The bishop of San Sebastián, José Ignacio Munilla , will leave his San Sebastian diocese, where he has been since 2009, to replace Jesús Murgui Soriano in the Orihuela-Alicante diocese, where he will be inaugurated on Saturday, February 12 at the Orihuela Cathedral.
The appointment was announced at a press conference last Tuesday at the San Sebastián Seminary, where Munilla said that he “receives with enthusiasm, gratitude and trust the command of Pope Francis to be the Bishop of the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante “.
Bishop Murgui, however, who is retiring due to age, will remain as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Orihuela-Alicante until Monsignor Munilla takes office next year.
The appointment has been marked with some controversy with about a hundred parish priests rejecting his appointment.
During his ministry in San Sebastian the bishop has been involved in controversy over some of his pronouncements from the pulpit. On one occasion he described the increase in abortions as a “silent holocaust” and was also recently criticized for describing homosexuality as ‘unnatural’, a “disorder” that can be cured with therapy.
