A Spanish bishop who resigned from the Roman Catholic Church last month left the church to be with an erotic fiction writer, local media report.
When Xavier Novell announced he would be stepping down from his role of more than a decade, the church released a statement saying it was for “strictly personal reasons”.
But Spanish media outlet Religion Digital has now revealed the 52-year-old is in a relationship with Silvia Caballol, a divorcee who writes Satanic-themed erotic fiction and is also a trained psychologist.
Mr Novell became Spain’s youngest bishop in 2010 when he took up the position in Solsona, in Catalonia’s north-east, at the age of 41.
In that role, he backed conversion therapy for members of the LGBTQ+ community and held traditional values regarding abortion and homosexuality, BBC reports.
Brief About the Bishop
Seen as a rising star in the Catholic Church, Mr Novell was also an outspoken supporter of Catalonian independence and had met with the pope on several occasions.
His resignation came as a surprise for the church, which has maintained the decision was private, saying “corroboration or not of this story is a strictly personal matter for him alone”.
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