Bishop evicts sedevacantist Spanish nuns from their convent

A court in Briviesca, Spain, has upheld the eviction of the Poor Clares of Belorado by the Archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta.

The religious sisters broke from Rome in May last year when their superior, Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, released a five-page open letter on 13 May along with an extensive 70-page “Catholic Manifesto”. The community initially declared their allegiance to sedevacantist Bishop Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco.

Rojas leads a heretical group called the “Pious Union”, which has chapels and Mass centres around Spain. They hold the sedevacantist position, which maintains that there have been no valid Popes since Pius XII (some date this further back to Pius X) due to liturgical and theological reforms, which they claim excommunicated subsequent Popes.

However, the nuns quickly split from Rojas and aligned with another sedevacantist bishop. He also later departed, and the sisters’ spiritual needs are now met by an Argentinian sedevacantist priest, Jesús Casas Silva.

Five elderly members of the community did not sign the superior’s letter and therefore did not incur excommunication. These sisters, aged between 86 and 100, were visited on 1 August by Church officials and offered the opportunity to be transferred to another Poor Clare convent in communion with Rome. However, the nuns are understood to have declined the request.

The nuns’ legal team have said that they will appeal the ruling. They have 20 days to do so. If they refuse to leave, they may be escorted by police from the property.

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