A man who, barely a year ago, spoke before cameras worldwide calling for Church unity, now finds himself having to defend himself against accusations that no unity could ever cover. Cristóbal López Romero, a Salesian cardinal and Archbishop of Rabat since 2018, was among the 133 electors in the last conclave and, until a few months ago, was on the unofficial lists of potential papal candidates mentioned before the election of Leo XIV. This week, he announced his withdrawal from all public office after at least five women accused him of sexual violence, stating in a declaration sent directly to the press: "I have committed neither assault, nor violence, nor sexual harassment." Between these two phrases — the call for unity and the solitary denial — lies the full vertigo of a crisis that is affecting the Catholic Church in the land of Islam at the precise moment when it believed it had turned a painful page.
A cardinal who could be a pope, struck down by the truth
The vertigo of a Church already tested in Rabat
This is not the first time the small but visible diocese of Rabat has weathered a storm of this nature. Just a year earlier, French priest Antoine Exelmans, sent by his home diocese to assist migrants and refugees in Casablanca, was accused of having set up, according to the canonical investigation conducted by the archbishopric itself, what was described as a "system of sexual exploitation" targeting young exiles, both minors and adults, over a period of at least four years. The priest defended himself by claiming that the acts were "freely consented to," a phrase that deeply shocked the parishioners of his native Brittany, who were "completely taken aback" upon learning of the affair. It was precisely López Romero who had to manage the communication of this crisis at the time, claiming to have "fully cooperated" with the Moroccan and French authorities, and assuring that the only known minor victim had been taken care of by the Church.
This precedent radically alters our understanding of the current affair. It is no longer a question of a diocese caught off guard by an isolated scandal, but of an ecclesial community that, eighteen months earlier, had already experienced firsthand the mechanisms of silence, belated protection, and the difficulty of naming evil when it originates from within. The cardinal who is now resigning is no stranger to these procedures: he was, until recently, their public guarantor. This troubling continuity raises a broader question than the individual case alone—that of the true vigilance a bishop exercises over himself when he demands of others an exemplary standard that he presents as non-negotiable.
The defense of one man, the silence of a system
The reported accusations are specific and consistent. A retired woman with ties to the Church testified directly to recurring incidents she describes as sexual abuse; another sent a written statement to the Apostolic Nunciature in Rabat describing embraces she perceived as inappropriate, particularly forceful and prolonged, as well as an attempt at physical closeness akin to a forced kiss, which she claims to have escaped "with great difficulty." A diocesan source confirms that at least three other women have reported similar incidents. The Vatican, through its own official media outlet, confirmed the opening of a preliminary investigation and published a statement from the cardinal himself, who acknowledges being "accused of inappropriate behavior toward adult women" while denying any assault, violence, or harassment.
This vocabulary deserves closer examination, for it outlines the contours of a carefully constructed defense. Denying aggression and violence is not the same as denying the act itself; acknowledging «inappropriate behavior» is not the same as acknowledging serious misconduct. This gray area, where words are chosen for what they exclude rather than what they affirm, is precisely the one that canonical procedures for the protection of minors and vulnerable persons have been designed, since the pontificate of Francis, to prevent from flourishing. The cardinal chose to withdraw voluntarily, without waiting for a disciplinary decision, «so as not to jeopardize the investigation»—a gesture that some will interpret as prudent prudence, others as an implicit admission of the gravity of the situation. It should be noted, in his defense, that no criminal complaint has been filed against him in the Moroccan courts to date, according to judicial sources cited in the Spanish-language press.
The man whom Pope Francis elevated to the cardinalate in 2019—a historic first for Morocco—had always presented himself as a bridge between cultures, a Salesian imbued with the spirituality of Don Bosco, focused on young people, trained in Almería before serving in Paraguay and then Morocco. It is perhaps this very image, that of the approachable, warm, and available prelate, that raises the most questions today: pastoral closeness, when not guarded by constant self-reflection, can become fertile ground for abuses of power that victims take years to name.
