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Bishop quits to marry erotic novelist: Scandal, celibacy debate and life for churchmen in love
10/09/2021
A DIOCESE in Catalunya is in uproar after a Bishop of the Catholic Church announced he had given up his vocation to marry an author of erotic novels.
Xavier Novell had created controversy in the past for admitting he 'frequently' practised exorcisms, spoke out in defence of conversion therapy for homosexuals, and supported his region's attempt at a referendum on independence, but this time, his polemical behaviour has not been slammed by the public – only by his former employers.
In a letter to the Diocese of Solsona three weeks ago, Novell explained his decision to give up his post of Bishop and leave the Church was due to 'strictly personal reasons', but it has only now been revealed that he had fallen in love with psychologist and fiction writer Silvia Caballol.
Sra Caballol's novels are erotic with a satanic twist – like a kind of vampire or devil-worship version of the Fifty Shades series – and titles highlighted in the Church press include Hell in Gabriel's Lust.
But a nun from the Dominican Republic interviewed on Spanish channel-four (La Cuatro) programme Todo es Mentira ('It's all lies'), Sister Lucía Caram, says she believes the real reason for Novell's departure is because 'the Pope is furious with him' for his very public and ultra-conservative declarations.
As well as the exorcism and support of Catalunya's secession referendum and conversion therapy, agricultural engineering graduate Novell – who became Spain's youngest Bishop when he took the post in 2010, aged 41 – has spoken out against abortion, even following rape; euthanasia, and same-sex marriage.
Back in 2017, he made the unfounded claim that homosexuality was 'caused' by 'not having a father figure' in the family, or directly condemning single mums or all-female parents.
“He's done a lot of damage to a lot of people,” Sister Caram said on the show.
A decade ago, Novell was asked what he would do if he fell in love, for real, and answered that if a woman 'awakened in him feelings of marital affection', he would go out of his way to make sure he never saw her again.
Divorced, former Muslim wife and sexologist...'living in sin' with Bishop
Catholic priests, Bishops and other members of the clergy cannot marry – unlike in most branches of Protestantism where women as well as men can be vicars or priests, can marry and have children, and even be divorced.
Now, the Church in Spain is aflame since, not only has the Bishop left to get married, and to an erotic novelist to boot, but they are living together in Manresa (Barcelona) despite not yet having tied the knot, and Silvia Caballol is a divorcée.
The writer and practising psychologist, 38, spent several years living in Morocco as she was married to a man from the northern African country, a Muslim, and had two children with him.
She moved back to Barcelona after their divorce.
Silvia Caballol started publishing her novels back in 2015 - fiction which has been described as covering themes such as penitence and punishment, sado-masochism, madness, religious cults, psychopathy, lust, immortality and 'the raw battle between good and bad, between God and Satan, between the angels and the demons', all from a sexual point of view.
She has taken professional courses in sexology, Islam, Catholicism, yoga, and anti-stress techniques.
It has been rumoured that her husband-to-be sought to be exorcised on two occasions, possibly in relation to his feelings for Silvia.
All these factors make up the perfect storm for the Church, and it has come as a surprise to the public that she and a key clergyman with extremely right-wing views would have found emotional compatibility together.
But they are not alone, and women in a similar situation have come out in support of Silvia.
Priests' wives Tere and Emilia: “The vow of celibacy puts would-be clergymen off”
Two other ladies in Spain who wed churchmen, Tere Cortés and Emilia Robles, set up the association for married priests or 'Movement for Optional Celibacy in the Church (MOCEOP), in 1977, and calculate that between 7,000 and 8,000 clergymen in the country have spouses and even children.
Tere, 66 and Emilia, 69 are campaigning for the Catholic Church to scrap the celibacy rule which, they say, is largely behind the rapid decline in men entering the priesthood.
Only men can be priests in the Catholic Church, and technically, if a priest discovers he is homosexual, he is required to resign – although at least one openly-gay priest is known to have practised in Spain - but MOCEOP is calling for a 'community' Church which is based upon 'equality' and reflects the reality of modern human society.
Back in the 1980s, just as Spanish society was starting to shake off the bonds of a far-right dictatorship and discover social freedom, around 20% of the clergy dropped out and became 'secular', MOCEOP says, so they would not be restricted in how they lived their personal lives.
