EL PAÍS newspaper launched an investigation into child sexual abuse in the Spanish church in 2018 and has already done so. database Updated with all known cases. If you know of any case that did not see the light of day, you can write to us at: Abusos@elpais.es. If this is the case in Latin America, the address is: Abusesamerica@elpais.es.
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The Diocese of Cadiz and Ceuta reported on Monday that its bishop, Rafael Zornoza, “paused his agenda to clarify the facts and take care of treatment for an aggressive cancer he is suffering from.” This statement comes a few hours after El Pais newspaper revealed that the Vatican had opened an investigation against the bishop on charges of sexual assault on minors in the 1990s, when he was a priest in the Diocese of Getafe and director of the theological school. The memo also stated that “the accusations made, in reference to events that occurred nearly thirty years ago, are very serious and also false.” On Sunday, this newspaper requested an evaluation of the accused, but did not receive a response. “No further statements will be made by this diocese until the decision of the Ecclesiastical Court is known,” the diocese said in the press release. This is the first time that the bishop has publicly revealed that he has cancer.
Zornoza’s case reached the Vatican this summer, after a victim mailed a complaint to the Department for the Doctrine of the Faith recounting the events and demanding action. El País newspaper was able to access the document and church sources confirmed the start of investigations. This is the first time in Spain that an investigation into a bishop for child sexual abuse has been announced. Ecclesiastical rule indicates that the case should fall to the diocese of the capital upon which the Diocese of Cadiz and Ceuta depends (in this case the Archbishop of Seville), but the Diocese of Cadiz specified that the case was “presented” last week in the Rota Court of the Apostolic Nunciature in Spain. The statement stressed that “there is complete confidence in justice and we will cooperate with it in everything required. At the same time, it is necessary to remember to respect the presumption of innocence that applies to all people.”
“I am writing this letter solely with the intention of preventing what happened to me from happening to another child,” the victim wrote. The abuse he described began in 1994, when he was 14 years old, and continued until the complainant was 21 years old. Zornoza was 45 years old and was the dean of the major theological school in the Diocese of Getafe. The complaint stated: “It was at night when he came into the room and was abused. He entered my bed, caressed me and kissed me. In the morning he woke me up in the same way. In those moments I did not say anything to him, as paralysis was taking over me.” Reported abuses — touching, fondling of the genitals, and kisses on the mouth — also occurred at social gatherings and camps until the victim was 18 years old.
When the complainant reached the age of majority, he entered seminary. “At the same time, I admitted my homosexuality. Rafa allowed me to attend the seminar and took me to conversion therapy in order to ‘cure’ my homosexuality,” he explained in the letter. During this time spent in central Getafe, the complainant claims that Zornoza would resort to his bed “almost every night and morning” to kiss him and touch his genitals. The complainant wrote: “On several occasions I complained to Rafa that what we were doing was not right. He always told me it was a good friendship.”
The former seminarian explains that Zornoza “had a great ability to manipulate” him. He continues, “An example of the ability to manipulate and control me is confessions.” The complainant states that he felt a great feeling of guilt “and it made me see that I was incapable of loving or understanding friendship.” “After I confessed to my homosexual acts, I went to bed and a few minutes later he entered my bed and fondled me,” he says.
A decade after leaving the seminary, the victim wrote an email to Zornoza telling him she had abused him. It took him some time to understand, as he explains in the letter, the level of manipulation and attacks he was subjected to. 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 I told him again in person that he had abused me from the time I was 14 to 21 years old. He simply told me that he never meant it, even though he admitted to the manipulation and abuse.”
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