We herein examine possible influence-trafficking offenses surrounding the appointment of a priest from the Diocese of Huesca-Jaca in Spain—whose personal sexually active life and regular visits to swing clubs before he was eighteen and after, had long been known within ecclesiastical circles—to a senior position in Aragón’s public health administration. The appointment took place with the explicit approval of his bishop, Julián Ruiz Martorell (at the time Bishop of Huesca-Jaca), and with the support of senior political and religious figures.
At the same time, criminal prison sentences are being sought against the Catalan journalist who revealed these facts, our colleague Jordi Picazo, an internationally registered journalist.
The Fundación Fundaz and the President of Aragón autonomous region in Spain, Jorge Antonio Azcón, are under scrutiny for promoting the Zaragoza-based priest Vicente López-Brea Urbán, who has not yet been secularized, to a high public office despite his lack of qualifications for such a role and his involvement in conduct widely considered incompatible with priestly ministry.
Political opposition parties in Aragón have demanded explanations from the regional government, emphasizing the absence of merit justifying the appointment. Among the bishops whose conduct provides context to the recent remarks by Pope Francis about moral dysfunction in seminaries are figures such as cardinal Juan José Omella, and bishops Julián Ruiz Martorell, Ángel Pérez Pueyo, Carlos Escribano, José Antonio Satué, Alfonso Milián, Manuel Ureña, Elías Yanes, and Vicente Jiménez.
According to the documentation, all of them tolerated a climate in which priests engaged openly in sexual activity, including visits to sexual exchange venues, widespread sexting among clergy, ideological labeling of parishes, and irregular personal situations among diocesan staff.
Non va plus. Nothing is what it seems
Nothing is what it seems—not in the Church, and not in politics.
Opposition parties in Aragón, Spain have repeatedly demanded explanations from the regional government regarding the appointment, through political-religious influence, of a priest—still not secularized—who was placed directly into public administration. The appointment was allegedly facilitated by the President of Aragón, Jorge Azcón, the diocesan bishop of huesca-Jaca at the time, Julián Ruiz-Martorell and the priest’s father, a senior military officer.
An international article by Jordi Picazo, titled Politics, Sin, and Power: The Rise of a Controversial Priest in Public Administration, described how political, judicial, and clerical forces in Aragón reacted to the exposure of these facts. According to the article, the reaction was not transparency, but sustained pressure aimed at silencing the journalist.
The legal offensive has been led by the Zaragoza branch of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, under Arantxa Pajares and José Pajares.
On the one hand, this firm has defended the suitability of a priest with a documented double life to oversee parishes and the catechetical formation of children and adolescents. On the other, it has pursued criminal charges against the journalist who documented those facts, accusing him of psychological harm, hate speech, and obsessive behavior.
A turning point: new data in an institutional corruption case
New information presented in this article reveals the institutional corruption surrounding Fundación Fundaz. These facts were communicated to political forces during a session of the Cortes of Aragón and are therefore a matter of public record.
Fundaz is not merely a foundation. Its flagship projects involve capital linked to Repsol and Sacyr (see also), whose former president Manuel Manrique Cecilia is publicly associated with Opus Dei (https://opusdei.org) and to Repsol (see here).
Fundaz’s governing bodies include senior figures from the Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce and founders of Heraldo de Aragón, a newspaper that published accounts portraying this investigation of ours as defamation while omitting the documented evidence. During the same period, while legal orders were being obtained to silence Picazo, communications took place between José Pajares in Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo and journalists at Heraldo de Aragón, including threads from priest López-Brea to Heraldo’s journalist. Senior editorial figures declined to engage with the documented facts.
The structure of influence is as follows:
- Fundación Fundaz (Zaragoza)
Vice-President: Rafael Alcázar, head of Alcázar Cuartero Abogados, where Ana Blasco, spouse of President Azcón, is a partner. - Vicente López-Brea Lucas, father of the priest, served for years as President of Fundaz and is currently its Director and Secretary.
- Fundaz maintains institutional and financial ties with Fundación Sacyr, linked to Opus Dei business circles.
The founder and president of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, Javier Cremades, is also publicly a member of Opus Dei. His firm received €1.2 million from the Spanish Episcopal Conference to audit clerical sexual abuse—an audit whose full contents have never been disclosed.
Political accountability and civil service bypass
Opposition parties have demanded accountability from president of Aragón Jorge Azcón for the appointment of the priest—son of a Fundaz’s director—as Director of Health Management in Calatayud area. The appointment was made despite the candidate’s only public-sector experience being a failed competitive exam for a hospital kitchen assistant post, which merely placed him on temporary employment lists with the view to be escalated by his mentors as shown above.
At the same time, the priest was completing legal internships in Zaragoza, studying law at UNIR, a university linked to Opus Dei entrepreneur and owner Miguel Arrufat, a member of Opus Dei himself, while neglecting fifteen assigned parishes in the Jaca area . His bishop Julián Ruiz-Martorell maintained his ecclesiastical salary, and it remains unclear whether that remuneration ever ceased as there is no transparency on his secularization.
Retaliation and precedent: the “Trama Maña”
This case fits into a broader pattern. Archbishop Manuel Ureña was removed from office following political-religious hostility. Several individuals involved in that operation—Mari Carmen Amador, Roberto Ferrer, and Antonio Mas—have since been civilly and canonically condemned by the highest tribunals of the Vatican.
The architects of that campaign, including Jesuit Germán Arana and Cardinal Omella, remain under scrutiny, with Arana having faced proceedings and cardinal Omella being accused by El País in this paper’s public investigation files of covering up sexual abuse.
Editorial note
Jordi Picazo, the only member of our team based in Spain, currently lives in exile due to sustained judicial harassment related to his investigative reporting on Church corruption. Without a court order, his passport renewal has reportedly been denied and all his assets were frozen.
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