The “rebel” nuns were evicted. It is the epilogue of the tug of war between the bishop of Burgos, Spain, Mario Iceta and the ten nuns of Belgorado, famous for the production of chocolates, who decided to separate from the Catholic Church to join the Pia Unión de San Pablo Apostol, a sect coordinated by Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco (excommunicated in 2019 by the same bishop). A choice that was dictated by the fact that the Poor Clares wanted to sell the Derio monastery to obtain the revenue necessary to carry on the Belorado complex. A sale blocked by Iceta who today ordered the nuns to leave the Belorado monastery, where they currently live. Otherwise, the bishop announced “legal action” to evict them.
Monsignor Iceta gave them “a precautionary deadline” to pack their bags. “They are the ones who decided to abandon the Catholic Church, they were not kicked out. It must be remembered that property and real estate are ecclesiastical assets”, explained Monsignor Iceta in the press conference. “There is no established time limit – he continued – we are waiting for them to react in a calm and serene way”, added Iceta, recalling that the decision of the ten Poor Clare nuns of the monasteries of Belorado (Burgos) and Orduna (Vitoria), communicated by registered letter last week to the archbishopric of Burgos, to say goodbye to the Catholic Church “was free and personal”.
For this reason, the bishop underlines, “after a deadline for reconsideration” the Poor Clares were formally excommunicated and “cannot reside on the property of the Catholic Church, nor be part of the monastic community of Belorado and Derio”. Iceta, who is also the “ad nutum pontifical commissioner” of the two complexes appointed by the Holy See, reported that the monastic community in Belorado continues to exist, “because there are eight other nuns who belong to the monastery”. In this sense, he assured that assistance to the elderly Poor Clares “is the priority”, for which “the Federation of Poor Clares of Our Lady of Arantzazu”, on which they depend, “has planned to send other sisters from other monasteries to assist them”.
Monsignor Iceta also informed that last Saturday he had asked the former abbess of Belorado for financial information on the maintenance of the ordinary life of the monastery, and the payment of supplies and taxes. But, given the nun’s refusal to hand over the accounting books, it is not known what the financial situation is. apart from the balance of just six thousand euros on the ten current accounts, which was accessed by the archbishopric. Therefore, the bishop explained, “liquidity will be injected to be able to meet the ordinary payments of the monasteries of Belorado, Orduna and Derio”.
