(Crux. Elise Ann Allen).
OME – Seven months after the Vatican reversed its previous course and opened a canonical inquiry into a famed Slovenian priest and artist, a high-ranking official has said the case, while delicate, is in advanced stages. Speaking to journalists Wednesday on the margins of a panel on the abuse crisis in Italy, Irish Monsignor John Joseph Kennedy when asked about the status of the inquiry into former Jesuit Father Marko Rupnik, said his department is “working on it, we are at a fairly advanced stage.” “It’s a delicate case, really, and we are working on it,” he said, saying “we started well, and we are really continuing step after step, keeping all aspects in mind, because there is the aspect of the allegations against him, there is the aspect of the victims, there is the aspect of the impact on the Church, so it’s delicate.” Secretary of the Disciplinary Section of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Kennedy is one of the Holy See’s leading authorities when it comes to investigating instances of clerical abuse and handing out punishments for abusers.