By SCM Staff Writer I Monday, Nov. 10, 2025
VATICAN – A 76-year-old Spanish bishop is facing a humiliating Vatican investigation after being hit with horrifying allegations of sexual offences against children.
Bishop Rafael Zornoza, who has served as the Bishop of Cádiz y Ceuta since 2011, is at the centre of a devastating Church tribunal probe ordered directly by the Holy See in Rome.
The shock inquiry comes after Spanish paper El Pais reported the investigation concerns alleged sexual abuse involving a teenage boy dating back to the 1990s.
Zornoza, who has held senior posts in the Church for decades, is now the first Spanish Catholic bishop to be publicly investigated by the Vatican over an abuse allegation.
The bombshell news has rocked the Spanish Church, where Zornoza’s diocese insisted yesterday that the veteran cleric “firmly denies” the claims.
In a fierce statement, his diocese labelled the accusations as “very serious and also false,” adding: “There is full confidence in the justice system, and full cooperation will be provided.”
However, they confirmed Zornoza, 76, has temporarily suspended his official schedule while the internal Church investigation proceeds.
The tribunal is being convened at the Vatican’s embassy in Madrid.
The probe lands another body blow to the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, which has been reeling for decades from a worldwide scandal involving the systematic abuse of children and subsequent attempts at cover-up by senior figures.
Cases have shaken the Church’s reputation globally and cost it hundreds of millions of pounds in settlements.
For abuse survivors, this new investigation serves as a grim reminder that the decades-long crisis of power and secrecy is far from over—and that no man in the Church’s hierarchy is above scrutiny.
