23 Nov, 2021 @ 18:45
1 min read

Ex-bishop marries Spanish sweetheart in Barcelona after Pope says yes to sex

Silvia Caballol Y El Obispo Emerito De Solsona Xavier Novell Tv3 12 658x347

A SPANISH bishop who quit to marry an erotic novel writer 14 years his junior has finally tied the knot.

Xavier Novell, 52 had his big day with 38-year-old author Silvia Caballol yesterday (Monday November 23). But there was no church service for the couple – they had a behind closed doors civil ceremony in a magistrate’s office in Suria (Barcelona).

It would appear the happy couple were trying to keep a low profile as the office is normally closed on a Monday.

Silvia Caballol Y El Obispo Emerito De Solsona Xavier Novell Tv3 12 658x347
Caballol and Novell after their wedding. Picture: Screenshot TV3

Their luck was out however, with a film crew from TV3 getting wind of the event and standing in wait for them.

Novell announced his decision to leave the church just 11 years after he became the youngest bishop in Spain at the age of 41.

But he sent shockwaves through the community in Catalunya when he suddenly resigned from his position at the diocese of Solsona for ‘personal reasons’.

These later became clear as a desire to marry Caballol.

“I have fallen in love with a woman and I want to do things well,” Novell told Spanish newspaper El Pais. “It is a magnificent vocation but I see that the Lord has wanted me to renounce that beautiful thing to have a bigger family.”

He then asked the Pope for permission to renounce his vow of celibacy – which was given.

After leaving his job as prelate, Novell found work at the beginning of the month with a company that provides semen for the artificial insemination of pigs.

Dilip Kuner

Dilip Kuner is a NCTJ-trained journalist whose first job was on the Folkestone Herald as a trainee in 1988.
He worked up the ladder to be chief reporter and sub editor on the Hastings Observer and later news editor on the Bridlington Free Press.
At the time of the first Gulf War he started working for the Sunday Mirror, covering news stories as diverse as Mick Jagger’s wedding to Jerry Hall (a scoop gleaned at the bar at Heathrow Airport) to massive rent rises at the ‘feudal village’ of Princess Diana’s childhood home of Althorp Park.
In 1994 he decided to move to Spain with his girlfriend (now wife) and brought up three children here.
He initially worked in restaurants with his father, before rejoining the media world in 2013, working in the local press before becoming a copywriter for international firms including Accenture, as well as within a well-known local marketing agency.
He joined the Olive Press as a self-employed journalist during the pandemic lock-down, becoming news editor a few months later.
Since then he has overseen the news desk and production of all six print editions of the Olive Press and had stories published in UK national newspapers and appeared on Sky News.

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