EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and has updated with all known cases. If you know of any case that has not seen the light, you can write to us at: . If it is a case in Latin America, the address is: .
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The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, Luis Argüello, confessed this Monday in Gran Canaria his “pain” at the news reported by EL PAÍS against the bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta, Rafael Zornoza, 76, for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor continuously during the nineties, when the prelate was a priest in Getafe and directed the diocese’s seminary. “The personal assessment that I make is always one of pain in the face of such an event. The fact that the Holy See has initiated the investigation gives credibility to the accusation,” said the leader of the bishops in Spain before giving a conference at the headquarters in Gran Canaria of the Higher Institute of Theology of the Canary Islands.
Similarly, Argüello has shown his empathy for the accused bishop: “The Church opens a procedure because it wants to know the truth and thus wants to get closer to the pain of one and another, the pain of a possible victim and the pain of a possible person, in this case a bishop, who could have been falsely accused.”
The archbishop of Valladolid, however, has repeatedly stressed in statements to the media the need not to condemn Zornoza beforehand. “At the same time, we must have the presumption of innocence, which is a basis of our own legal, civil and social system,” he explained. “I am happy to be able to say that the regulations that the church has and that the steps that have been taken in recent years, both in the Holy See and the Spanish Church, make a case of events that have happened around 25 to 30 years ago and that are prescribed in civil jurisdiction.”
To the bishop for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor continuously during the nineties, when the prelate was a priest in Getafe and directed the diocese’s seminary. It is the first time that in Spain it is publicly known that a bishop is being canonically investigated for a crime of pedophilia.
This Monday, at mid-morning, the Episcopal Conference, limiting itself to offering one phrase in response to the scandal: “Confidence in justice and respect for the work of the Tribunal de la Rota.” Although this newspaper insisted, at that moment the conference had no words for Zornoza’s victim, nor to regret his pain.
Its president, however, has agreed to comment on the case before giving the conference Love and its forms (eros, philia and agape): a believing view. “The Church opens a procedure because it wants to know the truth,” Argüello expressed this Monday, “and thus wants to get closer to the pain of one and another, the pain of a possible victim and the pain of a possible person, in this case a bishop, who could have been falsely accused.”
Regarding a possible suspension of the bishop under investigation, Argüello has assured that it is not up to the Episcopal Conference to provisionally remove Zornoza. “The conference does not have legal-canonical authority over the bishops, but rather the Holy See has the authority,” he stressed. “It is not up to us,” he concluded.
Argüello, however, has dropped a possible resignation of the bishop under investigation, given that Zornoza himself presented his resignation when he turned 75. “I imagine that a bishop who has presented his resignation for 14 or 16 months, it seems to me, that this matter has arisen and who is also ill… The chances that his resignation could be accepted are surely high. But it does not depend on me or the Conference.” Bishops automatically present their resignation to the Pope at the age of 75, their retirement age. Normally, the Pontiff takes several years to accept it, until he finds a replacement. However, he can accept his resignation due to illness or, as has happened in several cases, when the prelate has accusations of abuse or of another nature.
