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When the first cases of plagiarism, in recent speeches and lectures, were discovered in February, Rosica claimed it was unintentional, and suggested that his misuse of sources might have been due to sloppy research by interns. Our scrutiny of Rosica’s literary output stretching back 30-plus years has revealed that his plagiarism is a long, consistent habit. So far almost everything Rosica has published has been found to include substantial plagiarism — an astounding fact for a professional communicator — and to date publishers have issued eight retractions for plagiarism in response to our work; 20 retraction requests are pending, under review by publishers, and we expect even more to follow.

More than one observer asked whether Rosica’s controversial lines about Pope Francis were his only original theological contribution. It turns out the answer is no

Most recently, we turned our attention to Rosica’s July 2018 reflection on “The Ignatian Qualities of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Francis.” Circulated widely online, it generated considerable international attention especially for the following passage, intended as praise: “Pope Francis breaks Catholic traditions whenever he wants, because he is ‘free from disordered attachments.’ Our Church has indeed entered a new phase: with the advent of this first Jesuit pope, it is openly ruled by an individual rather than by the authority of Scripture alone or even its own dictates of tradition plus Scripture.”

Critics of Francis took this as confirmation that Francis was a renegade and apostate; supporters of Francis were embarrassed at such a clumsy account of reform. When asked to comment specifically on Rosica’s words, Cardinal Raymond Burke responded, “This is nonsense.” And in response to all of this, Rosica only tweeted that some of his critics should “go to confession.” He never defended or further articulated his claim. Now we know why.