One of the world’s most popular sites of Marian devotion has announced that it is not considering removing or altering its artworks by alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik.
It follows another of the world’s most venerated Marian shrines at Lourdes announcing on 31 March that it will be covering mosaics by Rupnik on the doors to one of its basilicas.
A spokesperson for the Fátima shrine in Portugal told the Portuguese news outlet <em>7Margens</em> via email this week that the famous and beloved shrine is not taking down its giant mosaic installation by Rupnik and several of his artist collaborators, though it has stopped using its image in any distributed materials, <a href="https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263115/after-lourdes-decision-on-rupnik-art-fatima-shrine-not-planning-to-remove-mosaics"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">reports</mark></a> the <em>Catholic News Agency (CNA)</em>.
The Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima, which receives an estimated 6 million visitors a year, marks the site of the Virgin Mary’s apparitions to three shepherd children in 1917. The entire back wall behind the altar in the shrine’s largest and most modern worship space, the Basilica of the Holy Trinity, is covered with an enormous, floor-to-ceiling work by Rupnik and his team.
Measuring approximately 33 feet by 164 feet, the gold mosaic was installed in 2007 and features at its centre the paschal lamb flanked by saints and angels.
“We are not considering removing it. However, since we became aware of the accusations against Father Rupnik, we have suspended the use of the image, the entire work, and its details in our dissemination of materials,” the shrine’s communications department told <em>7Margens</em>.
It added that the Shrine of Fatima, as an organisation, “strongly repudiates the acts committed by Father Rupnik" and that it “has already expressed its solidarity with the victims”.
At least 230 religious sites around the world feature Rupnik’s distinctive mosaics, from some of the biggest international shrines to smaller chapels and churches, including the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the Vatican, <em>CNA</em> notes.
It adds that victims of the alleged abuse, along with various organisations and even cardinals have called for the artworks to be removed or covered, especially since some of the victims allege that Rupnik committed abuse in the context of the creation of his art.
The Bishop of Tarbes et Lourdes has ordered that the mosaics created by Marko Rupnik on the two side doors of the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France be covered up.
Bishop Jean-Marc Micas also announced that the mosaics on the two large central doors will also be covered as quickly as possible.
The mosaics by the alleged sexual abuser Rupnik, who is under investigation and awaiting a trial by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, were added to the neo-Gothic facade of the lower Lourdes basilica in 2008.
Describing it as “a new symbolic step”, Bishop Micas shared the announcement on March 31, through a statement published on the Shrine’s website.
Rupnik, 70, is accused of sexually and psychologically abusing at least 20 women for nearly 30 years at a religious community in Slovenia. Rupnik was briefly excommunicated in 2020 for absolving someone of allegedly having sexual relations with him, but was reinstated after having reportedly formally repented.
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, continues to seek judges for Rupnik’s upcoming canonical trial, following the conclusion of the preliminary investigation.
The Jesuits – one of the Roman Catholic Church’s primary orders, founded in 1534 by Saint Ignatius of Loyola before they received their official charter from Pope Paul III in 1540, and to which Pope Francis belongs – finally expelled Rupnik in June 2023.
<a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/lourdes-bishop-covers-up-rupnik-mosaics-at-shrine/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong><em>RELATED: Lourdes bishop covers up Rupnik mosaics at shrine</em></strong></mark></a>
<em>Photo: The giant Rupnik mosaic in the Basilica of the Holy Trinity at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal. (Image via Wikimedia Creative Commons.)</em>
