As the case of famed Slovene priest and artist Father Marko Ivan Rupnik continues to perplex Catholics around the globe, experts have warned that a perceived gap in canon law is preventing him and other alleged abusers from facing prosecution.
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Vatican City On a scorching day in August 2015, the mother of a teenage girl walked into the confessional of a small church near the Sicilian city of Catania, in southern Italy. She believed that the leader of her lay Catholic group, a man known as the Archangel, had repeatedly raped her underage daughter and possibly others.
She trusted the priest, Fr. Orazio Caputo, who had worked closely with the Archangel s Catholic Culture and Environment Association or ACCA, to listen to her fears. In the highly devout context of Sicily s Catholic culture, the mother believed she could speak freely to her usual confessor about her growing suspicions and mounting guilt.