artworks during the evening Marian procession's light shows. Then, in March 2025, the mosaics located on the basilica's entrance doors were covered.

With the Pope’s upcoming visit, the various mosaics on the facade will now disappear from view. It is a choice that Bishop Micas believes carries a significance extending far beyond the Slovenian artist's specific case. “There are works by Rupnik everywhere in the world, and much bigger ones,” the bishop concluded. “Yet, people only speak of those at Lourdes. This underlines the symbolic dimension of the message of Lourdes in relation to victims of sexual violence. And it thus gives us a unique responsibility.”

While Lourdes does have a particular challenge in regard to Rupnik's mosaics, other shrines and sites are facing similar decisions. Mosaics have long held a special role in Christian art, and are particularly useful in outdoor settings where, by the nature of the mosaic craft, they provide bright colors but can still withstand sun, wind, rain, etc. Various shrines and sites around the world employed Rupnik's workshop, often for very large and prominent works.