Nearly two years after they were declared to be in schism, the last of the Poor Clare sisters of Belorado have vacated their Church-owned convent.
A court had scheduled the eviction for 9.30am on Thursday, March 12, but the sisters left beforehand. The nuns had lost a series of court appeals against the Archdiocese of Burgos over their eviction and were left with little choice but to leave the property owned by the diocese, although the case will be considered further by the Supreme Court of Spain.
Before the eviction it is believed that most of the sisters had already moved to another convent in Orduña, also claimed by the community and located in the Basque Country, with reportedly just three nuns remaining in Belorado. It is possible that a similar eviction will be carried out at the convent in Orduña, meaning that an alternative solution for the sisters may be required.
The origins of their eviction stem from their May 2024 declaration of separation from the post-Vatican II Catholic Church and their allegiance to the sedevacantist bishop Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco. The news was made public when their superior, Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, released a five-page open letter on May 13 along with an extensive 70-page “Catholic Manifesto”.
Rojas leads a group known as 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 Pope Pius XII, with some adherents dating the rupture further back to Pope Pius X, owing to liturgical and theological reforms that they believe invalidated subsequent pontificates.
Rojas claims his episcopal lineage according to the so-called “Thục line”, referring to bishops who were consecrated by, or derive their succession from, Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Đình Thục (1897–1984), the former Archbishop of Huế in Vietnam and brother of South Vietnam’s president Ngô Đình Diệm.
In response to the sisters’ allegiance, the Archdiocese of Burgos issued a declaration of excommunication and ordered the nuns to leave consecrated life under canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law.
The excommunication applied to only 10 of the sisters, since one had already left and five were considered too elderly. The sisters subsequently distanced themselves from Rojas. It appears that the bishop and a man associated with his movement, Francisco José Ceareo Sierra, had been staying at the monastery. Ceareo, who claims to be a priest, had become the self-appointed spokesman for the nuns and declared to the press that the Bishop of Burgos, Archbishop Mario Iceta, was a “shameless man”. His presence had reportedly become a source of tension within the community.
The sisters later welcomed another sedevacantist bishop, Rodrigo da Silva, whose views had been so extreme that the late former Society of St Pius X bishop Richard Williamson distanced himself from him in 2018. Da Silva also claims the Thục lineage, although he too eventually departed. According to reports, the spiritual needs of the community are now served by the sedevacantist priest Jesús Casas Silva.
Before their split with the Catholic Church, the sisters had gained national attention for their handcrafted chocolates, especially mojito-flavoured truffles and chocolate-covered orange sticks, which were sold in gourmet shops and even served in Michelin-starred restaurants such as San Sebastián’s Akelarre. After their break with the Church in May 2024, the sisters launched Obraetlabora SL, a company registered in December 2024. Its declared activities include chocolate and confectionery production, as well as agriculture, livestock and property rental.
In early 2025 they were reported to owe significant debts, including €18,000 for a chocolate oven and ingredients, while the archdiocese stated that the community lacked funds in official convent accounts. Despite financial strain, they continued producing chocolates under the brand “Erre que Erre”, which were showcased at Madrid Fusión 2025.
In February 2025 three of the sisters moved to Arriondas in Asturias, where they rented the Hotel-Restaurant Ribera del Chicu. They planned to run a cloistered restaurant, with dining service handled by volunteers or staff so that the sisters could remain enclosed. The future of the venture remains unclear. At the time the community also attracted attention after purchasing a fighting bull, which later had to be sold because it could not be contained within the convent grounds.
In November 2025 controversy continued when two sisters were arrested in connection with the alleged illegal sale of artwork. A month later four elderly sisters were “rescued” from the convent owing to concerns about their medical condition. Three of the nuns were subsequently hospitalised following a medical check-up because of their deteriorating condition.
In February this year the sisters launched a campaign to find a new convent. Through the website queremosunconvento.com they asked the Spanish public to offer them a home in which to continue their religious life, encouraging visitors to leave a message “if you can help these charismatic nuns”.
Responses were mixed, with some using the site to advertise houses for sale and others offering suggestions about abandoned convents. One unusual response came from Mgr Artur Jan Sitko, vicar-general in Germany for the Polish National Catholic Church. The cleric offered “a formal invitation to you to consider full communion with our Church” in order to facilitate “the establishment of a Mission in Spain”. Reports indicated that the campaign raised less than €500, and the website has since been taken offline.
A further development occurred later the same month when two of the nuns were reconciled with the Church after their excommunications were lifted by Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos. The sisters formally retracted their support for the so-called “Catholic Manifesto” and entered a period of reconciliation described by the pontifical commissioner of the convent as being embraced “with humility and gratitude, following the guidelines that had been indicated to them and to their spiritual companions”.
The future of the remaining excommunicated religious remains unclear. It is understood that they may initially relocate near the town of Toledo, where one of them has family ties, or move to another property owned by the community.
However, the sisters’ lawyer, Florentino Aláez, insisted that the eviction should not be regarded as final. “This is a provisional execution,” he told reporters, adding: “We have filed an appeal, and we trust that the Supreme Court will rule in our favour.”
