EL PAÍS launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018 and did a database updated with all known cases. If you know of any cases that have not seen the light of day, you can write to us at: Abusos@elpais.es. If it is Latin America, the address is: abusesamerica@elpais.es.
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The diocese of Cadiz and Ceuta reported this Monday that its bishop, Rafael Zornoza, has “temporarily suspended his agenda to clarify the facts and deal with the treatment of an aggressive cancer he is receiving.” The statement comes a few hours after EL PAÍS revealed that the Vatican opened an investigation against the prelate for sexual assaults on minors in the 1990s, when he was a priest in the diocese of Getafe and ran the seminary. “The accusations made, referring to events that occurred almost thirty years ago, are very serious and also false”, the note continues. This newspaper asked this Sunday for the evaluation of the accused, but received no response. “No further statements will be released from this bishopric until the decision of the ecclesiastical court is known,” the diocese states in the press release. It is the first time that the bishop has publicly revealed that he is suffering from cancer.
Zornoza’s case reached the Vatican this summer, after a victim sent a complaint to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith describing the events and asking for action to be taken. EL PAÍS had access to the document and ecclesiastical sources confirmed the start of the investigations. It is the first time in Spain that it is publicly known that a bishop is under investigation for a pedophile crime. Ecclesiastical law indicates that the case should be the responsibility of the metropolitan archdiocese on which the bishopric of Cadiz and Ceuta depends (in this case the archbishop of Seville), but the episcopate of Cadiz specified that the case was “presented” last week to the Tribunal of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature in Spain. “There is full trust in justice and we will collaborate with it in whatever is necessary. At the same time, it is necessary to remember respect for the presumption of innocence which applies to all people”, the statement insists.
“I am writing this letter only with the intention of preventing what happened to me from happening to another child,” the victim writes. The abuse he described began in 1994, when he was 14, and continued until he was 21. Zornoza was 45 years old and was rector of the major seminary of the diocese of Getafe. “It was night when he came to the room and suffered the abuse. He climbed into my bed, caressed me and kissed me. Even in the morning he woke me up in the same way. In those moments I never said anything to him, the paralysis controlled me”, reads the complaint. The abuse reported – touching, caressing private parts and kissing on the mouth – also took place in social gatherings and camps until the victim turned 18.
Upon reaching the age of majority, the complainant entered the seminary. “At the same time, I recognized my homosexuality. Rafa allowed me to access the seminar and took me to conversion therapy to ‘cure’ my homosexuality,” he explains in the letter. During this period spent in central Getafe, the complainant claims that Zornoza entered his bed “almost every night and every 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 a close friendship,” the complainant writes.
The former seminarian explains that Zornoza “had a high ability to manipulate” him. “An example of the ability to manipulate and control me was the confessions,” he continues. In them the complainant underlines that he felt a great sense of guilt “and 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 came into my bed and caressed me,” he says.
Ten years after leaving the seminary, the victim wrote an email to Zornoza telling him that she had abused him. It took him time to understand, he explains in the letter, the level of manipulation to which he was subjected and the attacks he suffered. The current bishop of Cadiz did not respond to him. This year the complainant stayed with him. This is how he explains it in the letter: “This time in person I repeated to him that he had abused me from the age of 14 to 21. He simply told me that it was never his intention, even though he recognized the manipulation and abuse.”