Emilia says she fell in love with a colleague at the factory in Vallecas, Madrid where they both worked – Julio Pérez Pinillos – back in the 1970s, and that they moved in the same social circles, but he 'just so happened' to be a priest.
They have now been married for 44 years, after a wedding with 200 guests and in the presence of 20 other priests, although their actual wedding was not considered official due to Julio's vocation; instead, they had a civil wedding in a registry office two years later, when the brand-new Spanish Constitution had come into effect and permitted these.
Tere, chairwoman and chief coordinator for MOCEOP, married priest Andrés Muñoz in 1979, and explained that the sudden exodus from the Church in the late 1970s and early 1980s was largely among young men whose parents, generally poor land-workers, had sent them into the Clergy to 'give them an education' and reduce the number of mouths they had to feed.
She says that even today, with only 126 priests per year being ordained in Spain, they are continuing to leave their vocation in droves so they can have a relationship.
“All human beings, what they want is to live their love life with complete normality and openly, not behind closed doors, but as a member of the Clergy you're having to live a lie everywhere and all the time – this kind of pressure becomes suffocating,” says Tere who, along with Emilia, have both condemned Novell's ultra-conservative views and anti-homosexual stance.
Ex-priests' wives get the bulk of the blame
The process for priests when they decide to leave the Church to marry or to live with a partner is 'very painful and difficult', the two wives say, but 'the women have an even worse time of it'.
“Having a clandestine relationship with a priest is really tough,” says Tere.
Emilia admits she knows 'numerous women' who have been ostracised by their social circles and treated as some kind of lascivious temptress or she-devil for 'enticing sons of families away from their vocation' or as 'priest-robbers'.
They both say they feel for Silvia Caballol, who is 'now being judged for her novels and choice of partner' and that she is 'attracting the bulk of the criticism' for Xavier Novell's resignation from his rôle as Bishop of Solsona.
Tere says she was 'terrified' at first when she fell in love with a churchman, since 'it was always going to be difficult, especially back in 1979', but that she pleaded with her future husband 'not to take any decisions' on her account and to make his own, personal choices 'based upon what he felt was best for him'.
Fortunately for Tere, Andrés decided to follow his heart, and Tere's friends accepted him instantly – but her family did not.
Her parents were 'very religious' and she had 'a multitude of cousins, male and female, and aunts and uncles, who were priests and nuns', which made their situation 'extremely complex'.
Emilia says both sets of parents, and all their friends and colleagues at the factory, were very accepting of her and Julio as a couple and they faced little opposition, but it was wider society who frequently accused her of 'stealing a minister from the Church'.
She and Julio have three daughters and Tere and Andrés have a son, and all four of their children have known their whole lives that their dads were former priests – and both couples are still active in their local parish church communities.
Leaving the Clergy in the 1970s 'made life impossible' for priests in love
They say life should be easier for Novell and Caballol than it was in the 1970s, now that 'the Church does not have such a strong influence over society' and that the Vatican has made the process of leaving the Clergy much easier for those who wish to marry.
In Andrés' and Julio's cases, they had to get a psychologist to testify in writing that they had 'mental health conditions that made them unfit for the priesthood', were banned from marrying in church – except in an unofficial, non-legally-binding ceremony – meaning that, until civil weddings became legal in December 1978, they could not marry at all, at a time when 'living in sin' was considered highly immoral, and subject to widespread social rejection which any children they had would suffer throughout their lives for having been born out of wedlock.
They were forbidden from attending mass, giving sermons, or teaching RE, and were even obliged to move away from the village or suburb where they had been practising or preaching.
Nowadays, the process is much simpler, non-judgmental, and according to experts in religion, 'much less humiliating and offensive', since clergymen more or less only have to communicate their decision to the Pope and gain his blessing – and this is always granted.
In Xavier Novell's case, however, he is the first Bishop in Spain – as opposed to priest – to have left his position to pursue a romantic relationship, hence the scandal in the Church his decision has sparked.
From MOCEOP's experience, though, he may not be the first Bishop to have entered a relationship, as others may have opted to keep theirs behind closed doors.
