Until yesterday, the Poor Clares of Belorado and Orduña were famous for their chocolate desserts, especially truffles, for which they even participated in the Madrid Fusión festival. Until yesterday. They are known today for leading a strange religious schism, for attacking the Vatican harshly, for having renounced all the popes of the last six decades, including Bergoglio, and for being in the eye of a media hurricane that has already forced the bishops of Burgos and Vitoria to publish something. It’s a sweeping account of how they neither share nor understand what happened to the small community of 16 nuns, the Poor Clares.
The case has little to do with chocolate desserts and a lot to do with disputes over ownership, sales contracts and heretical religious leaders.
16 rebel nuns. Regardless, the Poor Clare nuns in Belorado and Orduña have almost eclipsed Catalan political history or hangover history eurovision. And this makes sense. The 16-year-old nuns from the towns of Belorado and Orduña, represented by the abbess Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, have just issued an explosive statement in which they attack the Roman Church and its leaders.
The nuns accuse the Vatican of “persecution,” “taking the wheel,” and even talk of “tricks” to “break up ‘traditional’ communities and keep their property in order to sell them.” This is an unusual statement among religious people. As if that wasn’t enough, they add an even more explosive manifesto denying all popes who followed Pius XII, who died in 1958.
“They will call us infidels and separatists”. The message of the nuns, led by Sister Isabel, resonates. And the nuns declare that they are fully aware of the turmoil they will cause and the criticism they will be subjected to: “They will call us heretics, schismatics, madmen and many other slanderous and unpleasant things. Don Do not believe them for this reason at least.” Time, don’t let them fool you.”
This is just one of many vocal statements left by nuns who accuse Rome of “hindering” them, claiming they feel like victims of “persecution” and accusing the Conciliar Church of hindering the community “on every front.” The letter was signed by the abbess on behalf of all nuns belonging to the Order of the Poor Sisters of Santa Clara.
ownership question. What is clear from the nuns’ statements and the responses of the Archdiocese of Burgos and the Diocese of Vitoria is that the division is explained, at least in large part, by something that has little to do with faith: the brick. … or rather the secular blocks of monasteries.
Sister Isabel accuses the Church of not granting her “a license to sell the convent of Derio”; this authority “is likely to continue in the offices” of the archbishop or the person in charge of his order – ironically the nun. Another of the complaints of the abbess of Belorado is that they were not allowed to “keep up with the payments” for the Orduña Monastery and that the purchase and sale contract they had signed at that time to purchase this last building was terminated. without prior notice.” .
“This property business must be very sweet to some, for it serves as a backdrop to the frauds to which we have been subjected in recent years. The ‘traditional line’ is the modus operandi of breaking up communities and keeping their property for sale. The poor Clare nuns, in their repeated testimony, said, “We have already dealt with a large number of cases “We heard,” they emphasize. Burgos newspaper.
Monasteries, notaries and courts. The dioceses of Burgos and Vitoria also spoke about the controversy and gave some clues as to what happened. At least from his perspective. To understand this, you need to go back at least to the autumn of 2020, when the Belorado community signed a purchase and sale agreement with the Poor Clares of Vitoria to acquire the Orduña Monastery, on sale for 18 years for 1.2. million euros. During this agreement, 100,000 euros were contributed and it was agreed that the nuns from Burgos would make a series of semiannual payments of 75,000 euros.
The problem, according to the dioceses, was that the first six-month payment was due in November 2022 but was never made. The explanation for this may be the difficulties that Sister Isabel mentioned in obtaining the “sale license” of the Derio monastery, which she has owned since 2013 and with the money from which they will buy the Orduña monastery. The soap opera’s next episode came two months ago, in March; To the surprise of the diocese, the abbess claimed to have found a “benefactor” willing to buy the convent and sell it to the nuns in Belorado. They managed to escape from their monastery in Derio. Of course, the diocese states that the benefactor will first register the monastery in his name.
The story gets complicated. True, the story gets more complicated. The church was not convinced that the sale was to an unnamed “benefactor”, so a representative of the Diocese of Vitoria moved in to dispel suspicions and “suspicions” that the buyer was “a person outside the Catholic Church”. She went to Orduña to find out who the rich boss was. It didn’t help, she. She was met with “absolute silence”, which the Church assures still persists today.
Thus, the Poor Clares of Vitoria summoned their colleagues in Belorado to the notary in early May to cancel the purchase and sale agreement signed in 2020. There was another big surprise there. Sister Isabel and her two nuns came with a document in which they demanded 1.6 million in compensation for the work their congregation had carried out at the Orduña Convent over the past few years. They also claim 30% as “damage”. Of course, the matter was taken to court.
I was excommunicated and relieved. It seems difficult, but yes, the story becomes more complex with new nuances and heroes. In addition to harshly attacking the Conciliar Church and speaking of “persecution,” the pastry nuns decided to join the Pious Union of St. Paul the Apostle, led by Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco, who was excommunicated by the current archbishop of Burgos in 2019. .
Moreover, the nuns requested that services at the Convent of Santa Clara de Belorado not be led by the regular priest, and the Archdiocese also warned all parishioners not to attend celebrations at that convent or in Orduña. In case there was any doubt, in their manifesto the nuns blame the Church of Rome and reject recent popes, including “Mr” Bergoglio, with a final, telling declaration: “God save us from wolves in sheep’s clothing!”
Like any good dessert, the story has another layer internally: The divide erupts when Sister Isabel, who has held the position of abbess for decades, is recently faced with another candidate because she cannot run for the position again.
Image | Wikipedia (Zarateman)
in Xataka | Some convent nuns in Seville needed money. So they turned a 16th-century monastery into an Airbnb
Source: Xatak Android
Ashley Johnson is a science writer for “Div Bracket”. With a background in the natural sciences and a passion for exploring the mysteries of the universe, she provides in-depth coverage of the latest scientific developments.