Vatican could classify ‘spiritual abuse’ as crime

The Catholic Church has faced a slew of scandals involving clergymen who used false mystical experiences to harm others

Pope Francis has instructed the Vatican to explore whether the Catholic Church should classify “spiritual abuse” as a crime to prevent priests from using alleged mystical experiences to harm others.

The head of the Vatican’s doctrinal department, Cardinal Victor Fernandez, met with Pope Francis last week to discuss the proposal and signed a communiqué to address a longstanding dispute among canonists on the concept of “false mysticism.”

Following their meeting on Friday, the Pope directed Fernandez to collaborate with another Vatican office to work on the matter further, according to a statement. The initiative could make “spiritual abuse” a formalized crime under Church law, rather than merely an aggravating circumstance of other crimes.

The document cited updated norms that the Vatican approved in May, and emphasized that “the use of purported supernatural experiences or recognized mystical elements as a means of or a pretext for exerting control over people or carrying out abuses is to be considered of particular moral gravity.”

While the communiqué from the doctrinal office did not name any specific cases of such abuse, it is known that the Catholic Church has faced a slew of scandals in recent years involving priests who have committed abuse under the guise of false spiritual and mystical experiences.

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One high-profile case involves Reverend Marko Rupnik, the renowned liturgical artist and former leader of a spiritual community in Rome. He faces accusations of sexual, spiritual, and psychological abuse of some two dozen women and at least one man over the course of 30 years.

One of the alleged victims, a former Jesuit, told Italian media outlet Domani last December that Rupnik had forced her into having sex with him and another nun, assuring her it was a form of devotion to the Holy Trinity. Rupnik “had always firmly denied” the accusations, according to the center he led in Rome.

In another instance, Third Order Franciscan Father David Morrier, a former chaplain at Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, pleaded guilty in 2022 to sexual abuse of a university student.

The victim reportedly told the court that Morrier had subjected her to “deliverance sessions” and “exorcisms” in which she was “forced to endure (Father Morrier’s) hands violating me because ‘this is what God revealed to (him) in prayer.’”

The clergyman avoided charges of rape and received five years’ probation as part of a deal with prosecutors.