lThe ten Spanish Poor Clare sisters in open conflict with the Vatican for a month were officially excommunicated after a fight over real estate problems and accusations of belonging to a sect, the archdiocese of Burgos announced on Saturday.
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”On June 22, the archbishop of Burgos, pontifical commissioner and legal representative of the monasteries of Belorado, Orduña and Derio, communicated the decree declaring excommunication and the declaration of resignation (expulsion) ipso facto from consecrated life to each and every one of the ten sisters who have incurred schism,” indicated a statement published on the archbishopric’s website.
The archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta, received the day before a “declaration of ‘voluntary separation’ from each and every one of them, received by burofax”, a certified letter that has the value of evidence in court. ”They are the same sisters who have shown their free and personal decision to leave the Catholic Church,” the text stated.
In the case, the archbishop of this city in Castilla y León, in the north of Spain, and the nuns of Santa Clara de Belorado, a town of 1,800 people located about 50 km from Burgos, have been facing each other for a month.
On May 13, this community of 16 sisters residing in the 15th century brick convent caused astonishment by announcing that it was breaking with the Catholic Church, in a 70-page “manifesto” accompanied by a letter published on social networks.
The letter, signed by the mother superior, Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, denounced the “persecution” of which the community would be a victim, engaged for several years in a real estate confrontation with its hierarchy.
The rebellious novices. 10 Poor Clare nuns from Spain signed a harsh “manifesto” in which they not only ignored the authority of Pope Francis, but also said that the “Vatican is a farce.” An attempt was made to get them to return to discipline and it was not possible. They were excommunicated. pic.twitter.com/IXbAFIGkOd
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In 2020, the nuns reached an agreement with the neighboring bishopric of Vitoria to buy the convent of Orduña, in the Basque Country, but the sale ultimately fell through. The transaction was “blocked from Rome,” the nuns said.
‘Sect’
The nuns of Belorado also criticized an alleged “doctrinal chaos” in the Vatican, who is accused of incurring “contradictions” with his “double and confusing languages.” They also do not recognize Pope Francis and announced that they are now under the authority of an excommunicated priest, Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco.
The religious, founder of The Pious Union of Saint Paul the Apostle, claims to be a member of “sedevacantism”, a current that considers all the popes who succeeded Pius XII (1939-1958) heretics, after the assumption of John XXIII and the call to the Vatican Council II. For this reason, he believes that there is currently no valid supreme pontiff. He was excommunicated in 2019 by the archbishop of Burgos.
After the nuns’ letter, the archbishop commissioned by the Vatican to resolve the matter first made calls for dialogue. But when the sisters refused, he finally asked them to appear before an ecclesiastical court to confirm his decision.
The rebellious nuns say they do not recognize that court and describe the procedure as a “farce.”
”This is not a frequent occurrence in the Catholic Church. Excommunication is the greatest sanctioning measure in Canon Law, since it means being deprived of union with the Church and, therefore, of all his spiritual goods. It only occurs in the most serious cases of canonical crime,” said theologian Luis Santamaria, founder of the Ibero-American Network for the Study of Sects (Ries).
”Its main purpose is not punishment, but the healing of a wound and pedagogy,” said Santamaría. ”In the specific case of the Poor Clare nuns of Belorado, once the excommunication has been officially declared today, they can no longer be considered Catholic nuns, and it is normal for them to abandon a monastery that is no longer their place,” he noted.
However, he said that the sisters who did not incur excommunication, by not supporting the schism, will continue in the monastery, that is, five older sisters and three others who are not there, but belong to the community.
AFP
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