Belen Picornell
Updated Friday, March 8, 2024-9:37 p.m.
Xavier Novell controversy: the personal and nationalist drift of the bishop of Solsona
Xavier Novell family, former bishop of Solsona, happy with his twins
Joan Femenia and Xavier Novell fell in love with two women.
It could be the story of any mortal but
it is the story of two priests
, two lost sheep,
twisted lines of God
.
They gave up the habit and followed the cycle of life: you are born, you grow, you reproduce and you die.
They are two of the most recent media cases of religious people who have hung up their chasuble forever for love.
"Novell came to have a double life," Oriol Trillas, an expert lawyer in religious information, reminds LOC.
His story, which came out in 2021, was surreal.
He was more than a priest, he was bishop of Solsona and stood out as an exorcist.
Trillas explained in his blog that this priest assumed, through Decree 20/2015 of November 3, the ministry of titular exorcist of the diocese of Solsona.
"For more than five years, the resigned prelate
entered into the study of demonology
and there he met the psychologist Silvia Caballol, an expert in Satanism," Trillas said.
A specialist in the devil meets an exorcist.
Apparently, a crush arose
- God willing -
and Novell got her pregnant as a bishop.
He imparted the sacrament of confirmation to him two months before his episcopal resignation was accepted.
To know more
Controversy.
When Xavier Novell, the bishop of Solsona, said that there were "beautiful women and in summer they go a little uncovered"
Editor: ÁNGEL ORTIZ Madrid
When Xavier Novell, the bishop of Solsona, said that there were "beautiful women and in summer they go a little uncovered"
As reported by the local newspaper, Segre, Novell chose the parish of a small town of 185 inhabitants, Biosca,
so that there would be few witnesses
, since it was one of the smallest churches in the diocese.
He had to confirm two 14-year-old girls and with them he infiltrated the Satanism writer.
All this became known later, in none of the towns where she worked did they know that she had a partner.
From the Church, as Trillas reveals,
she "tried to silence herself
. "
The only thing that was revealed at first is that he was resigning as bishop.
He then became a priest "
suspended a divinis
" (suspended from the divine), like any layman.
Three months later he married his lover civilly in the Peace Court of Súria (Barcelona).
And they were happy and ate partridges.
The life cycle.
In his case, each chapter is better than the previous one: Novell, as Trillas tells LOC,
is now working on a company called Semen Cardona SL
, dedicated to producing and distributing doses of pig semen "from the best genetics," they explain on their website. .
Nothing is currently known about the other crooked line of God, Joan Femenia.
He was a priest from the Mallorcan towns of Campanet, Moscari and Búger (Balearic Islands) who in 2022 informed the Bishopric of Mallorca
of his intention to abandon the ministry of the priesthood
.
Before hanging up her habits forever, Femenia wanted to be honest with the parishioners.
At the end of the mass that he was officiating, he confessed to the attendees: they would not see him in the cassock again because he was in love with a neighbor from Sa Pobla, whose identity has never been known.
He renounced the habit but also the double life.
Apparently,
he never cheated on anyone or had relationships
as a priest.
The neighbors were happy for him and appreciated his transparency.
'You shall not bear false witness nor lie.'
According to data collected from the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE)
, the number of priests in Spain in 2019 was 16,960
, who had to serve 22,993 parishes, when in 2012 there were 19,347 priests for 22,795 parishes.
There is less and less.
But according to Trillas, the lack of priests does not respond to celibacy, which is one of the vows of religious people.
His promises to God: the vow of obedience, the vow of poverty and the vow of chastity.
- Could celibacy be eliminated at some point?
- Never.
It is part of the tradition of the Church.
And it would make no sense: those who enter now know perfectly well what they are getting into.
It is not negotiable.
In 1074 Pope Gregory VII imposed for the first time the vow of chastity for those ordained by the Church.
Later, in the first two Lateran Councils (12th century)
it was confirmed that clerical marriages are not valid
.
And the Council of Trent (1563) held that no one could be a priest if he did not renounce sexual relations.
Black sheep
have
always existed.
One of the most notorious cases occurred in 2014, when, as reported by the Italian newspaper
La Stampa
, a group of 26 secret lovers of Catholic priests asked Pope Francis to
end the celibacy imposed on the clergy
through a letter, where they told him about their love affairs with priests and the "suffering" that entails.
They only signed the letter with their names.
Today's Pope Francis expressed in the book
On Heaven and Earth
that he was "in favor of maintaining celibacy, with all the pros and cons that it implies, because there are ten centuries of more positive than negative experiences."
Some of the negatives have been disgusting
.
Like the case of Alfonso López, the canon of Valencia who died of asphyxiation a few months ago and was discovered to be taking advantage of the poverty of men under 40 years of age to sleep with them.
He was 80.