Former Poor Clare nuns of Belorado: Catholic Church in Burgos responds to accusations

The Archdiocese of Burgos (Spain), through the Management Commission of the Monasteries of Belorado, Orduña and Derio, responded to the accusations launched on July 2 by the former abbess of Belorado, Laura García de Viedma Serrano, in the program Everything is a lie from channel Cuatro, pointing out that these “do not conform to the truth.”

The former Poor Clare nun, at the head of the 10 former nuns excommunicated and expelled from consecrated life on June 24 for incurring the crime of schism—despite having had the opportunity to appear before the local ecclesiastical court, something that was not they finally did—sent some whatsapp messages to Pablo Collantes, from the aforementioned program.

The accusations of the former Poor Clare nuns of Belorado

“The Archbishopric of Burgos has not been paying since June 4 when it audited the accounts. Our accounts have been suspended. They have suspended our courier service after 20 years. The workers are in an extreme situation. They have not been paid their salaries for May and June. Today they cut off our phones, after I personally insisted that they had threatened to cut us off for a week. They have threatened to cut the power three times already,” says one of the messages.

“This coercion is infamous! We have contacted them and they do not respond. To nothing. We sent the last email yesterday. Now we can no longer sell in the store because the parcel workers don’t pick up until I pay them. “They want to suffocate us!” continues the former abbess.

The response of the Archdiocese of Burgos

After the appointment of Mons. Mario Iceta as Pontifical Commissioner, the Management Commission was formed, whose tasks include supervising the economic issues of the Belorado monastery.

“In the exercise of its functions, the Management Commission has requested information on the economic activity of the monastery from the former abbess on four occasions, without any of these requests having been attended to“explains the statement from the Archdiocese of Burgos dated July 2.

“Not only have these requests been repeatedly ignored, preventing any type of communication from the former abbess, but we are also aware that an express order has been given on her part not to provide this documentation to the Management Commission,” he says. the text.

“Given this manifest obstruction of the right to properly manage assets, our legal services will act accordingly,” he warns.

Payments made by the Archdiocese of Burgos

“To date, more than twenty invoices have been received, for an amount greater than €35,000 and a total of eleven payrolls, for an approximate amount of €9,800. With the meager balance in the accounts to which we have been able to access, which did not exceed €6,000, it is impossible to meet these obligations,” the statement reports.

“It would not be possible to face any of these payments without the injection of funds from different monasteries of the Federation of Poor Clares of Our Lady of Aránzazu,” he highlights.

The statement also specifies that the process to pay the workers’ salaries is already being followed, despite “the difficulties that the former abbess has generated” and that “the payments for those most basic and urgent services” are being met. “In total, more than €3,000 in supplies and more than €18,000 in bank loans have been paid,” the statement highlights.

“We have no record of the income obtained from the activities carried out from the monastery facilities, for whose expenses the former abbess wants us to be responsible (raw materials, packaging, courier, etc.),” the Archdiocese of Burgos.

“When the former abbess states that ‘this coercion is infamous’ she is acting with reckless disregard for the truth, trying to impute possible criminal acts to the Management Commission. Our legal services will evaluate these statements and act accordingly,” the statement continues.

“On our part, the cutting of any supply has not been ordered nor has it been threatened. We have to clarify that no company stops providing any service due to non-payment of an invoice; Everything indicates that the alleged cut of supplies is due to the non-payment of more invoices, the amount of which we do not know,” the statement concludes.

On May 13, 2024, the Poor Clares of the Monasteries of Belorado and Orduña, respectively in the Archdiocese of Burgos and the Diocese of Vitoria (Spain), published a manifesto and a letter in which they announced that they were leaving the Catholic Church to place themselves under the authority of the excommunicated false bishop Pablo de Rojas, who has finally been expelled from the Belorado monastery.

The Vatican appointed the Archbishop of Burgos, Mons. Mario Iceta, Pontifical Commissioner. When he began to take action, the now former religious decided to take the issue to civil justice, where it is now.

At the beginning of June, the Archbishopric of Burgos formally informed the now former nuns that they had to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court of Burgos to answer for the crime of schism, typified in canon 751 of the Code of Canon Law and punishable by the penalty of excommunication.

The deadline expired on Friday, June 21, 2024 and that day the nuns reiterated their willingness to separate from the Catholic Church.

The Code of Canon Law specifies that schism is “the rejection of subjection to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.” The penalty for this crime is excommunication, the most severe that exists in the Catholic Church.

On June 22, the Archdiocese of Burgos decreed the penalty of excommunication and expulsion for the now 10 former schismatic Poor Clare nuns.

On Monday the 24th he urged them to leave the Belorado monastery, and on the 26th he reminded them that they are not the legitimate owners of it.

Likewise, the superior general of the Franciscans has exhorted the former schismatic nuns to no longer wear “the habit of Saint Francis and Saint Clare.”