Sixteen Poor Clare nuns have announced their break with the Vatican, calling Pope Francis a “usurper”. It happened in northern Spain in the convent of Santa Clara in Belorado, 1800 inhabitants 50 km from Burgos (province of Castilla y León). On May 13, the nuns published a 70-page manifesto and a letter on social media announcing their break with the Catholic Church. The reason? The protest is believed to be based on a real estate dispute.
The dispute with Rome over the sale of a monastery
The letter, signed by Mother Superior Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, stated that the community of nuns was the victim of “persecution”. In fact, in 2020 the community had reached an agreement with the nearby bishopric of Vitoria to purchase the convent of Orduña, in the Basque Country. However, the operation had been “blocked by Rome”.
To raise the funds for the purchase of the new convent, the nuns would have wanted to sell a monastery but the Vatican prevented it and the entire operation fell through. According to the mother superior, Rome “has put a spoke in the wheels of our community”.
The nuns on TV: «We don’t recognize the Pope»
The nuns did not passively suffer the Vatican’s choices, on the contrary they began to protest, first with statements published on Instagram, then by going on television where guests on Telecinco stated that they “did not recognize the Pope” and that “the Vatican is a farce ”. They also accuse the church of Rome of using “double and confused language” and of contradicting itself.
The Poor Clares reiterated several times that they did not want to betray their faith or the orders received, and that they wanted to continue serving God.
The sect of the excommunicated priest Pablo de Rojas Sánchez
But there’s more. The rebellious nuns declared themselves under the authority of Pablo de Rojas Sánchez, an excommunicated priest, founder of “La Pía Unión de San Pablo Apóstol”.
The former religious man, known for his ultra-conservative positions, currently presents himself as a bishop ordained by the dissident church of Palmar de Troya in 2005. He was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 2019 by the archbishop of Burgos and defines himself as belonging to “sedevacantism”, a current that claims that there is no valid pontifical authority and considers all the popes following Pius XII (1939-1958), known for his conservative positions, heretics.
The reaction of the Bishop of Burgos
The Vatican has tasked the Archbishop of Burgos with attempting a solution to what Spanish newspapers call “The Burgos Schism.” However, after more than a month, the war is still open. The archbishop made “appeals for dialogue” and peace, but the nuns publicly accused him of abuse of power and of having “frozen” their bank accounts, preventing the purchase of basic necessities.
How will the church move? At the moment the “soft” line has been chosen. The curia pwill find himself talking to every single nun, trying to evaluate on a case by case basis. However, the penalty of excommunication before a religious tribunal is not excluded.
The Church “tried to exhaust all possible avenues before proceeding with excommunication”, but “the dialogue is interrupted”, Luis Santamaría, founder of the Ibero-American Network for the Study of Sects (RIES), who sees behind the rebellion at the hands of La Pía Unión de San Pablo Apóstol. According to Catholics, there is a risk that the nuns were “manipulated” by Pablo de Rojas Sánchez.
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