Supporter defends expelled Jesuit priest against ‘lynching’, says abuse claims unproven

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — The head of a religious art and culture center founded by a disgraced Jesuit priest has come to his defense. The director of the Aletti Center in Rome says the claims against the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik were “defamatory and unproven” and amounted to a form of mediatic “lynching” against him. The Jesuits announced this week that Rupnik had been ordered expelled from the order June 9 “due to stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” The Jesuits acted after Rupnik had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuses over a 30-year period.