By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press
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ROME — The Jesuits said Monday that a famous artist priest is definitively expelled from the religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women, and lamented they couldn’t prosecute him more vigorously under the Vatican’s internal procedures.

The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik remains a Catholic priest but is no longer a Jesuit priest, after he didn’t appeal his June expulsion decree, said Rupnik’s former superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren.

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Rupnik, a Slovenian priest, is one of the most celebrated religious artists in the Catholic Church. His mosaics decorate churches and basilicas around the world, including at the Vatican.

Late last year, the Jesuits acknowledged Rupnik had been accused by several women of sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse over 30 years. He had largely escaped punishment until then, apparently in part because of his exalted status in the church and at the Vatican, where even Pope Francis’ role in the case came into question.

After conducting an investigation, the Jesuits announced in June that they determined the women’s claims to be “very highly credible.”

They said they had kicked Rupnik out of the order because of his “stubborn refusal to observe the vow of obedience.” The Jesuits had exhorted Rupnik to atone for his misconduct and enter into a process of reparation with his victims, but he refused.

At the time of Rupnik’s alleged abuse, the Vatican didn’t usually punish sexual or other types of misconduct between priests and adult women, considering any such relations consensual. The Vatican has recently begun to recognize such misconduct as criminal, but new laws can’t be applied retroactively, and the Vatican is generally loathe to make exceptions to punish old misconduct involving adults.