The Vatican has named five judges to decide the fate of former Jesuit priest and renowned mosaic artist Marko Rupnik, who has been accused of sexually, spiritually, and psychologically abusing more than 20 women, including nuns.

The victims’ lawyer, Laura Sgro, said her clients “have been waiting for justice for too many years,” adding that justice would be “good not only for them but also for the Church itself.”

According to The Associated Press, Pope Francis denied interfering in the case but waived the statute of limitations under public pressure, allowing the long-delayed canonical trial to proceed.

Rupnik, whose mosaics are featured in major basilicas, including Lourdes and the Vatican, is facing allegations of misconduct dating back to the 1990s.

His former Jesuit order admitted he was briefly excommunicated in 2020 for using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had intimate relations—one of the Catholic Church’s gravest offenses.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said the five-member panel includes both women and priests unaffiliated with the Vatican bureaucracy, a move aimed at ensuring independence.

Rupnik has not commented publicly on the allegations, while his supporters have described the process as a “media lynching.”