Heavy. Should the Rupnik mosaics be removed?
Should the mosaics on the facade of the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire basilica in Lourdes be removed from the sight of pilgrims? Their author, Father Marko Rupnik, a renowned artist whose works adorn chapels and sanctuaries around the world, was dismissed from the Society of Jesus in June 2023 after accusations of sexual violence brought by several dozen nuns went to trial. credible by those responsible for the Order. Five victims requested that the priest’s works be moved away from places of prayer, out of consideration for victims of abuse and for Christians who come to pray. Paintings by the Slovenian priest have already been removed in Troyes (Aube), mosaics hidden in the United States. Here are four keys to sorting things out.
1st key: The legal point of view
French law protects the link between the artist and his work, even when it is no longer his property. Could the removal of mosaics representing the luminous mysteries of the Rosary infringe on this “moral right” of the author?
“It is not because we have acquired a work that we have the obligation to exhibit it to the public,” specifies Marie-Hélène Vignes, lawyer specializing in the field of art, according to a decision of the Paris Court of Appeal in June 2023. The mosaics of the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire basilica in Lourdes could therefore be deposited, all the more easily because at the time of their installation, the architect des Bâtiments de France had demanded that they be removable.
2nd key: Ethics in motion
The debate arises in the context of an awareness, since the end of the 2000s, of the extent of sexual violence against women, and its destructive consequences. After the emergence of the #MeToo movement (in 2017) in the world of cinema, several controversies questioned the audience given to works on the grounds that their authors had committed rape and sexual assault, or even femicide: thus the writer G. Matzneff, the filmmaker R. Polanski, the singer B. Cantat, the painter P. Gauguin (1848-1903)…
Should we censor them and stop distinguishing the work of the artist? In this case, the public retains the choice of whether or not to go to theaters or bookstores.
3rd key: The precedent of the “Picasso of churches”
Unlike the artists incriminated since the #MeToo wave, Marko Rupnik produces works installed in places of worship: believers cannot fail to see them. Like those of Father Louis Ribes, “the Picasso of churches”, who died in 1994. In 2021, the publication of a first testimony led to dozens of others: the following year, this priest was found guilty of violence sexual assault on 49 minors. A group of victims asked that their paintings and stained glass windows be removed. The diocese of Lyon, shaken by cases of child abuse, is financing the operation underway in six churches. Victims of L. Ribes and M. Rupnik claimed a direct link between certain works and the attacks, particularly during posing sessions.
4th key: Arbitration in Lourdes
The Bishop of Lourdes, who makes the decision, is divided: “My deep, constructed, intimate conviction is that one day it will be necessary to remove the mosaics because they prevent Lourdes from reaching all the people who the message of the sanctuary is intended,” he told The Cross. But, in a press release dated July 2, the pastor rejected a decision, which “would add even more division and violence”. Because “the iconographic relevance of the Lourdes mosaics is indisputable,” insists art historian François Bœspflug. And the artist has strong support in the Vatican. In the meantime, the bishop has decided that the mosaics will no longer be lit in the evening during the daily Marian procession in front of the basilica.
