The ex-bishop of Solsona, Xavier Novell, resigned his post to break his celibacy vows and start a new life
A Catholic bishop in the Lleida town of Solsona in Catalonia has hung up his cassock to move in with his partner, an author of erotic novels. Xavier Novell sent his resignation letter to the Pope two weeks ago, but the details of his new life haven’t been revealed until now.
Novell has now reportedly moved to the town of Manresa in Barcelona where he is living with his partner Silvia Caballol. Caballol is a 38-year-old psychologist and divorcee from Súria who used to live in Morocco and has two children from her first marriage. She returned to Spain after her divorce, and writes erotic novels on the side.
As part of her work, Caballol has taken courses on sexology, while her latest novel takes the reader ‘through the world of prisons, psychopathy, sects, sadism, madness, lust and, little by little, as the story progresses, also towards the unreality of immortality and the crude struggle between good and evil, between God and Satan, and between Angels and Demons’.
Ex-bishop Novell got a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Lleida before joining the clergy and taking vows of celibacy in 1997, and now he is planning to settle down and get a job as an agricultural engineer in Manresa.
Novell was once the youngest bishop in Spain when he was appointed to his diocese in 2010. A conservative and controversial bishop, he spoke out vocally against abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia, and in favour of a referendum on Catalan independence.
Catholic church vilifies ex-bishop
According to some members of the Catholic clergy, Novell was ‘possessed’ and ‘scared lots of people in the Church’. Pope Francis himself apparently asked him ‘on two occasions to get an exorcism’.
In his resignation letter, Novell said he had taken the decision ‘after a period of reflection, discernment and prayer’ and ‘for strictly personal reasons, in conformity with the provisions of canon 401 2 of the Code of Canon Law’. The decision comes despite his comments in 2011, when asked what he would do if he fell in love: ‘If one day I meet a woman who attracts me because of the way she is or the way she thinks or acts, and arouses in me a feeling of conjugal affection, of falling in love, I think that what I would have to do and what I would do would be not to see her any more’.
Image: Archive
Source: Murcia Today
