By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has asked the Vatican to study whether the Catholic Church should classify "spiritual abuse" as a new crime in order to address cases where priests use purported mystical experiences as a pretext for harming others.
A statement from the Vatican's doctrinal office announcing the move did not name any specific cases of such abuse, but the Vatican has had to deal with several in recent years.
Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the Church's lead doctrinal official, met with Francis to discuss the proposal for a new crime of spiritual abuse on Nov. 22, according to the statement. The pope directed Fernandez to work with another Vatican office to consider the issue, it said.
The release quoted from new Vatican norms, approved in May, on evaluating alleged supernatural events, saying it was "morally grave" to use purported spiritual experiences to exert control over others.
One high-profile case involving accusations of abuse concerns Rev. Marko Rupnik, an internationally known Catholic artist and former leader of a spiritual community in Rome. He has been accused by about 25 people, mostly former nuns, of various types of abuse.
One former nun said in February that Rupnik forced her into having sex with him and another nun, justifying it as devotion to the Holy Trinity.
Rupnik is not known to have commented publicly on the accusations. However the centre he led in Rome released a letter in July saying that Rupnik "had always firmly denied" the accusations.
The Catholic Jesuit order expelled Rupnik from their ranks in June 2023, and the Vatican reopened an investigation into his conduct in October last year.
Rupnik was last known to be ministering in his native Slovenia.