Should we ban Volkswagens because Adolf Hitler helped create the company? Millions of people, including millions of Americans have bought the “people’s car,” because it has been practical for them. A lot of students had them when I was in college, though I was not one of them, back in the days of quill pens and inkwells, because they were inexpensive and cheap to operate.

That’s kind of the way I look at this stuff going on now in the Catholic Church . . . and among media who hate the Church:

At sacred Lourdes, Pope Leo confronts a new reminder of the church’s sins

Story by Anthony Faiola, Stefano Pitrelli • Saturday, September 26, 2026

LOURDES, France — The gold-flecked mosaics adorning the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary here were installed in 2008 for the 150th anniversary of what the Catholic Church recognizes as miraculous apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

I had the pleasure of visiting Lourdes in September of 2024, and seeing the famous grotto where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette Soubirous. The Basilique de L’Immaculée Conception is fabulous, and I was privileged to attend Mass there. Sadly, the town of Lourdes is a bit of a disappointment, filled with tourist trap shops and trinkets.

But when Pope Leo XIV arrived here Saturday, the mosaics were conspicuously covered. Their creator, Slovenian priest-artist Marko Rupnik, has been accused by at least 20 women — including current and former Catholic nuns — of sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

Rupnik, 71, is one of the most prominent living Catholic artists, and the mosaics in Lourdes are among his many works housed in more than 200 churches across the globe. He was openly celebrated and championed by past popes.

But as Leo visits France, a secretive trial of Rupnik is unfolding in Vatican City and the case is raising difficult questions, including whether to condemn the art as well as the artist in a faith whose masters include convicted murderers like Carravaggio, the 16th-century Italian painter.

“It’s a very difficult problem because often people say, ‘if we destroy the art of all problematic artists, we will have to destroy many things throughout history,’” Bishop Jean-Marc Micas, who leads the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes, told The Washington Post.

Rupnik mosaic being covered in Lourdes.

Out of respect for abuse victims who make pilgrimages to Lourdes, Micas began covering some of Rupnik’s mosaics in 2025, before opting to cover all of them ahead of Leo’s visit.

Assuming for the sake of this article that Fr Rupnik is guilty of the accusations against him, I think it a fair question to ask: should we taint his artwork because he was personally a reprobate and a rapist?

The article mentioned Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, who was a notorious brawler, including a fight in which he killed a man, but he was also a tremendous artist, whose paintings inspired the Baroque style. He might have been among the most notorious sinners who contributed to religious art, but we are all sinners. Should sidewalks in the Tates Creek area of Lexington be removed because I set and finished some of them? Should sections of Interstate 64 from Newport News to Virginia Beach be pulled because I batched some of the concrete for them?

If Fr Rupnik is guilty, then he should be punished. There have apparently been no civil or criminal cases against Fr Rupnik by secular sources, though punishment, including expulsion from the Society of Jesus — the Jesuits — have happened. He had previously been excommunicated, but that was lifted by Pope Francis. He remains a Catholic priest, though his authority as a priest has been seriously restricted.

But the punishment of this allegedly wayward priest should not include destruction of the art he has produced, any more than der Führer’s help in establishing Volkswagen should lead to the junking of all of the company’s cars. Yes, Adolf Hitler was one of the worst people in the world, now spending his afterlife in the burning fires of Hell^[1]Pope Francis once said that while it was not Catholic doctrine, he personally hoped that Hell is empty. Such a statement from a Catholic priest includes the belief in the existence of Purgatory, and … Continue reading, but he had also embraced the previously existing autobahn projects, and the Third Reich funded some of it; should Deutschland tear up all of the infrastructure created during the time?

We can note, perhaps even on plaques beside them, the sins of Fr Rupnik, but every artist, every craftsman, every worker who has ever lived has sinned. I certainly have, though my sins are not publicly known, and not criminal sins, though, admittedly, if they were felonious, I wouldn’t tell you! Fr Rupnik can be punished on earth for the sins he has committed, and eventually the Lord will deal with him when he goes to his eternal reward. But destroying his artwork would be nothing but pettiness.