BARCELONA – Following news that the Vatican has opened an investigation into sexual-abuse allegations that he denies, Bishop Rafael Zornoza of Cádiz and Ceuta, has stepped back from his duties to “clarify the facts.”

The Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta released a statement Nov. 10, responding to news in El País that the Vatican has opened an ecclesiastical investigation into accusations dating back to 1994 that Zornoza sexually abused a young man aged between 14 and 21.

The accusations were sent to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith by mail earlier this summer and are alleged to have begun in 1994 when Zornoza was a 45-year-old priest of the Diocese of Getafe and rector of the seminary.

According to El País, a Spanish newspaper, the complainant said: “It was at night when he came to the room and I suffered the abuse. He got into my bed, caressed me and kissed me. In the mornings I also woke up the same way. At that time, I never said anything to him, paralysis controlled me.”

He added: “He told me that ‘my wound’ (that’s how he referred to my homosexuality) did not let me see things and to trust him.”

The complainant alleges that these abuses began when he was 14 and continued until he was 21 – he entered the seminary aged 18.

The Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta said in its statement that Zornoza, who has been bishop of the diocese since 2011, “has decided to temporarily suspend his schedule to clarify the facts and to attend to the treatment of an aggressive cancer he is receiving.”

It also denied the accusations. “The accusations made, referring to events that took place almost thirty years ago, are very serious and also false,” the statement argued.

The diocese’s statement confirmed that “the case was submitted last week to the tribunal of the Rota of the Apostolic Nunciature in Spain” and added “there is full confidence in justice and we will cooperate with it in everything that is required.”

It also emphasised that “it is necessary to remember the respect for the presumption of innocence that applies to all people.”

The Diocese of Getafe, where the abuses are alleged to have taken place, also released a statement.

“Following the published information, the Diocese of Getafe wishes to state that to this day no official body of the Diocese has received any formal accusation regarding the published events,” the diocese said.

“The Diocese makes itself available to the competent courts for any collaboration that may be required of us,” the statement added.

It finished saying: “The Diocese once again expresses its firm condemnation of all types of abuse and its commitment to fighting them, putting all possible means into preventing risk factors and increasing prevention.”

In the information sent to the Dicastery, the complainant alleges that Zornoza used confession as a means to “manipulate and control” him.

“After confessing my homosexual acts I would go to bed, and within minutes he would get into my bed and caress me,” he said.

Ten years after leaving the seminary, the complainant says he sent an email to Zornoza telling the bishop that after some time coming to terms with it, he felt that he’d been abused and manipulated, to which the bishop didn’t respond.

This year, the complainant met with him and explained in his letter to the Dicastery: “I told him again that he had abused me from the age of 14 until I was 21. He simply told me that it was never his intention, although he acknowledged the manipulation and abuse.”