Bishop stripped of powers after marrying author of occult erotica

Xavier Novell believed to have met author of Hell in Gabriel’s Lust during research into demonology

Xavier Novell has been stripped of his powers (Screengrab/La Vanguardia)

A Spanish bishop has been formally stripped of his powers after marrying an erotic novelist whose writing touches on Satanism and the occult.

Xavier Novell had reportedly been viewed as a rising star within the Spanish Catholic Church after becoming the country’s youngest bishop in Solsona, Catalonia, at the age of 41, in 2010.

However it emerged in September that Mr Novell, who previously courted controversy by allegedly backing so-called conversion therapy for gay people and likening abortion to “genocide”, had resigned from his post.

While he did not comment publicly on the news at the time, Religion Digital claimed that he had told those close to him: “I have fallen in love with a woman, for the first time in my life, and I want to do things well.”

The woman in question soon emerged to be psychologist-turned-author Silvia Caballol.

The pair met in recent years through their shared interest in demonology, El Independiente reported, which the newspaper suggested Mr Novell began to intensively research after he became the Solsona diocese’s exorcist.

Ms Callabol’s publisher, Lacre, reportedly describes the 38-year-old as as “a dynamic and transgressive author who’s made her mark on the thorny world of literature by turning all our moral and ethical questions upside down”.

A blurb on her second book, Hell in Gabriel’s Lust, appears to state that readers will be transported by a journey of “psychopathy, sects, sadism, madness” and lust and the “raw struggle between good and evil, God and Satan, and between angels and demons”.

According to The Telegraph, the author had asked in her Amnesia Trilogy, published in 2016: “What happens when attraction is stronger than any code of ethics or social pressure?”

In a statement published this weekend, Solsona’s apostolic administrator said Mr Novell had automatically forfeited the powers of his episcopal office after marrying Ms Caballol in a civil ceremony in November.

“This means that Bishop Xavier Novell i Gomà, while maintaining his status as bishop, cannot perform any of the functions that derive from such status; among others, the administration of the sacraments and any teaching activity, both in public and private, is prohibited,” the statement said.

It warned that Mr Novell could face “other possible consequences that could be canonically followed”.

According to El Mundo newspaper, Mr Novell, an agricultural engineer, is now working for an international firm which specialises in the preparation of doses for artificial swine insemination.

While Pope Francis was reported to have accepted his resignation from the bishopric, the newspaper ABC carried a claim from a source within the local clergy that the Holy See may have first asked him if he wished to undergo an exorcism.

Josep Rull and Jordi Turull, two former Catalan government ministers released from prison in June afte being pardoned for charges of sedition, previously lent their support to Mr Novell – a vocal public supporter of Catalonian independence – when his resignation was made public.

Thanking the former bishop for visiting them during their time in jail, Mr Rull said: “Bishop Novell has always been by the side of political prisoners, with words and, above all, with deeds, becoming one of the few exceptions from the Catalan Church hierarchy.”