Archbishopric of Burgos grants extension in the excommunication process to schismatic Poor Clares of Belorado

The Archbishopric of Burgos (Spain) granted an extension to the Poor Clares of Belorado, allowing them until Friday, May 21, to appear and recant the canonical crime of schism, which entails excommunication.

According to reported the Spanish newspaper ABC, three of the Poor Clares—Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, the abbess of the monastery, as well as Sister Sión and Sister Paz—had to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court of Burgos, no later than this Sunday, June 16. However, through an email they requested an extension.

Another seven Poor Clares who are now unaware of the authority of the Catholic Church, and consider “SS Pius XII as the last valid Supreme Pontiff”, also face a canonical process with a deadline that was originally different, but will now coincide: Friday the 21st of May.

According to ABC from sources in the Spanish archbishopric, “depending on what each of them says individually, and once the deadline has passed, it will be evaluated and proceeded accordingly.”

The Poor Clares of the communities of Belorado and Orduña —under the ecclesial authority of the Spanish archdioceses of Burgos and Vitoria—, announced on May 13 of this year that they stopped recognizing the authority of the Catholic bishops and that of Pope Francis, and that they placed themselves under the authority of a false excommunicated bishop named Pablo de Rojas.

Recently, the Ecclesiastical Court of Burgos recently announced that what was committed by the Spanish Poor Clares constitutes “the crime of schism, typified in the Code of Canon Law in accordance with canon 751 CIC, the penalty for which is provided for in canon 1364 § 1 CIC, and that It carries with it the expulsion from consecrated life.”

Canon 751 The Code of Canon Law, the law of the Catholic Church, defines the crime of schism as “the rejection of subjection to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”

Canon 1364 – § 1 warns that the schismatic—as well as the apostate of the faith or the heretic—incurs “excommunication.” automatic decision“, that is, automatic. In such a way that the ecclesial process opened against the Poor Clares could simply make official their status as excommunicated or give them an opportunity to recant.

According to the Code of Canon LawIn addition to excommunication, the schismatic Poor Clares could be prohibited “from residing in a certain place or territory” and from wearing “the religious habit”, so they would be forced to leave the communities in which they currently reside.