Real Academia de Gastronomía / Google Arts & Culture
CV NEWS FEED // A group of 10 nuns in Spain have been excommunicated by the Catholic Church after they refused to renounce their loyalty to a rebel former priest.
According to the Telegraph, the nuns, who live in a 15th-century cloistered convent in Belorado, Spain, have said that they no longer recognize the authority of Pope Francis and have sworn allegiance to Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco, a man considered a heretic by Church authorities.
Sánchez-Franco was himself excommunicated in 2019 by Most Reverend Mario Iceta, the Archbishop of Burgos, due to his support for sedevacantism, a movement that believes the papal seat has been vacant since 1958, as all popes since Pius XII are considered heretics.
The nuns had been summoned to an ecclesiastical court on charges of schism, but the deadline for their appearance expired on June 21. Led by their mother superior, Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, the nuns reaffirmed their “unanimous and irrevocable decision” to leave the official Church, declaring that any penalty imposed on them held no legitimacy.
On June 22, Archbishop Iceta made the decision to excommunicate the nuns, stating, “It is very painful to hear the mother superior say that the pope is a usurper.”
Sister Isabel de la Trinidad informed the Church of plans to purchase and renovate a property valued at 1.2 million euros for their private use. To fund this acquisition, they intended to sell an abandoned Poor Clares convent privately. However, the Church has legally blocked this action, arguing that the property is bound for religious use; causing the nuns to claim they are being “persecuted” over the transaction.
