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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Pope Leo XIV has finally removed the bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta, Rafael Zornoza, from his position this Saturday, after 12 days of controversy, as the Press Office of the Holy See has briefly announced in its daily midday bulletin. The formula adopted to give him a way out and try to stop the scandal has been for the Pope to accept his resignation, already presented last year automatically when he turned 75, as all bishops do when they reach that age. At the same time, the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE) has announced the appointment as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Ramón Darío Valdivia Giménez, until now auxiliary bishop of Seville, without making any reference to the complaint against Zornoza.
The news comes after the canonization against Zornoza for an accusation of abuse of a minor in the nineties – therefore, already prescribed in the courts -, when he was a priest in Getafe, province of Madrid, and directed the major seminary of the diocese. It is the first time in Spain that the case of a bishop canonically investigated for an alleged case of pedophilia is known, and the first time that has been known that the Vatican removed one for this reason.
Zornoza thus becomes bishop emeritus of Cádiz, so he will not be able to hold any leadership position within the Catholic Church. You will not have the right to vote in the plenary assemblies of the EEC, but you will be able to attend and claim your speaking time. Valdivia will occupy the leadership of the Cadiz bishopric until the Pope finds a successor. The current apostolic administrator of the diocese was born in the Sevillian town of Osuna, in 1974. Graduated in Law and Philosophy, he was ordained a priest in 2003 and twenty years later he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Seville by Pope Francis. “I hope to be of help during the time I am among you, until the new titular bishop is appointed,” after learning of the appointment, in which he also thanked Zornoza “for all his service and welcome.”
The now emeritus bishop of Cádiz assured, after the publication of the news, that the accusations were false and announced that he was suspending. He also reported that he was doing it to treat cancer, an unknown detail that he revealed for the first time. The trial against him is being conducted in Madrid by the Tribunal de la Rota of the nunciature, the Vatican embassy.
Faced with perplexity over the fact that he continued in his position, himself. Once it concludes, he added, “the consequences will come.” And after four days they have arrived. In view of the Pope’s decision, the Rota tribunal must have found sufficient evidence to justify his withdrawal, after taking statements from those involved.
This delay in removing Zornoza contrasts with , presented last month: expediting the dismissal of priests implicated in cases of abuse. The entity highlighted “the importance of a simplified protocol for the resignation or dismissal of Church leaders or staff in cases of abuse or neglect.”
The Vatican has finally taken the step after days of confusion and ambiguity, in the face of an unprecedented scandal in the Spanish Church that has tested both the EEC and the Pope. With this case, Leo XIV has had to face for the first time, since he was elected six months ago, a complaint of pedophilia affecting a high ecclesiastical position. The challenge for him has been to define his position regarding this scourge and how he will act from now on. In reality, it has been the clumsy management of the complaint, both in the Vatican and in the Spanish Church, that has left him the hot potato, and at the moment of truth it has not been decisive. In the midst of the internal wars of the Church that concern him so much, he has preferred to strike a balance and refer to established procedures.
Furthermore, the case of the Bishop of Cádiz has presented the Pope with the question of how the Spanish Church has behaved in the face of the scandal of clerical pedophilia and whether he should now do something about it. The truth is that the EEC has lived under the protection of , which trusted the previous president of the bishops, the cardinal and archbishop of Barcelona, Juan José Omella, to take care of it, with little results and much criticism from the victims. It remains to be seen in the coming months whether the crisis generated by the Zornoza case will have more consequences, as the Pope has said, at a deeper level in the Spanish Church.
In a few days it has been proven that this crisis has produced a surprising short circuit between the leadership of the Spanish bishops and the Holy See. To deal with the impact of the news, the Spanish Church leaked to numerous media last week that Zornoza would be removed imminently. It was even assumed and published that the Vatican had already announced the resignation in last Saturday’s bulletin. But nothing happened that day.
Then, this Monday, the executive commission of the Episcopal Conference (CEE) had its first meeting with the Pope in Rome, which he attended on tenterhooks. Upon leaving, the president of the EEC, Luis Argüello, only said that the termination “may occur soon,” and defended the presumption of innocence of the accused. Starting on Tuesday, the bishops have held their plenary assembly throughout this week, which Zornoza did not attend, and have avoided the issue.
In reality, the bishop’s resignation had already been on the table for more than a year, when the bishop turned 75 years old. However, it is normal for the Pontiff to leave them in office for a few more years, unless they have health problems or want to send a subtle signal of disapproval for some issue, which many times does not even transcend. Given the complaint against Zornoza and the scandal that occurred when it came to light, the quickest way to stop it has been to execute a resignation that was already presented.
The truth is that it is something that could have happened as soon as the complaint became known in the summer, to give it an immediate solution in a discreet manner, one of the management failures of this case. Another option was to apply precautionary measures immediately, but neither the Vatican nor the archbishopric of Seville did so, to whom the case was entrusted from Rome, although it was later delegated to the Tribunal de la Rota.
The Holy See became aware of the case this summer, after a victim sent a complaint by mail to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. In all this time,
Canonists consulted by this newspaper affirm that, given the seriousness of the case and since it was a bishop, precautionary measures could have been taken, such as removing him from his position, already from the Vatican, when the Dicastery of Doctrine of the Faith received the complaint. They could also have been requested by the Dicastery of Bishops, who is automatically informed of a case affecting the head of any diocese. Later, the request for precautionary measures could have arisen in Spain, when the investigation landed in the archbishopric of Seville.
“Paralysis controlled me”
The abuse that the victim recounts in her complaint, to which this newspaper had access, began in 1994, when she was 14 years old, and continued until she was 21. “I write this letter only with the intention of preventing what happened to me from continuing to happen to another child,” were the first lines of the letter sent to the Vatican. Zornoza was then 45 years old and was rector of the major seminary of the diocese of Getafe, a bishopric that had been created three years earlier.
“It was at night when he came to the room and suffered the abuse. He got into my bed, caressed me and kissed me. In the mornings he also woke me up in the same way. In those moments I never said anything to him, the paralysis controlled me,” the complainant states in the document. The alleged abuses – touching, caressing private parts and kisses on the mouth – also took place in social gatherings and camps until the victim was of age.
When the complainant turned 18, he entered the seminary: “At the same time, I acknowledged my homosexuality. Rafa allowed me to access the seminary and took me to conversion therapy to heal my homosexuality.” At this time, the letter says, Zornoza got into his bed “almost every night and morning” to kiss him and touch his private parts. “On several occasions I complained to Rafa that what we were doing was not right. He always told me that it was an intimate friendship,” the victim writes.
The former seminarian explains that Zornoza “had a high capacity for manipulation” over him. “An example of the ability to manipulate and control me were the confessions,” he continues. In them, the complainant points out that he had a great feeling of guilt “and he made me see that I was not capable of loving or understanding a friendship.” “After confessing my homosexual acts, I went to bed and a few minutes later he got into my bed and caressed me,” he says. According to the experts consulted, the possible use of the sacrament of confession in abuse may constitute another serious crime in the canonical process.
