Bishop Jean-Marc Micas said all Marko Rupnik mosaics on Lourdes Basilica’s facade will be covered before Pope Leo XIV visits France on Sept. 25-28, and they will stay covered indefinitely.
More facade works are being masked after entrance mosaics were covered in March 2025, with the bishop saying the sanctuary must remain accessible to abuse victims who found the images unbearable.
Rupnik, 71, was briefly excommunicated in 2020 and now faces a canonical trial over accusations from more than two dozen women spanning decades; he denies wrongdoing.
A 2023 commission on Rupnik’s art will be expanded after the papal trip to include artists and theologians, reviewing the long-term future of the basilica’s 2008 mosaics.