Related Topics
A DIOCESE in Catalunya is in uproar after a Bishop of the Catholic Church announced he had given up his vocation to marry an author of erotic novels.
Xavier Novell had created controversy in the past for admitting he 'frequently' practised exorcisms, spoke out in defence of conversion therapy for homosexuals, and supported his region's attempt at a referendum on independence, but this time, his polemical behaviour has not been slammed by the public – only by his former employers.
In a letter to the Diocese of Solsona three weeks ago, Novell explained his decision to give up his post of Bishop and leave the Church was due to 'strictly personal reasons', but it has only now been revealed that he had fallen in love with psychologist and fiction writer Silvia Caballol.
Sra Caballol's novels are erotic with a satanic twist – like a kind of vampire or devil-worship version of the Fifty Shades series – and titles highlighted in the Church press include Hell in Gabriel's Lust.
But a nun from the Dominican Republic interviewed on Spanish channel-four (La Cuatro) programme Todo es Mentira ('It's all lies'), Sister Lucía Caram, says she believes the real reason for Novell's departure is because 'the Pope is furious with him' for his very public and ultra-conservative declarations.
As well as the exorcism and support of Catalunya's secession referendum and conversion therapy, agricultural engineering graduate Novell – who became Spain's youngest Bishop when he took the post in 2010, aged 41 – has spoken out against abortion, even following rape; euthanasia, and same-sex marriage.
Back in 2017, he made the unfounded claim that homosexuality was 'caused' by 'not having a father figure' in the family, or directly condemning single mums or all-female parents.
“He's done a lot of damage to a lot of people,” Sister Caram said on the show.
A decade ago, Novell was asked what he would do if he fell in love, for real, and answered that if a woman 'awakened in him feelings of marital affection', he would go out of his way to make sure he never saw her again.
Divorced, former Muslim wife and sexologist...'living in sin' with Bishop
Catholic priests, Bishops and other members of the clergy cannot marry – unlike in most branches of Protestantism where women as well as men can be vicars or priests, can marry and have children, and even be divorced.
Now, the Church in Spain is aflame since, not only has the Bishop left to get married, and to an erotic novelist to boot, but they are living together in Manresa (Barcelona) despite not yet having tied the knot, and Silvia Caballol is a divorcée.
The writer and practising psychologist, 38, spent several years living in Morocco as she was married to a man from the northern African country, a Muslim, and had two children with him.
She moved back to Barcelona after their divorce.
Silvia Caballol started publishing her novels back in 2015 - fiction which has been described as covering themes such as penitence and punishment, sado-masochism, madness, religious cults, psychopathy, lust, immortality and 'the raw battle between good and bad, between God and Satan, between the angels and the demons', all from a sexual point of view.
She has taken professional courses in sexology, Islam, Catholicism, yoga, and anti-stress techniques.
It has been rumoured that her husband-to-be sought to be exorcised on two occasions, possibly in relation to his feelings for Silvia.
All these factors make up the perfect storm for the Church, and it has come as a surprise to the public that she and a key clergyman with extremely right-wing views would have found emotional compatibility together.
But they are not alone, and women in a similar situation have come out in support of Silvia.
Priests' wives Tere and Emilia: “The vow of celibacy puts would-be clergymen off”
Two other ladies in Spain who wed churchmen, Tere Cortés and Emilia Robles, set up the association for married priests or 'Movement for Optional Celibacy in the Church (MOCEOP), in 1977, and calculate that between 7,000 and 8,000 clergymen in the country have spouses and even children.
Tere, 66 and Emilia, 69 are campaigning for the Catholic Church to scrap the celibacy rule which, they say, is largely behind the rapid decline in men entering the priesthood.
Only men can be priests in the Catholic Church, and technically, if a priest discovers he is homosexual, he is required to resign – although at least one openly-gay priest is known to have practised in Spain - but MOCEOP is calling for a 'community' Church which is based upon 'equality' and reflects the reality of modern human society.
Back in the 1980s, just as Spanish society was starting to shake off the bonds of a far-right dictatorship and discover social freedom, around 20% of the clergy dropped out and became 'secular', MOCEOP says, so they would not be restricted in how they lived their personal lives.
