ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 27, 2023 / 12:45 pm
Father Johan Verschueren, the superior of Father Marko Rupnik, a Jesuit priest and artist accused of sexually abusing numerous nuns, explained that from an ecclesial point of view it is “illegal” for Rupnik to be the owner of a company.
On April 22, Verschueren, the Jesuit superior in Rome, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that “the unhappy thing” is that Rupnik owns 90% of a commercial company.
“From an ecclesial point of view it is illegal, unless it is proven that the right Church authorities gave permission for an exception. So far this proof has not been given,” the superior said.
The Code of Canon Law, which governs the Church throughout the world, establishes in Canon 286: “Clerics are prohibited from conducting business or trade personally or through others, for their own advantage or that of others, except with the permission of legitimate ecclesiastical authority.”