Religion in Spain –
Excommunicated nuns expelled from their convent
Spanish justice has ordered the expulsion of nuns excommunicated by the Vatican after having come closer to a sect considered as heretical.
The pious union of Saint-Paul Apôtre is considered a sect by the Catholic Church.
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Spanish justice has ordered the expulsion of a group of Spanish nuns from their convent, the latter having been excommunicated by the Vatican after having come closer to a sect considered heretical by the Catholic Church, according to a decision consulted on Friday by AFP.
These Clarisses sisters, installed in the Santa Clara convent of Belorado, a village of 1800 souls located 50 kilometers from Burgos (North), had announced on May 13, 2024 their break with the church after a doctrinal quarrel against a background of real estate arm.
Nuns excommunicated by the Vatican
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.
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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 XV convente century “evacuate” the building and “put it back” from the church.
“If they do not voluntarily do it”, the authorities will carry out their “expulsion” by force, adds the court, which specifies that the Church provided “a certificate” of property of the convent, while the nuns have presented “no title” justifying “the use of the property”.
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The court, in its order, does not however give a date for the evacuation of the building. 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.
Popes considered as heretics
The convent “is ours”, had insisted with journalists one of the nuns concerned, Sister Paloma. “We are not isolated nuns, we are a legal entity, and they are our goods,” she insisted.
In a 70 -page “manifesto”, these Clarisse sisters had justified a year ago their break with the church by a supposed “persecution” of their hierarchy, which, according to them, failed a project of acquisition by their community of another convent, located in the Spanish Basque Country.
They had also pointed out an alleged “doctrinal chaos” of Vatican, whom they accused of “double language” and “contradictions”and announced now to be placed under the authority of an excommunicated priest, Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco.
This religious, founder of the pious union of Saint-Paul Apôtre, claims to be “sedacism”, 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.
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