Pope Leo has accepted the resignation of a bishop in Spain who is under investigation over an alleged abuse case, the Vatican said Saturday.
Bishop Rafael Zornoza is under investigation for allegedly sexually abusing an underage boy in the 1990s, which he denies.
Zornoza, who has led the Diocese of Cadiz and Ceuta in southern Spain since 2011, is the first Spanish Catholic bishop publicly known to be under investigation by the Vatican over allegations of abuse.
In a brief statement, the Vatican said only that Pope Leo had accepted his resignation, without mentioning the charges. Zornoza is 76 years old, a year older than the usual retirement age for Catholic bishops.
The Catholic Church, which has about 1.4 billion believers, has been plagued by abuse and cover-up scandals for decades, tarnishing its reputation and costing it hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The Diocese of Cádiz and Ceuta said this month that the allegations were being investigated before an ecclesiastical tribunal operating at the Vatican embassy in Madrid.
Pope Leo, elected in May, has held two meetings with groups of abuse survivors in the past month.
(Vijesti.ba)
