Lourdes Camoufle the mosaics of Rupnik

They will no longer welcome pilgrims: the mosaics of the famous Slovenian artist Marko Rupnik adorning the facade of the Rosary basilica, in Lourdes, were masked on Monday March 31. Announced even though the masking panels were installed, this decision follows the serious charges of sexual and spiritual abuse committed by the Jesuit.

Decided by the bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Mgr Jean-Marc Micas, this choice is the result of the work of a commission which he had gathered between May and October 2023. The bishop had indeed been seized by victims of abuse committed by priests, who had informed him of “their suffering and the violence” that represented for them the exhibition of these works. But others argued that the work of its author had to be dissociated.

After announcing last July that we should one day withdraw the mosaics from the basilica, Mgr Micas therefore decided to take action. “The two side doors were covered this Monday, and the two large central doors will be in a few days, before the start of the pilgrimages season in Lourdes,” he said in a statement. “It is therefore all the doors of the rosary basilica that are modified.”

The Pope’s private chapel

For the bishop, this decision is part of the jubilee year. While he decreed that the Sanctuary of Lourdes was one of the places where to live this jubilee, “the passage of the entrance doors of the basilica had to be up to the symbolic height of the moment”. In particular, he underlines in the press release, “a new symbolic step had to be taken so that the entry into the basilica is facilitated for all the people who today cannot cross the threshold” because of the presence of these works.

Mosaiste in vogue in the 1990s and 2000s – he has, among other many sites, decorated the redmptoris chapel Matering to the Vatican – Marko Rupnik was accused of sexual abuse by several women, some of whom worked alongside him in his workshop. An investigation carried out by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had led, early 2020, to his guilt. If the case had first been kept secret, it then broke out in broad daylight following new accusations. These had led to the expulsion of Marko Rupnik of the Company of Jesus in June 2023.