Pope Francis has ordered the Vatican to reopen the case of a well-known priest-artist accused of sexually, psychologically and spiritually abusing adult women, and removed the statute of limitations on their claims, the Vatican said Friday.

The announcement marked a major turnaround for the Holy See and followed an outcry among victims and their advocates over the handling of the case of the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik, a former Jesuit whose mosaics grace churches and basilicas around the world.

The scandal has been a headache for the Jesuits, the Vatican and Francis himself due to suspicions that Rupnik received favorable treatment from the Holy See, where a Jesuit is pope and other Jesuits head the sex crimes office that investigated Rupnik and declined to prosecute him because the claims against him were deemed too old.

[That didn’t take long; amazing what a few bad headlines can accomplish. Protests began erupting earlier this week when Rupnik got incardinated in a new diocese to return to his ministry. The controversy threatened to overwhelm the Synod on Synodality, which is itself already controversial in form with traditional Catholics. The question now becomes why these steps didn’t get taken before now, and before the scandal RE-erupted on the world stage during this synod. This is not a convincing show of leadership. — Ed]