Where did the rumor of a Rupnik acquittal come from in the first place, & why is it all working out so nicely for the optics of the Leo front?: "Textbook conman strategy calls for 'Cooling Out the Mark[o Rupnik]'"

Vatican denies reports suggesting alleged abuser Fr. Rupnik cleared by court 

(CNS photo/Vatican Media)

The Vatican, curiously, has responded in the negative to reports that accused abuser Marko Rupnik, formerly S. J., has been acquitted.  What is curious is not that the response is negative but that it happened at all.  What was the last time, during this pontificate or the previous one, that you can remember vital clarifications being provided?  Not even the Dubia of the Four Cardinals have been touched with a ten-foot pole.  When the Vatican  spokesperson speaks, we can't help but notice, it is for a reason, and the reason rarely turns out to be even-handed papal dedication to veracity, the common good, or the salvation of souls.  

Let's see.  On July 20, reports make the rounds of a Rupnik acquittal.  With the usual caveats, the next day all the usual suspects in the Catholic commentariat respond as usual. Then, hey presto, at the optimal moment in the news cycle, Matteo Bruni takes to the mic to wave everybody off.  Just a little misunderstanding, right?  It's all good, now.

They say there is an expression in the long-con community:  "cooling out the mark."  You scam the guy and then get away with it by making sure he misunderstands the situation sufficiently not to take corrective action.  Where did the rumor of a Rupnik acquittal come from in the first place, and why is it all working out so nicely for the optics of the Leo XIV front?

Everyone sees this case as a litmus test of the sincerity of the suspect hierarchs where "zero tolerance" is concerned.  So the same hierarchs find themselves in quite a fix--how to let Rupnik off the hook entirely, or hold him accountable minimally, while keeping their own sepulchers suitably whitewashed.  They've got to come out of this thing  ecclesiastically alive.

Textbook conman strategy calls for "cooling out the mark""--in other words, getting the target to believe that things really aren't as bad as they seem.  It is a form of gaslighting, where the "problem" isn't the demonstrable facts but the target's "overreaction"  to them. Which is exactly what is going on here.

False reports of an acquittal raise anxieties and levels of moral indignation: a prompt and clean Vatican denial lowers them again.  The "tell" is how Bruni didn't just stop there, which would have been sufficient and appropriate if we were dealing with a rumor mill, pure and simple.  But, no.  He went on to remind everybody that the statute of limitations was lifted in the first place ("what a great guy that Grassi-protecting Bergoglio was--amirite?"), stressing the implication that Prevost is to be commended for exercising the heroic virtue of condescending to consider the allegations against Rupnik in the first place.  Now, the Vatican has the usual suspects in the Catholic commentariat, as well as the average Catholic in the pews, right where they want us.

Whatever the outcome of the trial in the wake of this leak-denial cycle, everyone will breathe a sigh of relief:  "Well, at least the evidence was directly considered!  At least that terrible man wasn't allowed to go scot-free, without even a trial!"   In other words, "Maybe the problem isn't the McCarricks and the Rupniks of this world; maybe it's us, with our unrealistic notions of how the justice system works.  Maybe 'zero tolerance' is  just too much to ask!  After all, have you read Amoris laetitia Chapter 8 lately?  Nobody's perfect, and even God Himself doesn't expect poor little Marko to be."

Preferential option for the poor, indeed.

This is the point of "cooling out the mark"-- to induce the attitude of, "at least."  Now, no one will be clamoring for complete, transparent accountability any more, even where the most heinous, revolting, manipulative, sacrilegious, documented, and repeated of offenses are concerned.  The popesplainers have been handed all they need; no matter what, the littlest bone thrown in our direction will be unthinkingly snapped up.  Instead of Prevost being assessed critically against the realities of good and evil, right and wrong, respect for canon law or disrespect for it, he will be showered with "gratitude" for having done anything at all.  This is not good enough.  In fact, it has an inverse relationship with goodness itself.

Leo  XIV,  as everyone knows, is a White Sox fan from the South Side.  In other words, he is from Chicago, where we nailed Capone for tax evasion.  The question isn't:  do the people currently in power in the Eternal City think we are stupid?  The question is:  are they correct?

Note: This piece is by a Catholic Monitor contributor.

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia and for the restoration of the Church.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

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I ask all The Catholic Monitor readers to also pray for the end of this war. Watch "Trump Calls Putin To Get Iran War Offramp! w/ Scott Ritter" on YouTube: ...Read more Please Pray for Trump to end the Iran War: Watch "Trump Calls Putin To Get Iran War Offramp! w/ Scott Ritter" on YouTubeFranklin & Graham calls on Christians to pray for 'end to the bloodshed' ahead of Trump-Putin summit...7mo

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Conclave Notes:

Has the Trad Media fallen into a COVID-like mass formation with Leo XVI? While it's humorous to see the former anti-Francis Trad pundits suddenly acting like teen age girls infatuated with Leo, it could lead to a Trojan Horse effect

It appears that a group of Bishops or Cardinals needs to give Leo XIV Dubia questions on if he still supports "Invalid and Sacrilegious" Confession

"Prevost’s reported support...allowing divorced & civilly 'remarried'...to receive Holy Communion": “Whoever…helps...promulgation of heresy…is suspected of heresy.” - The Catholic Monitor

-- Open letter urges Pope Leo XIV to correct ‘scandalous incoherence’ in Amoris Laetitia...[Wow! Even notorious Popesplainer Fr.] Harrison warns that Pope Francis taught a ‘dangerous self-contradiction’ on Communion for the divorced and ‘remarried,’ petitioning Pope Leo to correct the record. [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/08/open-letter-urges-pope-leo-xiv-to.html]

--  Dr. Seifert, regarded as one of the greatest living Catholic philosophers, founding Rector of the International Academy of Philosopher & friend of John Paul II, to Cardinals: INVESTIGATE FRANCIS' HERESIES, VALIDITY BEFORE THE CONCLAVE.."If Francis is found guilty of heresy or apostasy, then: - His cardinal appointments would be invalid" [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/dr-seifert-philosopher-personal-friend.html] 

-- Are the Cardinals who will participate in the upcoming conclave authentically appointed & morally justified in voting, or will the shadow of Francis's possible illegitimacy cast itself over the next papacy?  [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/are-cardinals-who-will-participate-in.html]

-- 5 Dubia Questions for 1P5's Steve Skojec & All faithful Catholics especially Francis is definitely Pope Cardinals, Bishops & pundits [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/06/5-dubia-questions-for-steve-skojec.html]

Francis Notes:

l– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html

– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1

– A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1

What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the [J6] DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 

Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.

Pray an Our Father now for America.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary