Gabino Zavala

Gabino Zavala (born September 7, 1951) is a Mexican-American Catholic prelate who served as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in California from 1994 until 2012. He resigned at the request of Pope Benedict XVI after admitting he was the father of two children.

Biography

Early life

Born September 7, 1951, in Guerrero, Mexico, Gabino Zavala and his family moved to Tijuana, Mexico, when he was a child. After his ordination, Zavala served as an associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in East Los Angeles and as associate director of the marriage tribunal for the archdiocese. Although he was sometimes considered orthodox in his beliefs, he had a long history of supporting controversial positions on LGBTQ+ rights.

Zavala was the bishop president of the U.S. section of Pax Christi, co-president of Interfaith Worker Justice, and the episcopal advisor to the International Commission of Catholic Prison Pastoral Care (ICCPPC). He was also an adjunct professor of canon law and pastoral theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. In 2000, Zavala organized Encuentro, a conference of Catholics from different backgrounds and cultures. Encuentro had over 5,000 attendees, including 40 bishops and Cardinal Bernard Law. He got involved in prison ministry and would bring parishioners on visits to local prisons. In June 2011, he wrote an editorial for the National Catholic Reporter about an “unprecedented assault on workers’ rights now spreading across the country".

Resignation and legacy

On January 4, 2012, Archbishop José Gómez announced that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted Zavala's resignation as auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles. In December 2011, Zavala disclosed to Gómez that he was the father of two teenage children. The pope accepted Zavala's resignation under Code of Canon Law c. 401 §2. In his announcement, Gómez stated that Zavala had not been in ministry since the revelation, and that he "will be living privately".