Spanish justice has ordered the expulsion of their convent of a group of Spanish nuns excommunicated by the Vatican after having come closer to a sect considered as heretical by the Catholic Church, according to a decision consulted on Friday, August 1.
These Clarisses sisters, installed in the Santa Clara convent in Belorado, a village of 1,800 souls located 50 kilometers from Burgos (North), had announced on May 13, 2024 their break with the church after a doctrinal quarrel against the background of a real estate arm.
After an intermediation attempt, they had been excommunicated a few weeks later by the Vatican. The Archbishop of Burgos then asked them to leave their convent, saying that they no longer had the right to stay there – which the latter disputed.
In a decision dated Thursday, the court of the neighboring city of Briviesca agreed with the archbishop and demanded that the nine nuns still present in this 15th century convent “Evacue” the building and the “Return available” church.
“If they don’t voluntarily do it”the authorities will carry out their « expulsion » by force, adds the court, which specifies that the church provided «A certificate» ownership of the convent, while the nuns presented “No title” justifying “the use of the property. The court, in its order, does not however give a date for the evacuation of the building.
“These are our property”
During the hearing before the court on Tuesday, the lawyer for the nuns, Florentino Alaez, had assured that the sisters would appeal if the court ordered their expulsion. The convent “Is to us”had insisted with journalists one of the nuns concerned, Sister Paloma. “We are not isolated nuns, we are a legal entity, and these are our property”she had insisted.
In a ” manifest “ Of 70 pages, these clarisses had justified a year ago their break with the church by a supposed “Persecution” From their hierarchy, which, according to them, failed an acquisition project by their community from another convent, located in the Spanish Basque Country.
They had also pointed out an alleged « chaos doctrinal » of the Vatican, which they accused of “Double language” and « contradictions »and announced now to be placed under the authority of an former excommunicated priest, self-proclaimed bishop, Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco.
This religious, founder of the “Pious union of Saint-Paul Apostre”claims to be sedevacantism, a current considering all the popes that succeeded Pius XII (1939-1958) as heretics. It was excluded from the Catholic Church in 2019 by the Archbishop of Burgos.