Nuns vs the Vatican
(USA, 90 min.)
Dir. Lorena Luciano
Programme: TIFF Docs (World Premiere)
The stories of predator priests’ as serial abusers are always upsetting, but this one, focussing on a Catholic priest who targeted over 30 nuns through three decades has its own unique stench. Even the supposedly progressive Pope Frances at one time gave the perpetrator a pass.
The Slovenian priest Marko Rupnik was famous, considered a bright light in the church thanks to his visual art, huge mosaics that once covered churches all over the world. His artistic bent gave him a progressive sheen as well as allies in the Vatican, while his lectures promoting the idea, among others, that you could only find God through the body made him seem like an original thinker. Listen more closely and you can see how these ideas became central to his grooming process.
Nuns are a perfect target for predators who know the sisters’ commitment to the church and its hierarchies guarantee their compliance and their silence, but some courageous women finally spoke out.
Lorena Luciano’s documentary focusses on the women who tried to bring Rupnik to justice. Gloria Branciani, a nun in the Loyola community, met Rupnik in the mid-’90s and immediately caught Rupnik’s eye. He was an expert at exploiting a nun’s fundamental values: chastity and obedience. Already a well-known art figure, he convinced her that through a sexual connection with him, she could inspire his highly valued art. She obeyed. Once she was roped in, he commanded her silence: How could she speak out when she’d broken her vow of chastity?
He didn’t much care for his own vow and skilfully manipulated her so she could not see his double standard. But she knew something was wrong.
She wrote letters to authorities, priests, and her archbishop. They burned them.
But dozens more victims were unearthed by intrepid Catholic feminists in Italy and America. Central among them were journalists Lucetta Scaraffia and the especially dogged Federica Tourn who paid a price for her coverage. The journalists patiently waited until survivors were ready to talk, not just about Rupnik but about other perpetrators, like a priest who raped a women during her confession. Another story tells of a priest who impregnated his prey and turned to the Vatican’s house abortionist, who called the pregnant nun a whore who deserved to die while giving her the (obviously) illegal and harrowing procedure.
As Rupnik’s crimes started to surface, Tourn chased down curators who continued to place his murals in churches even as the investigation into his actions was ongoing. Their dissembling is classic, their blank faces infuriating. So is the Vatican’s determination to protect itself, also probed by this doc.
This is relatively standard filmmaking, not especially adventurous, formally speaking. It follows the story linearly and relies on talking heads. But these talking heads speak volumes and the rage of the victims and their supporters is palpable. Especially moving are scenes in which the survivors reconnect and embrace, knowing their meeting could lead to some form of justice.
Eventually, Gloria and another complainant named Mirjam, determined that they had to find a lawyer and hired the indomitable Laura Sgrò, who guided them through the difficult process of facing the pubic. Nevertheless, small punishment was meted out to the serial abuser Rupnik. He was excommunicated by the Jesuit Church and many of his murals were removed from church walls but, riding on his reputation as an original artist, he founded his own art institute, continued to find a foothold in various Catholic institutions, and remains a Catholic priest living in Rome.
A slightly sullied reputation? Maybe. Jail time? Those prayers went unanswered.
Nuns vs. The Vatican screens at TIFF 2025.
Get more coverage from this year’s festival here.
