Catholics Stunned by News Bishop Fathered Two Sons

Gabino Zavala was assigned to Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East Los Angeles from 1977 to 1982

It’s been three decades since Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala, 60, led mass and religious functions at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in East Los Angeles, but his recent resignation and admission that he fathered two sons now living out of state has shocked faithful parishioners.

Maria Isabel Delgado, now a parishioner at St. Benedict Catholic Church in Montebello, says she found God while attending Our Lady of Guadalupe during the late 1980s and 1990s.  And while she was not at the church at the same time as Zavala (1977-1982) she was nonetheless taken aback when she was informed by a reporter that Zavala had fathered two children.

“I completely disapprove, I am very concerned,” Delgado said. “I’m nobody to judge him, only God can judge him, but it’s not right that they fool us.”

As auxiliary bishop, Zavala oversaw 66 churches in the San Gabriel Region, Archdiocese spokesman Carolina Guevara told EGP. Zavala’s sons live in another state with their mother and there is no additional information, Guevara said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, a Catholic whose four children attend parochial school, was also shocked to learn about Zavala’s former secret.

Huizar said he knew Zavala from public events and described the former bishop as “very down to earth. You almost felt like he was a neighbor,” he told City News Service.

On Wednesday, Archbishop José Gomez in a letter to members of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest in the United States covering Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said Zavala had resigned his post with the Catholic church after admitting in December that he fathered two children, who are now teenagers. [more]

SOURCE

EGPNews.com