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Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Spanish bishop who had made controversial statements in favor of Catalan independence.
The Vatican announced the resignation on August 23 of Bishop Xavier Novell Gomà de Solsona. At 52, Bishop Novell was one of the youngest bishops in Spain.
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Romà Casanova Casanova de Vic apostolic administrator of the diocese, the Vatican has announced.
In a statement issued shortly after the announcement, the Spanish Episcopal Conference stated that Bishop Gomà “freely presented” his resignation to the Pope “for strictly personal reasons” in accordance with canon 401, paragraph 2 of the Code of Canon Law.
According to the canon, a diocesan bishop “who has become less able to fulfill his office due to a health problem or other serious cause is urged to resign from his office”.
“Bishop Novell made the decision after a time of reflection, discernment and prayer, at the end of which he spontaneously presented to the Holy Father his situation and his resignation from the pastoral governance of the diocese of Solsona”, declared the episcopal conference Spanish. .
The Spanish bishop made headlines in 2017 for comments he made after the Parliament of the Catalonia region voted to unilaterally declare independence from Spain.
The statement prompted former Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to invoke an article in Spain’s constitution and dissolve the Catalan government.
According to the Spanish news site El Confidencial, Bishop Novell wrote in his weekly column on the diocesan website that if Catalonia’s independence is voted, “I will go and vote.”
“It is not fair that we are denied and hampered in the exercise of self-determination,” he wrote in the October 2017 column. Self-determination, he added, “is an inalienable right of each nation; a large social majority wants to exercise it, and this was the first point of the electoral programs of the political parties which won the last regional elections “.
The bishop’s statement supporting the independence of Catalonia directly contradicted the opinion of most Spanish bishops, including Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Valencia.
In a November 2017 commentary for the Madrid daily La Razón, Cardinal Cañizares, who served as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments from 2008 to 2014, said it was “morally unacceptable” that nations “ unilaterally claim independence of their own accord. “
In another interview with La Razón on November 26, Cardinal Cañizares said he was “hurt” that many Catalan clergy had supported independence, allowing the referendum ballot boxes to be covered up in their churches. He also said he believed Bishop Novell’s support for independence had been confused and untrue.
“No one can claim an ecclesiastical basis for secessionism,” said the Spanish cardinal. “The independence movement sparked a hatred that did not exist, while the church will always work for unity, coexistence and harmony.”
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