El Paz launched an investigation into pedophilia in the Spanish Church in 2018. database Updated all known cases. If you know of an incident that has not yet come to light, please contact us at: abusos@elpais.es. For Latin America, the address is: abuseamerica@elpais.es.
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The Diocese of Cádiz-Ceuta reported on Monday that its Bishop Rafael Zornoza had “temporarily put his plans on hold in order to clarify the facts and work on the treatment of his advanced cancer.” The statement came hours after El Paz revealed that the Vatican had opened an investigation against the prelate for sexually assaulting minors in the 1990s, when he was a priest in the diocese of Getafe and directed a seminary. “The accusations, which refer to events that occurred almost 30 years ago, are both very serious and false,” the memo said. The newspaper asked for an evaluation of the defendant this Sunday, but did not receive a response. “The diocese will make no further announcement until the decision of the ecclesiastical tribunal is known,” the diocese said in a press release. This is the first time a bishop has publicly revealed that he has cancer.
Zornoza’s lawsuit reached the Vatican this summer after the victim mailed a complaint to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith detailing the incident and demanding action be taken. El Paz has accessed the document, and church officials confirmed that an investigation has been launched. This is the first time it has become public that a bishop is being investigated for pedophilia in Spain. Although church canons indicate that the case belongs to the archdiocese on which the diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta (in this case the archbishop of Seville) relies, the diocese of Cádiz specified last week that the case had been “introduced” to Spain’s Apostolic Episcopal Tribunal of Rota. “We have full confidence in justice and we will cooperate with it in all that is necessary. At the same time, it is necessary to remember to respect the presumption of innocence that applies to everyone,” the statement asserts.
“I am writing this letter with the sole intention of preventing what happened to me from happening to other children,” the victim wrote. The abuse he says began in 1994, when he was 14, and continued until his accuser was 21. Zornoza was 45 years old and served as rector of the main seminary in the Diocese of Getafe. “It was at night that he came to my room and abused me. He climbed into my bed, fondled me, and kissed me. He woke me up the same way in the morning. At that moment, I didn’t say anything to him, but a numbness was taking over me,” the complaint states. The reported abuse (private touching, fondling, kissing on the mouth) also occurred at social gatherings and camps until the victim was 18 years old.
Upon reaching adulthood, the plaintiff entered a seminary. “At the same time, I accepted my homosexuality. Rafa allowed me to attend seminars and took me to conversion therapy to ‘cure’ my homosexuality,” he explains in the letter. The plaintiff alleges that while in central Getafe, Zornoza climbed into her bed “almost every night and morning” and kissed her and touched her private parts. “Several times, I complained to Rafa that what we were doing was wrong. He always said it was a close friendship,” the complainant wrote.
The former seminarian explains that Zornoza “had a great ability to manipulate” him. “An example of the ability to manipulate and control me was the confession,” he continues. In the letter, the complainant points out that he felt a great deal of guilt, saying, “It made me realize that I was incapable of loving or understanding friendship.” “After confessing my homosexuality, I went to bed and a few minutes later he came into my bed and fondled me,” he says.
Ten years after leaving the seminary, the victim wrote an email to Zornoza, telling him that he had abused her. In his letter, he explains that it took him some time to understand the level of manipulation and attacks he was subjected to. The current Bishop of Cadiz did not answer him. This year, the plaintiff stayed with him. He explains this in his letter. “This time, I again told him directly that he had abused me from the age of 14 to 21. He admitted to the manipulation and abuse, only to say that it was never his intention.”
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