Spanish bishops’ president stresses balance between victims’ right to report abuse and presumption of innocence as Vatican investigates Bishop Zornoza. Victims call it an “offense.”
Newsroom (18/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) The president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Archbishop Luis Argüello of Valladolid, on Tuesday urged the Church to uphold both the right of sexual-abuse victims to file complaints and the presumption of innocence of those accused, in remarks delivered hours after the CEE leadership met Pope Leo XIV in Rome.
Speaking at the opening of the 128th Plenary Assembly of Spanish bishops – the first of Leo XIV’s pontificate – Argüello did not explicitly mention Bishop Rafael Zornoza of Cádiz and Ceuta, who is currently under Vatican investigation for alleged sexual abuse of a minor in the 1990s while serving as a priest in Getafe. Yet the prelate’s address was clearly shaped by the case.
“What we have experienced in recent weeks with the emergence of reports of abuse cases has strengthened our desire to continue promoting all of this based on the dual principle of the presumption of innocence… and the freedom to report,” Argüello said.
He stressed that even time-barred cases in civil law can still be reported to ecclesiastical authorities “to discern whether the innocence that is presumed for everyone truly prevails, or whether the complaint has the strength to proceed in a canonical legal process.”
Victim advocates immediately condemned the remarks. Juan Cuatrecasas, spokesman for the National Association for Stolen Childhood (ANIR), described the CEE’s emphasis on presumption of innocence as “yet another offense” that “equates the victim with the alleged pedophile.”
“We consider this yet another offense in the long list of offenses being committed by the Spanish Episcopal Conference against the victims of clerical pedophilia,” Cuatrecasas told the EFE news agency.
Bishop Zornoza, 76, was absent from Tuesday’s plenary session and was not included on the official participants list. Sources close to the CEE indicated his resignation – submitted fifteen months ago upon reaching the canonical retirement age of 75 – is likely to be accepted by Pope Leo XIV in the near future, once the Vatican investigation concludes.
Speaking to journalists in Rome on Monday after a one-hour audience with the Pope, Archbishop Argüello confirmed that Leo XIV is fully informed of the Zornoza case. He reiterated the Church’s commitment to “two rights”: the victim’s right to present a legitimate complaint and the accused’s right to be presumed innocent.
Argüello noted that the Holy See’s probe, opened only fifteen days ago, operates independently of Spanish civil statutes of limitations. The Spanish Church, he added, has for over a year accepted complaints even in cases that are time-barred or involve deceased accused parties, through its Comprehensive Reparation Plan for Victims of Abuse (PRIVA).
The CEE president said the Vatican has expressed support for PRIVA and its associated reparation commission, which he described as attending to victims “in a satisfactory manner.”
During Monday’s meeting at the Apostolic Palace, the Spanish bishops’ executive committee also invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Spain. While no date has been confirmed, Argüello expressed hope that a trip could occur “relatively soon,” possibly tied to upcoming jubilees honoring Spanish saints.
In his plenary address Tuesday, Argüello also decried what he called the “normalization” of abortion in Spain and worldwide, labeling the approximately 100,000 annual abortions in Spain and 73 million globally a “tragedy” that Western society has “completely hidden under the rug.”
The four-day bishops’ assembly continues through Friday amid heightened scrutiny of the Spanish Church’s handling of historical abuse allegations.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from El Mundo and EFE.com
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