Spanish bishop asks excommunicated nuns to leave convent

BURGOS, Spain - The Archbishop of Burgos in northern Spain on Monday demanded that 10 nuns who were excommunicated after a months-long standoff over a property dispute leave the convent where they live.

The Poor Clare sisters from a 15th-century convent in the northern town of Belorado near Burgos were excommunicated after they failed to turn up for a meeting on Friday to discuss their position before a church tribunal.

"Following their excommunication and expulsion from the consecrated life, the ten nuns no longer have any legal right to remain in (the convent) and the adjoining buildings, and must therefore abandon them", the Archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta, told a news conference.

"If a voluntary departure does not take place soon, the legal services will have no choice but to take the necessary legal action," he added.

"We have not set a deadline, we do not want to act hastily, we want to be very respectful and hope that they will realise that, as they are no longer nuns, they are no longer part of the monasteries and should no longer be there."

The stand-off began when the sisters announced in a May 13 letter posted on social media that they were breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church because it had blocked their attempt to buy another convent in the nearby northern Basque region.

The nuns also accused the Vatican of "doctrinal chaos" and "contradictions" in positions on faith matters in the letter, which was signed by the order's Mother Superior, sister Isabel de la Trinidad.

The nuns say they see themselves as under the jurisdiction of excommunicated priest Pablo de Rojas Sanchez-Franco, known for his ultraconservative views.

He heads the Devout Union of the Apostle Saint Paul, a religious group regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church and considered by some experts to be a sect.

Sanchez-Franco, who was excommunicated by Iceta in 2019, presents himself as a bishop, appearing in public in episcopal robes.

Earlier this month, Archbishop Iceta sent representatives accompanied by a bailiff to the convent to demand that the nuns turn over the keys to the convent. They were rebuffed. — Agence France-Presse