The mystery of wounded authority
The pastor who becomes a wolf
Scripture has never remained silent on this precise and agonizing situation: that of the shepherd who betrays the flock he is charged with guarding. The prophet Ezekiel, in a text of rare severity, makes the voice of God heard, addressing the shepherds of Israel in these terms: «Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the sheep? You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not brought back the lost, nor sought the lost; but you have ruled them with violence and harshness» (Ezekiel 34:2-4). This text does not describe mere administrative negligence; it describes a complete inversion of the pastoral function, where the authority received to protect becomes the very instrument of domination.
The prophet Micah, for his part, addresses an even sharper rebuke to the leaders of the people, almost physical in its descriptive violence: «Hear now, you leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Should you not know justice? You hate good and love evil» (Micah 3:1-2). What the biblical text highlights is that responsibility increases with office: those entrusted with the mission of knowing the law and upholding it bear a heavier guilt when they betray it. Applied to the present situation, this principle starkly illuminates the difference between the fault of an ordinary believer and that of a cardinal elector, whose voice, a few months earlier, had been heard in the Sistine Chapel on the question of the unity of the Church. Spiritual authority is never neutral: it amplifies either the good or the evil it bears.
It would, however, be misleading to reduce this reflection to a simple condemnation before the canonical inquiry has even reached a verdict. The Church, in its most ancient tradition, has always distinguished between accusation and established guilt, between rumor and judgment. But it has also learned, painfully and at its own expense, that institutional silence surrounding accusations against clerics has in the past caused immeasurable damage to victims as well as to the very credibility of the Gospel message. It is this tension—between the presumption of innocence and the duty of immediate vigilance—that the procedure initiated by the Vatican this week is attempting to maintain, with the tools at its disposal since the reforms of recent years, without betraying it.
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Irreproachability, a forgotten condition of the episcopate
In his first letter to Timothy, Saint Paul sets out the requirements for exercising the office of bishop with a precision that resonates particularly strongly today: «An overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach… He must also have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap» (1 Tim 3:2, 7). This last point is crucial and too often overlooked in spiritual commentaries: the bishop’s irreproachability is not measured solely within the ecclesial community, but also in the eyes of «outsiders»—that is, in the Moroccan context, in the eyes of a predominantly Muslim society that observes, often with goodwill but also with particular scrutiny, the conduct of the minority religious leaders it welcomes to its land.
This demand for credible testimony "from the outside" takes on particular significance when considering the unique position of the Catholic Church in Morocco: a Church of encounter, composed almost exclusively of sub-Saharan migrants and expatriates, living in ongoing and generally fruitful dialogue with local Islam, under the benevolent but vigilant protection of the kingdom's authorities. A serious error committed by the highest representative of this Church never remains a purely internal matter; it reflects on how this Christian minority is perceived, on the trust placed in it by its Moroccan institutional partners, and on the very credibility of the interreligious dialogue that López Romero himself had helped to build during his years of ministry.
This theological dimension of irreproachability should not be interpreted as a requirement of absolute moral perfection—no man, not even a cardinal, is exempt from it—but as a reminder that the episcopal office entails a public responsibility that transcends the individual. It is precisely because this responsibility is so weighty that the Church has, over the past decade, developed procedures for reporting, preliminary investigations, and precautionary suspensions that allow action to be taken even before a final judgment is rendered. The fact that these mechanisms were applied this week to a cardinal elector, regardless of his rank, is in itself a sign—fragile but real—that the culture of hierarchical impunity is receding.
What Catholic Morocco must now confront
The preliminary investigation and its canonical limits
The opening of a preliminary investigation by the Holy See follows precise rules, notably those stemming from the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, promulgated during the pontificate of Francis and subsequently confirmed. This procedure requires the competent dicastery to gather testimonies, assess their credibility, and transmit its conclusions to the authorities who will decide on the next steps—from dismissal to a full-fledged canonical trial. The statement released by the Vatican's official media outlet, reproducing the cardinal's declaration in its entirety, illustrates a desire for relative transparency that contrasts sharply with past practices of systematic discretion.
