A group of 15 Poor Clare nuns from Belorado (Burgos) and Orduña (Bizkaia) have hit the table and have decided to move from the Catholic Church to the tutelage of the Pía Unión Sancti Pauli Apostoli order, under the orders of the excommunicated bishop Pablo De Rojas.
As they explain, the decision was made due to the constant “persecution” to which they have been subjected by superiors, pastors, sisters and priests as a result of a real estate operation. Now they claim that they are not separated nor are they going to abandon the Church, so the situation is much more bizarre than it may seem.
The origin of this decision would be the “persecution” that, according to these nuns, they suffer from superiors, pastors, sisters and priests, as exemplified, according to their statement, by Rome’s decision to “block” their request to sell a convent. which they own and which is empty in Derio, in Vizcaya, in order to be able to face the purchase of the monastery of Orduña, belonging to the Diocese of Vitoria and with which they had a purchase and sale agreement.
By not obtaining permission to sell the monastery of Derio, they proposed as an alternative that a buyer outside the order pay the million euros that is pending for the purchase of the monastery of Orduña, so that, when they could return that money, the benefactor transferred the convent to the Poor Clares. However, the operation was not closed due to doubts from the Diocese regarding the identity of the proposed buyer, which led to the termination of the purchase and sale agreement by the Diocese of Vitoria.
In a statement made public by Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, the abbess of the community made up of sixteen nuns, these nuns proclaimed that they would become under the tutelage and jurisdiction of Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco and his so-called Pía Unión Sancti Pauli Apostoli.
But who is this person who has revolutionized the life of the quiet convent of the Poor Clares? In statements to EFE, Luis Santamaría, theologian expert in sects and author of the book A las outskirts of the cross. The sects of Christian origin in Spain define him like this: “He is a megalomaniacal character with delusions of grandeur, who combines the ecclesiastical and the noble, who walks around Bilbao with episcopal ornaments typical of another era and who, in this case, everything seems indicate that he has taken advantage of a situation of vulnerability of a community of nuns to present himself to the Poor Clares as the savior of the community itself and of the entire Catholic Church.”
A character who, in addition, has surprised everyone and everyone with the luxury with which his order is surrounded, as can be seen in a series of images shared by the newspaper El Correo, in which the very expensive objects can be seen. of decoration, vestments and other ornaments that the excommunicated bishop possesses.
Among the reactions, which have not been lacking on social networks, not only are their excesses criticized, but also the luxury that the people in their care squander, far from the austerity and poverty that a servant of God should show.
The conflict continued to develop during the broadcast of the program ‘And now Sonsoles’, where the issue of the nuns of Belorado was addressed. Mario Iceta, archbishop of Burgos, claimed to have received documents in which the nuns reported their abandonment of the Catholic Church to go under the jurisdiction of Pablo de Rojas, rejecting Vatican II and the Pope. For his part, Ceaceros, spokesperson for the nuns, accused the archbishop of lying and defaming, denying the existence of a complaint related to the sale of a property.
The spokesperson for the nuns stressed that the decision to leave the Catholic Church was made after deep reflection on the doctrinal discrepancies and obstacles they have faced. Furthermore, he challenged the archbishop to prove his claims, suggesting that the day his veracity is proven, he himself will ask for forgiveness on his knees.
After some information was given about the current state of the sisters, they assure that they are neither locked up nor kidnapped nor manipulated nor separated from their families and, above all, that “they are not leaving the Church.”
According to what they indicate, they will explain “what they have been discovering,” thus denying the information that has been spread since Monday, through a statement, they announced that they were leaving the Catholic Church.
Through a recently created account on the social network Instagram (@tehagoluz), the nuns shared a video and a photograph, in which a dozen of them are seen with their families and with José Ceacero, the supposed priest who Accompanying them in the process is a member of the Pious Union Sancti Pauli Apostoli, under the orders of De Rojas.
One of the sources of financing is the production of artisanal sweets and organic vegetables that they sell through their website, El Obrador del Convento. It is a common activity among religious congregations, with the nuance that the Poor Clares of Belorado have achieved a certain media projection after participating in at least two editions of Madrid Fusión, in 2016 and 2020. And the hands that pray, too they work
Among its sweets, its famous truffles stand out, which reach a price of 58 euros per kilo. The nuns are in charge of hand-sprinkling these sweets, available in six flavors—cocoa, milk, crunchy, coffee, orange and brandy—and sold in a variety of formats.
