Gloria Branciani, 59, a former member of Father Rupnik's Loyola community, presented her version of the affair with the former Jesuit at a press conference in Rome today.
It is a story of manipulation experienced as "devastating abuse". Branciani has now revealed her identity - while in 2022 she wrote her story under the pseudonym Anna.
She came without make-up, dyed hair, wore a purple knitted jumper and spoke with an upright posture.
Branciani met Rupnik, who is ten years her senior, when she was a student in Rome as her "spiritual guide". He complimented her and began to touch her. He always justified this on religious grounds, as a "contribution to her spiritual growth".
In the mid-1980s, Rupnik and Ivanka Hosta founded the Loyola Community. Branciani joined the group and went to Slovenia.
There, Rupnik's sexual urges became more aggressive and frequent. He wanted other sisters to have sex with him: "Our relationship wasn’t exclusive but had to be a relation in the image of the …More