A community of nuns at a 15th-century monastery in northern Spain has split from the Roman Catholic Church over a property dispute and doctrinal squabble that led them to align themselves with an apostate priest.
The Church has threatened to excommunicate 16 nuns living in Belorado, a town of 1,800 inhabitants on the popular Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route, near Burgos.
The rebel sisters of the Order of St. Claire announced their separation from the Church in a letter published on social media on May 13, along with a 70-page “manifesto.”
In the letter, signed by the convent’s mother superior, Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, the nuns said they separated because they were being “persecuted” by the church hierarchy over the ownership dispute.
The nuns reached a deal in 2020 to buy a convent in Orduna, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Belorado, but they said they could not afford it because the Vatican canceled their planned sale of another abandoned property blocked to finance the purchase.
The transaction was “blocked by Rome,” they wrote in the letter, accusing the Vatican of “doctrinal chaos” and “contradictions” in its positions on matters of faith.
The nuns announced that they are now under the jurisdiction of excommunicated priest Pablo de Rojas Sanchez-Franco, who is known for his ultra-conservative views.
– ‘Very painful’ –
He heads the Devout Union of the Apostle Saint Paul, a religious group considered a sect by the Catholic Church and presenting itself as a bishop, appearing in public in episcopal robes.
Sanchez-Franco supports sedevacantism, a movement that holds that all popes since Pius XII, who died in 1958, are heretics and that there is currently no valid pope.
The Archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta, who excommunicated Sanchez-Franco in 2019, has expressed “astonishment” at the nuns’ escape.
“It is very painful to hear the Mother Superior say that the Pope is a usurper,” he said.
He has called for dialogue to resolve the dispute. But this month the archbishop sent representatives accompanied by a bailiff to the monastery to demand that the nuns hand over the keys to the monastery. They were rejected.
The nuns have filed a lawsuit against the Church for “abuse of power.” On their recently created Instagram account, they accused the archdiocese of freezing their bank accounts, preventing them from purchasing “basic goods.”
– ‘Broken’ –
The Church had initially given the nuns until June 16 to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal to confirm their decision to split, which could lead to excommunication – a move that would deprive them of certain sacraments such as confession.
But the deadline was pushed back until Friday, according to the Church, which has pledged not to excommunicate the oldest nuns, who are considered more vulnerable.
She wants to hear the nuns individually so that they can assess their position on a case-by-case basis.
The nuns have reiterated their hostility toward the Vatican on social media in recent days, making a last-minute deal unlikely.
The Church “explored all possible avenues to avoid excommunication”, but “the dialogue has failed”, theologian Luis Santamaria, founder of the Iberia-American Network for the Study of Sects, told AFP. He said the nuns appear to have been “manipulated” by Sanchez-Franco’s group.
“Everything indicates that the sisters did not make their decision in complete freedom,” he said.
vab/ds/tw
