The Vatican expels a Granada priest from the priesthood for alleged abuse of younger individuals

Archive of priest giving communionEuropa Press

José Antonio Villena García, who was for years a delegate of the University Pastoral Ministry of the diocese of Granada, has been expelled from the priesthood. The diocese of Granada itself experiences this in an inner assertion. “He has been resigned from the clerical state and from sacred celibacy as from all of the obligations inherent to sacred ordination,” reads the word despatched final Tuesday to the clergy of Granada.

The priest, who receives essentially the most severe canonical sentence, was accused of sexual abuse by younger adults who introduced it to the eye of the bishopric. Some complaints that date from 2008 and that, now coinciding with the arrival, as archbishop, of José María Gil Tamayo, have been dropped at the eye of the Vatican.

The resolution was made on April 5, after the completion of the investigations by Rome. Since then, Villena doesn’t belong to or is linked in any manner with the Catholic Church. “Once the legal administrative course of was concluded on July 2, 2022, the minutes of stated course of had been despatched to the Department for the Clergy, the competent physique within the issues introduced,” says the letter that makes it clear that the abuses are usually not associated with minors.

“The Archdiocese of Granada reiterates its dedication and closeness to the complainants, and as soon as once more expresses its willingness to collaborate within the clarification of fact and justice,” ends the assertion, signed by Alberto Espinar Lara, common secretary of the Archdiocese of Granada. .

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