Pope Leo Ordered Vatican To Stop Using Rupnik Images but Has Not Laicized Him

Excommunicating him or laicising him would upset his many powerful friends in the Lavender Mafia in the hierarchy and the Curia.

From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

Despite Pope Leo’s suppression of Marko Rupnik’s artwork, he has not moved to excommunicate him or laicize him after his automatic excommunication in 2020 was revoked under Pope Francis.

Pope Leo XIV personally ordered the Vatican to stop using artwork created by the disgraced Father Marko Rupnik, according to the bishop of Lourdes.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of the Diocese of Lourdes-Tarbes revealed in an interview this week with Paris Match how Pope Leo was responsible for the new policy of the Vatican regarding Rupnik’s works, The Catholic Herald reported.

Under Francis’ pontificate, Rupnik’s artwork continued to be displayed by the Vatican and around the world despite the credible allegations against the artist, and the art’s intimate link to his abuse. Rupnik used his sexual abuse victims as models for his art.

The Vatican’s online news sites used Rupnik’s images for many years to commemorate liturgical feasts. For example, in 2024, Vatican News published an article to commemorate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary headed by Rupnik’s depiction of the scene. 

In June 2024, Vatican communications chief Paolo Ruffini defended the continued use of Rupnik’s mosaics, dismissing concerns by saying, “We’re not talking about abuse of minors.”

Micas shared that during an audience with Pope Leo on June 26, 2025, the pontiff “confided to him on that occasion that he himself had ordered the removal of the reproductions of Rupnik’s mosaics, which were still illustrating articles on the Holy See’s official website, Vatican News.” 

Leo is “very determined,” he added.

It was reported in June 2025 that the Vatican had quietly removed images of mosaics by Rupnik from its official website. The move came after years of backlash from victims, lay groups, and senior Church figures.

Critics noted the absence of any formal statement. The Vatican press office offered no comment on who ordered the change or why. “Doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still partial progress,” Antonia Sobocki of a UK-based victims’ group LOUDfense said at the time.

Despite Leo’s suppression of Rupnik’s artwork, he has not moved to excommunicate him or laicize him after his automatic excommunication in 2020 was swiftly revoked under Pope Francis.

Francis had invited Rupnik to give a Lenten homily to the Curia in March 2020, just weeks after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) judges “unanimously” ruled Rupnik had incurred his automatic excommunication due to having absolved a sexual accomplice in confession. The Pope was accused of intervening for Rupnik by lifting, reportedly “within hours,” the excommunication that Rupnik incurred for that offense.

Previous investigations into Rupnik had been dropped in October 2022 by the DDF and, according to Messa in Latino, this was directly due to Pope Francis not lifting the statute of limitations.

Rupnik is currently undergoing a Vatican canonical criminal trial. MessainLatino and AdVaticanum reported in July that a five-judge panel had acquitted Rupnik of all allegations of “violence” in his alleged acts of sexual abuse. 

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, issued a statement days later declaring that “Reports concerning any decision whatsoever by the judges handling the case of the Reverend Marko Ivan Rupnik are entirely unfounded.”

“The assessment of the case is still underway, and the panel is examining the documentation received from the dioceses concerned, the Jesuits, the persons involved, and the press,” he added.

Rupnik has been accused of having abused numerous women and at least one man in a variety of forms – sexual, spiritual, physical, and psychological. The abuse is reported to have taken place against at least 21 of the 40-strong Loyola Community of religious women, which he co-founded in his native Slovenia. An additional 15 alleged victims have come forward since his case became public knowledge in December 2022.

Despite Rupnik’s case being very high profile, canonical trials before the DDF are kept under seal unless the Vatican decides otherwise. Thus, the Holy See may not disclose any details about the proceedings, leading some to question the lack of transparency in such a case.

Laura Sgrò, who represents several of Rupnik’s victims, recently lamented the fact that Rupnik’s trial has been conducted in secrecy and that the victims have not had a chance to be heard during his trial.