The Marian shrine at Lourdes, one of the Catholicism's most popular pilgrimage sites, said it would consider removing the French sanctuary’s mosaics by the Vatican-sanctioned Jesuit artist Fr Marko Rupnik.
The Slovenian priest, whose modernist mosaics adorn churches around the world, was temporarily excommunicated by the Vatican and has been suspended from public ministry by his order because of accusations of sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women.
He was initially permitted to continue working on artistic projects despite the suspension, but fresh restrictions placed on him in February prohibited “any public artistic exercise, especially in religious buildings”.
In 2008, his mosaics depicting the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary were added to the façade of the Basilica of the Rosary, the lower of the two traditional churches at the sanctuary, to mark the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions.
“Lourdes is a place where many victims come to the Immaculate Conception to seek consolation and healing. Their distress is great in front of the mosaics of Mr Marko Rupnik in this same place: we cannot ignore it,” said the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Jean-Marc Micas, in a communiqué.
The sanctuary’s leadership discussed the issue on 27 March and decided to create a working group this month to consider what to do.
“We now know that the victims must be at the centre of our thoughts, and any decision will have serious consequences,” the bishop said.
“In addition to the bishop and the rector, there will be at least one victim, an expert in sacred art and a psychotherapist.”
The communiqué gave no indication when a decision would be made.
In Versailles, a suburb of Paris, the diocese has suspended its order for Rupnik mosaics to decorate the interior and exterior of the planned Church of St Joseph the Benevolent in a nearby town.
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