Emilia says she fell in love with a colleague at the factory in Vallecas, Madrid where they both worked – Julio Pérez Pinillos – back in the 1970s, and that they moved in the same social circles, but he 'just so happened' to be a priest.
They have now been married for 44 years, after a wedding with 200 guests and in the presence of 20 other priests, although their actual wedding was not considered official due to Julio's vocation; instead, they had a civil wedding in a registry office two years later, when the brand-new Spanish Constitution had come into effect and permitted these.
Tere, chairwoman and chief coordinator for MOCEOP, married priest Andrés Muñoz in 1979, and explained that the sudden exodus from the Church in the late 1970s and early 1980s was largely among young men whose parents, generally poor land-workers, had sent them into the Clergy to 'give them an education' and reduce the number of mouths they had to feed.
She says that even today, with only 126 priests per year being ordained in Spain, they are continuing to leave their vocation in droves so they can have a relationship.
“All human beings, what they want is to live their love life with complete normality and openly, not behind closed doors, but as a member of the Clergy you're having to live a lie everywhere and all the time – this kind of pressure becomes suffocating,” says Tere who, along with Emilia, have both condemned Novell's ultra-conservative views and anti-homosexual stance.
Ex-priests' wives get the bulk of the blame
The process for priests when they decide to leave the Church to marry or to live with a partner is 'very painful and difficult', the two wives say, but 'the women have an even worse time of it'.
“Having a clandestine relationship with a priest is really tough,” says Tere.
Emilia admits she knows 'numerous women' who have been ostracised by their social circles and treated as some kind of lascivious temptress or she-devil for 'enticing sons of families away from their vocation' or as 'priest-robbers'.
They both say they feel for Silvia Caballol, who is 'now being judged for her novels and choice of partner' and that she is 'attracting the bulk of the criticism' for Xavier Novell's resignation from his rôle as Bishop of Solsona.
Tere says she was 'terrified' at first when she fell in love with a churchman, since 'it was always going to be difficult, especially back in 1979', but that she pleaded with her future husband 'not to take any decisions' on her account and to make his own, personal choices 'based upon what he felt was best for him'.
Fortunately for Tere, Andrés decided to follow his heart, and Tere's friends accepted him instantly – but her family did not.
Her parents were 'very religious' and she had 'a multitude of cousins, male and female, and aunts and uncles, who were priests and nuns', which made their situation 'extremely complex'.
Emilia says both sets of parents, and all their friends and colleagues at the factory, were very accepting of her and Julio as a couple and they faced little opposition, but it was wider society who frequently accused her of 'stealing a minister from the Church'.
She and Julio have three daughters and Tere and Andrés have a son, and all four of their children have known their whole lives that their dads were former priests – and both couples are still active in their local parish church communities.
Leaving the Clergy in the 1970s 'made life impossible' for priests in love
They say life should be easier for Novell and Caballol than it was in the 1970s, now that 'the Church does not have such a strong influence over society' and that the Vatican has made the process of leaving the Clergy much easier for those who wish to marry.
In Andrés' and Julio's cases, they had to get a psychologist to testify in writing that they had 'mental health conditions that made them unfit for the priesthood', were banned from marrying in church – except in an unofficial, non-legally-binding ceremony – meaning that, until civil weddings became legal in December 1978, they could not marry at all, at a time when 'living in sin' was considered highly immoral, and subject to widespread social rejection which any children they had would suffer throughout their lives for having been born out of wedlock.
They were forbidden from attending mass, giving sermons, or teaching RE, and were even obliged to move away from the village or suburb where they had been practising or preaching.
Nowadays, the process is much simpler, non-judgmental, and according to experts in religion, 'much less humiliating and offensive', since clergymen more or less only have to communicate their decision to the Pope and gain his blessing – and this is always granted.
In Xavier Novell's case, however, he is the first Bishop in Spain – as opposed to priest – to have left his position to pursue a romantic relationship, hence the scandal in the Church his decision has sparked.
From MOCEOP's experience, though, he may not be the first Bishop to have entered a relationship, as others may have opted to keep theirs behind closed doors.
Related Topics
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