Madrid, Spain | AFP | The youngest bishop in Spain will not be able to exercise his functions as a result of his marriage to a woman author of erotic-satanic novels, the Episcopal Conference announced on its website on Saturday.
“As is public and notorious, Monsignor Xavier Novell i Gomà, bishop emeritus of Solsona, has contracted a civil marriage with Doña Silvia Caballol and Clemente, on November 22, 2021 in the town of Súria, in the province of Barcelona” , indicates a statement from the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE).
Given this serious fact, it should be noted that canon 1394.1 of the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church stipulates that “the cleric who attempts a marriage, even if only civilly, incurs in suspension latae sententiae,” the statement continues.
This means that Monsignor Xavier Novell i Gomà, “although maintaining his status as bishop, cannot perform any of the functions that derive from such condition; among others, he is prohibited from administering the sacraments and any magisterial activity, both in public and private “, explains the EEC.
The matter had broken out at the end of August when the 52-year-old bishop resigned citing “personal reasons”, according to the Spanish media.
Very soon his relationship with Silvia Caballol Clemente, a writer and psychologist who authored several erotic-satanic novels, was made public, including “Hell in Gabriel’s Lust”, published in 2017.
On the website of her publisher “Lacre”, the writer is described as “a dynamic and transgressive author who has made a hole in the thorny literary world to turn all our moral and ethical considerations upside down.”
Although the EEC confirms the identity of the bishop’s wife, it does not comment on her activities, but specifies that from now on Xavier Novell “is prohibited from all acts of the power of order, acts of the power of government. and the exercise of all the rights and functions inherent to the episcopal office (cf. c. 1333.1), without including other possible consequences that could be canonically followed “.
