WHEN CANCEL CULTURE ENTERS THE CHURCH: INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE TO THE RUPNIK AND CENTRO ALETTI CASE
Abstract: This article examines how discourses of cancel culture emerged and developed around the case of Marko Rupnik, a Jesuit priest and artist against whom multiple women have filed allegations of abuse spanning several decades, and how calls for the removal or preservation of his artworks extended cancel culture logic beyond the individual to the symbolic objects and spaces associated with him, with particular attention to Centro Aletti, the Catholic artistic centre he founded in Rome in 1991. Drawing on a document analysis of selected media reports and ecclesial documents, the study addresses the following research question: in what ways does the Rupnik affair illustrate how cancel culture operates at both individual and institutional levels within a religious context? The analysis yields three principal findings. First, the cancel culture framing was a discursive strategy introduced by Centro Aletti itself as a defensive communicative response to mounting public pressure. Second, cancel culture logic produced a ripple effect of accountability demands that extended from the individual to the symbolic objects associated with him, generating a spectrum of institutional responses. Third, religious institutional contexts generate specific forms of resistance to cancellation dynamics, grounded in canonical procedure, theological authority, and the spiritual function of sacred art, that distinguish them from secular corporate contexts. The article contributes to the emerging literature on cancel culture by extending its analytical scope to religious institutional communication.
Keywords: Cancel Culture, Marko Ivan Rupnik, Centro Aletti, reputational sanctioning, media discourse