{"id":2513546,"date":"2025-11-22T13:11:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T18:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pope-leo-xiv-accepts-resignation-of-spanish-bishop-accused-of-abuse-in-first-known-case-for-pontiff\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T13:12:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T18:12:52","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-accepts-resignation-of-spanish-bishop-accused-of-abuse-in-first-known-case-for-pontiff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pope-leo-xiv-accepts-resignation-of-spanish-bishop-accused-of-abuse-in-first-known-case-for-pontiff\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV accepts resignation of Spanish bishop accused of abuse in first known case for pontiff"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fpope-leo-xiv-accepts-resignation-of-spanish-bishop-accused-of-abuse-in-first-known-case-for-pontiff%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2513546&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Rafael Zornoza, the bishop of C\u00e1diz, Spain, who is under investigation by the Catholic Church for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/3-times-the-media-buried-stories-that-couldve-brought-down-prominent-liberals\/\" title=\"3 Times The Media Buried Stories That Could\u2019ve Brought Down Prominent Liberals\">alleged sexual abuse<\/a> of a young seminarian in the 1990s. This marks the frist known case where the pope has removed a bishop accused of abuse. Zornoza, who is 76 years old and suffering from cancer, had submitted his resignation upon reaching the typical retirement age of 75, but it was only accepted following reports about the investigation. The allegations include fondling and sleeping with the seminarian from ages 14 to 21, as well as attempts to &#8220;cure&#8221; his homosexuality. While the diocese denies the accusations, the church tribunal in Madrid is conducting the inquiry. This case is part of a broader reckoning within the Spanish Catholic Church, which has recently revealed widespread abuse and cover-ups.In 2023, Spain&#8217;s self-reliant investigation suggested the number of abuse victims could be in the hundreds of thousands, leading to compensation plans for victims and ongoing efforts to address the scandal.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Pope Leo XIV accepts resignation of Spanish bishop accused of abuse in first known case for pontiff<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p><strong>ROME (AP) &mdash;<\/strong>&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/pope-leo-xiv\/\">Pope Leo XIV<\/a>&nbsp;on Saturday accepted the resignation of an&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/vatican-spain-abuse-pope-5bbbb35a63437fb16c5d8c051c8cf3e9\">ailing Spanish bishop<\/a>&nbsp;who is under church investigation for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/italy-tunisian-migrants-arrested-for-livestreaming-sexual-abuse-of-boy-and-his-mother\/\" title=\"Italy: Tunisian Migrants Arrested for Livestreaming Sexual ... of Boy and His Mother\">allegedly sexually abusing<\/a> a young seminarian in the 1990s, the first known time the new pontiff removed a bishop accused of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>A one-line statement from the Vatican said Leo had accepted the resignation of C&aacute;diz Bishop Rafael Zornoza, 76. It didn&rsquo;t say why, but Zornoza submitted his resignation to the pope last year when he turned 75, the normal retirement age for bishops.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3895855\/bolsonaro-arrested-ahead-imprisonment-ensure-public-order\/\">Bolsonaro arrested days ahead of imprisonment to &#8216;ensure public order&#8217;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3895850\/number-children-abducted-nigeria-school-attack-more-than-300\/\">Number of children abducted in Nigerian school attack raised to more than 300<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3893245\/trump-nominee-mark-walker-fights-religious-persecution\/\">Trump nominee Mark Walker intends to fight religious persecution as he seeks ambassadorship<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>It hadn&rsquo;t been accepted though until the El Pa&iacute;s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/media\/\">newspaper<\/a> reported earlier this month that Zornoza had been recently placed under investigation by a church tribunal. The daily, which since 2018 has exposed decades of abuse and cover-up in the Spanish Catholic Church, said Zornoza was accused of abusing a young former seminarian while he was a young priest and directed the diocesan seminary in Getafe.<\/p>\n<p>The report, quoting a letter the former seminarian wrote the Vatican over the summer, said Zornoza fondled him and regularly slept with him from when he was 14-21 years old. The former seminarian&rsquo;s letter said Zornoza heard his confession and persuaded him to see a psychiatrist to &ldquo;cure&rdquo; his homosexuality.<\/p>\n<p>The diocese of C&aacute;diz denied the accusations against Zornoza but confirmed the investigation was being carried out by the church court in Madrid known as the Rota. In a Nov. 10 statement, the diocese said Zornoza was cooperating with the investigation and had suspended his agenda temporarily &ldquo;to clarify the facts and to undergo treatment for an aggressive form of cancer.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The accusations made, referring to events that took place almost 30 years ago, are very serious and also false,&rdquo; the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>It is believed to be the first publicly known case of a bishop being retired, and being placed under investigation for alleged abuse, since the&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/spain-catholic-church-sexual-abuse-clergy-3544eff34663581c46b2fea110d31256\">Spanish church began reckoning<\/a>&nbsp;in recent years with a decades-long legacy of abuse and cover-up that have&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/spain-catholic-church-abuse-d1ae30773bf990a25bde8e6531d6d08d\">rocked the<\/a>&nbsp;once-staunchly Catholic Spain.<\/p>\n<p>Leo didn&rsquo;t immediately name a temporary leader of the diocese.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Spain&rsquo;s first official probe of abuse indicated that the number of victims could run into hundreds of thousands, based on a survey that was part of a report by the office of&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/spain-catholic-church-sex-abuse-6e4e92238c665b670653ee66f617f42b\">Spain&rsquo;s ombudsman<\/a>. The ombudsman conducted an 18-month independent investigation of <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >487 cases involving alleged victims<\/a> who spoke with the ombudsman&rsquo;s team.<\/p>\n<p>Trump bids farewell to MTG after shock announcement of her resignation<\/p>\n<p><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3895906\/trump-bids-farewell-mtg-shock-announcement-resignation\/\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/3895906\/trump-bids-farewell-mtg-shock-announcement-resignation\/\">TRUMP BIDS FAREWELL TO MTG AFTER SHOCK ANNOUNCEMENT OF HER RESIGNATION<\/a><\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Spain&rsquo;s Catholic bishops apologized but dismissed the interpretations of the ombudsman report as a &ldquo;lie,&rdquo; arguing that many more people had been abused outside of the church.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish Catholic hierarchy then did its own report, saying in 2024 that it had found evidence of 728 sexual abusers within the church since 1945. It then launched a plan to compensate victims, after&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/catholic-church-sex-abuse-spain-56110dcfb183d790b379b4407cfc93dc\">Spain&rsquo;s government approved a plan<\/a>&nbsp;to force the church to pay economic reparations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Leo XIV accepts resignation of Spanish bishop amid abuse probe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2634,"featured_media":2513547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25274289345422.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[42536,54854,6522,67532],"class_list":["post-2513546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-abuse-allegations","tag-pope-leo-xiv","tag-resignation","tag-spanish-bishop"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25274289345422.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2513546"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2513550,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513546\/revisions\/2513550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2513547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2513546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2513546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2513546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}