A Slovenian priest who is said to be close to the Pope has been accused of initiating a threesome with two nuns by inviting them to take part in a "Holy Trinity." Marko Ivan Rupnik, 68, is said to have invited two nuns to join him in the act and allegedly used "psycho-spiritual" methods of control in order to convince them to have sex with him and watch porn.
The matter came to light after one of the nuns accused Rupnik of using the "psycho-spiritual" control over her to have sex, including group sex some three decades ago. Rupnik served as the spiritual director of a Slovenian convent at the time of the alleged incidents.
Sex Inside Church
Rupnik, who is well-known in the church for his artwork, was serving as the spiritual director of a convent in Slovenia at the time. The former nun has detailed how her complaints against the priest were ignored at the time of the claims.
Rupnik is now at the center of a scandal that has engulfed the Jesuits, a Catholic order of priests and brothers, of which Pope Francis is a member.
"Father Marko started slowly and sweetly getting inside my psychological and spiritual world, exploiting my uncertainties and fragility and using my relationship with God to push me into sexual experiences with him," the former nun told Italian investigative newspaper Domani on Sunday.
"It was truly an abuse of conscience," she added.
The nun alleged that Rupnik groomed her, had sex with her, and intimidated her into silence between 1987 and 1994, while she was a member of the Slovenian convent. She alleged Rupnik had invited her and another nun to have sex with him, claiming that they would replicate the three-way interaction between God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
She asserted that she believed Rupnik had assaulted up to 20 women.
She described Rupnik's years of sexual abuse and spiritual manipulation and claimed that she tried repeatedly to report him only to run into Jesuit and other superiors who frequently shielded Rupnik from harm.
Opening Up at Last
The nun believes that much like her the requests to take action against Rupnik by other women too must have been ignored by Jesuit and other superiors. "He should have been stopped 30 years ago," the woman said.
However, the Jesuit order has finally requested that further victims come forward in response to the unnamed nun's allegations and has promised that they will be treated with respect and understanding.
This barrage of allegations is just the latest in a stream of accusations against Rupnik, spanning decades. Rupnik, a prominent artist in the Church, was accused of sexual misconduct in Slovenia in the 1990s, but this claim was made public only last month.
Despite the horrifying testimony of people who said he had abused them sexually and spiritually, it has come to light that Rupnik has essentially been let off the hook by the Vatican twice.
The Slovenian priest is relatively unknown among rank-and-file Catholics but is well-known to the hierarchy because he is one of the most in-demand musicians in the church. His mosaics decorate chapels, churches, and basilicas around the globe.
Days following the probe, in May 2020, Rupnik was allegedly excommunicated (i.e., barred from attending church services) for committing a grave sin against the Church: utilizing a confessional to absolve a woman he had engaged in sexual activity.
The excommunication was reversed barely one month later after Rupnik expressed regret.
Rupnik's supervisor, Reverend Johan Verschueren, submitted a request for additional details or allegations against Rupnik on Sunday and stated that he wanted to answer some questions raised by the latest allegations.
