After the Holy See officially denied information regarding an alleged acquittal of Marko Ivan Rupnik and confirmed that the canonical process is still ongoing, lawyer Laura Sgrò made public her criticisms of the procedure's development, denouncing the lack of information provided to the women she represents and demanding clarification on whether they may intervene as aggrieved parties in the trial.

In statements to La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana and Crux, as well as in a letter addressed to the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the Italian lawyer insists that she does not seek a public trial or to question the canonical legal system, but rather to know «the minimum information that guarantees the right to defense and the right to contradiction».

«Without them there can be no justice», she states.

Five questions that remain unanswered

As OSV News revealed, Sgrò sent a letter to Cardinal Fernández on July 21 raising five specific issues: whether the trial had actually begun, what its current status was, who makes up the tribunal, what happened to the request filed by her clients to be admitted as aggrieved parties, and why the complainants had not yet been called to testify.

The following day, the Holy See Press Office officially confirmed that the judicial process is underway and denied the information regarding an alleged acquittal of Rupnik. The Director of the Press Office, Matteo Bruni, further explained that, «during the trial, as in any judicial procedure, information about ongoing activities cannot be shared out of respect for the trial itself» and also to avoid harming the individuals involved. He added that, if the tribunal considers it necessary to gather more information, «it will be its responsibility to proceed independently to obtain it».

However, the statement did not answer one of the central issues raised by the lawyer: what has happened to the request for the complainants to be admitted as aggrieved parties in the proceedings.

The question of the victims in the process

It is precisely there that Sgrò places the core of her criticism.

The lawyer denounces that her clients «have not only not been summoned», but that the request filed to intervene as representatives of the aggrieved party «has not even received a response». She also claims to have tried to contact Cardinal Fernández and the secretary of the disciplinary section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop John Joseph Kennedy, on several occasions, without receiving any reply.

«They have always been stalling; nobody wants to talk to me», she states.

The issue is not minor from a legal standpoint. Canon 1729 of the Code of Canon Law provides that the aggrieved party may exercise, within the penal process itself, an action to claim reparation for the damages suffered as a result of the offense. It is precisely this possibility that Sgrò requested for her clients and on which, until now, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has given no public response.

The lawyer further maintains that her clients are unaware of the identity of the judges in charge of the case and that they have not even been heard as witnesses.

«How can a trial be credible when the victims do not even know the names of the judges? It is another violence committed against these women», she asserts.

A debate that goes beyond the Rupnik case

Sgrò's criticisms are not limited to the case of the former Slovenian Jesuit, but rather reopen a broader debate on the participation of victims in certain canonical penal proceedings.

The lawyer denounces that the alleged victims remain on the margins of the process, without sufficient information on its evolution and without a response to the requests made by their legal representation. A similar criticism was already raised by the victims of the Peruvian priest Eleuterio «Lute» Vásquez, whose canonical investigation was also surrounded by complaints about the scarce communication maintained with the complainants during the processing of the file.

In the letter sent to Cardinal Fernández, Sgrò assures that her clients «feel abandoned and betrayed, victims once again of a system that never welcomed, protected, or consoled them». In her view, the lack of communication constitutes «an additional violence» against women whose wounds «remain open».

Transparency and credibility

The lawyer concludes her writing by appealing to the credibility of the Church itself.

«The Church, just like the victims, needs transparency, justice, and truth», she writes, while asking to be kept informed «as far as possible» about the evolution of the proceedings and recalling that her clients «must be considered a resource and not an obstacle on the path to truth».

The canonical trial against Rupnik continues while the tribunal examines the abundant documentation gathered during the investigation. For the time being, the Holy See maintains its reserve regarding the development of the proceedings, citing the need to preserve the integrity of the process, while the complainants demand to know what their role will be in a procedure whose outcome could become a benchmark for future cases of abuse tried by canonical justice.