Overview
- The Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta says Bishop Rafael Zornoza has paused his public agenda for the clarification of facts and to receive treatment for an aggressive cancer.
- The diocese calls the allegations very serious and false, cites the presumption of innocence, and says it will not make further statements until the church tribunal rules.
- EL PAÍS reports that the complaint sent this summer to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was admitted and prompted a preliminary investigation.
- The diocese says the case was introduced last week at the Tribunal of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature in Spain, despite norms that would typically refer it to the metropolitan archdiocese.
- The complainant alleges abuse beginning at age 14 and continuing into early adulthood and says Zornoza later acknowledged manipulation, in what is the first publicly known Vatican probe of a bishop for alleged pederasty in Spain.