The Vatican at long last has responded to allegations it mishandled abuse allegations by Jesuit-priest Father Marko Rupnik, according to the Associated Press.
A Vatican official promised that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which initially declined to prosecute Fr. Rupnik, was working on a report detailing the timeline of Fr. Rupnik’s crimes and investigation.
The official claimed the report was supposed to arrive already, but was “delayed by clerical errors.”
Fr. Rupnik was initially found guilty of canonical crimes in 2020, but sanctions were quickly lifted. Further allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse were made, but the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith–headed by another Jesuit–declined to pursue an investigation.
The official, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that “multiple series of clerical errors” prevented adequate prosecution of the allegations.
“When you have so many priests dealing with so much paperwork, clerical errors are unfortunately bound to happen,” the source alleged. “Both on the initial handling of the case and the current follow up, it’s sadly such clerical errors which are to blame for the confusion.”
At press time, the Vatican said that due to further clerical errors no further details on Rupnik’s case would be available.
