The Poor Clare nuns of Belorado have officially received their excommunication of the Catholic Church. After announcing his voluntary separation in May, the archbishop of Burgos, Mario Icetahas decreed his excommunication and expulsion ipso facto of consecrated life to each and every one of the sisters who incurred schism, the first division that Catholicism experiences in the 21st century, and the first in Christianity since Moscow’s break with the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2018.
He Archbishopric of Burgos announced its decision on Saturday, after the nuns of Belorado refused to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court and confirmed their “unanimous and irreversible position” of leave the Catholic Church. The nuns in turn assured that any canonical sanction such as excommunication would be null and void.
The Poor Clares of Belorado announced on May 13 their resignation from the Catholic Church. The religious community was placed under the tutelage and jurisdiction of the false bishop excommunicated Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco, leader of the Pious Union Sancti Pauli Apostoli. The schism has its origin in a real estate conflict: the nuns were seeking to get rid of a convent located in Derio (Bizkaia) to face the purchase of the monastery of Orduñabelonging to the Diocese of Vitoria and with which they had a purchase and sale agreement since October 2020.
But the Poor Clares did not get permission to sell the Derio convent, they claim. They also did not make the first payment for the purchase, scheduled for November 1, 2022. They proposed as an alternative that a buyer unrelated to the order will pay the million euros pending for purchase in Orduña. They would later deposit the money and the benefactor would then transfer the property to the Poor Clares. But the operation was never closed due to the Diocese’s doubts about the identity of the mysterious buyer. Finally, the Diocese of Vitoria terminated the sales agreement. After hearing the news, the nuns led by Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity They barricaded themselves in the monastery of Santa Clara in Belorado.
The Archbishopric of Burgos and the Bishopric of Vitoria then issued a joint statement in which they explained that they were unaware of this discontent and that they had not received any official communication about the decision of the Poor Clares. nor about the sale of the convent.
While the nuns recounted their situation on the social media profile @tehagoluz, the Poor Clare Sisters decided to separate themselves from those of Belorado. “If these sisters recognize their error and return to communion with the Catholic Church and the Order of Saint Clare, we express our availability to welcome them again“, with the same affection that they were received on the day of their profession,” they said. But far from it, several of the nuns chose to denounce the archbishop of Burgos for abuse of power, usurpation of legal representation and violation of the right of association. As the conflict with the Catholic authorities progressed, some of the nuns have been leaving the convent, until finally remaining ten entrenched.
On June 6, the Archbishopric required the nuns to hand over the keys to the monastery of Santa Clara and opened a canonical procedure before the Ecclesiastical Court for a crime of schism. But the nuns announced their refusal through José Ceacero, a member of the Pía Unión. Last Friday, June 21, the Poor Clares of Belorado published a statement “in response to the threat” of excommunication, in which they confirmed their “unanimous and irreversible position.”
Once the administrative deadlines have ended and before the refusal to appear in court ecclesiastics, Iceta has finally proceeded to excommunicate the rebellious nuns, so they should leave the monastery from Belorado. The Archbishopric has indicated that, despite the excommunication, “there continues to exist a monastic community formed by the sisters who have not incurred excommunication, as they have not supported the schism.” These are the five older sisters and three others who, although they are not in the monastery at the moment, belong to the community.
