On May 11, the sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida, in the homonymous city located in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, will inaugurate the freshly decorated south facade of the basilica. For Father Eduardo Catalfo, rector of the largest Catholic complex in the world, after the Vatican in Rome, it will be a day of celebration. The opportunity to mobilize crowds and raise funds to continue its major project.
But not everyone shares his enthusiasm. A petition with more than five thousand signatures was recently launched to demand the removal of the mosaics, signed by priest and artist Marko Rupnik. Its name will mean nothing to regulars at the big arty parties in Basel (Switzerland), Venice (Italy) or Miami (United States). In the world of sacred art, on the other hand, he is a star who fell from his pedestal, in December 2022, when around forty women accused him of control and sexual assault, perpetrated between 1985 and 2018. Despite the disgrace, the former Jesuit’s order book remains full.
Under growing pressure from public opinion, however, ecclesiastical authorities are wondering whether to preserve its biblical decorations, composed of expressive figures and shimmering colors, which adorn many places of worship around the world, such as the chapel private of the pope in the Vatican grounds, qualified, in 2008, by The crossfrom “Sistine Chapel of the IIIe millennium”. Should we maintain them, in the name of the presumption of innocence and copyright? Or ban them out of respect for the alleged victims?
For a year, these questions have tormented Mgr Jean-Marc Micas, bishop of the diocese of Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), where Rupnik decorated, in 2008, the facade of the Notre-Dame-du-Rosaire basilica. The prelate, who set up a think tank made up of priests, psychologists and victims, did not wish to answer the questions of the World. But he indicated that he would rule on the subject in the spring.
The “Picasso of churches”
The diocese of Versailles did not procrastinate. In December 2023, he broke off his collaboration with Rupnik, who was to decorate the future Saint-Joseph-le-Bienveillant church, in Voisins-le-Bretonneux (Yvelines). “An obvious decisiondeclares without argument the parish priest, Father Pierre-Hervé Grosjean. It was unimaginable for us to continue doing business with Marko Rupnik, both towards the alleged victims and towards our parishioners. » In November 2023, a new artist, Augustin Frison-Roche, was appointed to create frescoes instead of mosaics. “We especially didn’t want anything that, in style, could recall, directly or indirectly, Rupnik”specifies Father Grosjean.
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