This transparency, however, remains partial. The cardinal's withdrawal is presented as voluntary and not as a suspension imposed by his superiors, a nuance that is not insignificant from a canonical standpoint: it leaves López Romero room to maneuver and an image of cooperation that a coercive disciplinary measure would not have allowed. Similarly, the absence to date of any criminal complaint before the Moroccan courts means that the matter remains, for the time being, confined to the ecclesiastical forum—a situation that could change if one of the women involved decided to bring the case before the kingdom's civil courts. The climate of vigilance already established by the Exelmans affair suggests that the diocesan authorities, this time, will not be able to plead ignorance or surprise in the face of accusations that, once again, affect the integrity of those who should be protecting the most vulnerable.
Rebuilding trust in minority territory
The Catholic Church in Morocco, with barely a few tens of thousands of faithful composed overwhelmingly of sub-Saharan migrants and foreign students, lacks the size and resources of the major European episcopal conferences to absorb such an institutional shock. Its strength rested largely on the figure of López Romero himself: a man known for his commitment to migrants, praised by Moroccan authorities for his ability to engage in dialogue, and until recently presented as a respected voice far beyond religious boundaries. The current crisis is forcing this small Church to urgently rethink how it combines pastoral proximity and institutional vigilance, two requirements which, as we can see, are not necessarily opposed but which require concrete safeguards: systematic presence of a third party during sensitive pastoral interviews, enhanced training of diocesan teams to listen to reports, and above all a culture where any woman or young person who feels in danger knows who to turn to without fearing silence.
📁 Special Report
Leo XIV1184 articles
Leo XIV, the first American pope, facing AI and digital technology: profile, social legacy of Leo XIII and challenges…
Access the folder →The pontificate of Leo XIV, which began in 2025 in a climate where the protection of vulnerable people remained a priority inherited from his predecessor, is thus confronted, just a few months after the conclave, with the concrete test of its coherence: one of the cardinals who elected him, a man whose name had been circulating among the papabili, is now the subject of serious accusations. The way in which this case is investigated, over time and until its conclusions, will reveal much about the Church's true capacity to treat its highest officials with the same rigor that it rightly demands of its priests and laity. The prophet Ezekiel promised, immediately after his denunciation of the bad shepherds, that God himself would come for his sheep and snatch them from the mouths of those who had devoured them: it is this promise, more than any institutional communication, that must remain the horizon of truth towards which the whole Church of Rabat is striving today.
Lectio divina
«You did not strengthen the weak, but you ruled them with violence and harshness.» Ezekiel 34:4
Perhaps you, too, have known a hand that was meant to bless but instead wounded. Perhaps you expected a pastor to strengthen you, and received only harshness. What do you do with this wound when it comes precisely from the one who spoke in the name of God? Where do you place your trust now, when authority itself has faltered? Remain with this question for a moment, without rushing to answer it.
Lord, you, the true Shepherd, look upon the sheep wounded by those who were meant to carry them. You know every hand that trembles from being touched without consent. You know every silence imposed upon women who spoke out. Come yourself to those who have been harshly dominated. Strengthen what remains weak within them. Make your Church a refuge, and never again a wound.
In the darkness of the sheepfold, a sheep finds the warmth of a hand finally free from violence.
✝ Biblical references
2 passages · 2 books
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Tim 1:15)
Pastoral instructions on the organization of the Church and the office of bishop.
→ Explore Codex 1 Timothy- From Rabat to Chambéry: Vatican vigilance regarding abuses in the face of a new test
- Woelki and the Guilty Silence: When the Crisis in the German Church Reveals the Abyss Between Word and Deed
- Wounded Memory: George Pell, the Australian Church, and the Long Road to Truth
- When the Church rises from its ashes: the long redemption of the Chilean Church
Act justly, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)
Social justice and the announcement of a messiah born in Bethlehem.
→ Explore the Micah Codex
🌍 3 countries involved
Still largely marked by its Catholic heritage, Spain today has a majority of baptized people, even though religious practice is declining sharply. According to an ancient tradition, Christianity arrived there as early as the 1st century…
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With nearly half the population still identifying as Catholic, France remains marked by a deep Christian tradition within a context of strong secularization. The first communities appeared as early as the 1st century AD…
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In Morocco, Catholics represent approximately 0.1% of the population, in a kingdom with a very large Muslim majority. The Christian origins of North Africa date back to the early centuries, with figures like Tertullian.
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