The Vatican has officially named the judges who will oversee the canonical trial of Father Marko Rupnik, the disgraced Slovenian priest and artist accused of sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing more than two dozen women.

The news about the establishment of the panel of judges was announced to a group of journalists on the sidelines of the presentation in the Vatican Press Office of the new form for the Mass on the protection of creation by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Italian agencies SIR and ANSA reported July 3.

The panel, the cardinal announced, "is made up of judges who are all independent and external to our dicastery."

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Cardinal Fernández explained that the need to find independent judges was "to dissolve the idea that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith or the Holy See had any interest (in the case) or were subject to pressure. People were chosen who would not give rise to any suspicion."

Asked for a possible prediction on when the trial could start, Cardinal Fernández noted that there are technical issues involved "such as notification to the victims."

He added: "We are working with the necessary confidentiality."

Laura Sgrò, a lawyer for five victims of Father Rupnik told OSV News in a written comment July 3, "The fact that the panel of judges has been selected is certainly good news."

"Now the trial can begin soon," she added, "allowing the victims to participate as injured parties and not just as witnesses, protecting their right to defense and transparency, which is as necessary as confidentiality."

Sgrò emphasized that her clients "will certainly cooperate fully in reconstructing the facts and seeking the truth. We hope that this case will be concluded as soon as possible and that it will finally bring comfort to the victims."

Father Rupnik, a former Jesuit, was briefly excommunicated by the church in 2020 for absolving an Italian novice with whom he had sex. The excommunication was lifted after he repented.

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Asked about the excommunication first imposed and then revoked on Father Rupnik, Cardinal Fernández explained that "it happens much more often than one might imagine, sometimes even in the same day."

The Jesuits disclosed in December 2022 that it had suspended the Slovenian artist after allegations of abuse had surfaced. In June 2023, Father Rupnik was expelled from the Jesuits for refusing to obey restrictions imposed upon him related to the sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of some two dozen women and at least one man over the course of 30 years.

Despite the credibility of the accusations and his dismissal from the Jesuits, the Diocese of Koper in the priest's native Slovenia announced it had incardinated Father Rupnik in its diocese.

After the diocese confirmed in October 2023 that the priest had been there since August, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had lifted the statute of limitations, allowing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to proceed in its investigation and eventual case.

In a statement published in October 2023, the Vatican said the decision was made after "the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors brought to the pope's attention that there were serious problems in the handling of the Father Marko Rupnik case and lack of outreach to victims."

Meanwhile, the retired bishop of the Diocese of Koper, where Father Rupnik was incardinated in August 2023, told OSV News in February that the priest "continues his work all over the world."

Father Rupnik's case is one of the most urgent cases on the table for the new pope to handle in canonical terms, abuse experts say.

At the beginning of June, in a quiet but powerful move, Vatican News began removing artwork by Father Rupnik from its website. His mosaics, long used to mark major feast days online, were recently replaced or left blank -- a shift many survivors say is long overdue.

Sgròtold OSV News from the beginning she "set one condition for accepting the professional assignment: that I believed their story."

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Now that the trial has the judge panel established, she said "The only lesson to be learned is that truth is the greatest wisdom. We must acknowledge that many mistakes were made in this story and that the time has come to apologize and, as far as possible, to make amends."

She concluded: "We are still far from what I hope for, but I am confident. Because justice is a teaching of Our Lord, and we have no intention of renouncing it."