Opus Dei: Bishop of Barbastro-Monzón proposes that Torreciudad depends on the Pope

The Bishop of Barbastro-Monzón (Spain), Mons. Ángel Pérez Pueyo, proposes that the Torreciudad complex, built by the Opus Dei, is an international sanctuary dependent on the Pope after two and a half years of open conflict, for which Pope Francis appointed Mons. Alejandro Arellano as Pontifical Commissioner.

Through a public communicationMons. Pérez has announced that he has transferred a proposal so that “be recognized and canonically erected as an international sanctuary, under the direct dependence of the Holy See.”

This new configuration, which moves away from the claims expressed in recent years by the bishop, who announced the declaration of torreciudad as a diocesan sanctuary in December 2023would imply that Torreciudad “enjoy economic independence with respect to the diocese”, which renounces “to any benefit or remuneration” or responsibility for the companies or foundations related to the place.

According to the statement, this proposal would lead to Torreciudad was constituted as “an” extraterritorial scope “to the diocese, so that the interlocution with Opus Dei was carried out from the Holy See.

In addition, the Opus Dei could thus “freely designate, according to law, to the rector of the new sanctuary,” according to the statement, when just two years ago, Mons. Pérez first appointed a diocesan priest outside the Opus Dei, in full conflict between both institutions.

Return of the Virgin and the Baptismal Pile

The proposal of the Bishop of Barbastro-Monzón includes the replacement to its original places, “where they have been revered since time immemorial”, of two devotion objects. This is “the original image of the Virgin of Our Lady of Los Angeles of Torreciudad and the primitive baptismal pile of the cathedral.”

Thus, the Torreciudad complex would house a “faithful copy”, while the original image, before which the parents of St. Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer took their son asking for his healing, would remain in the original hermitage.

Regarding the baptismal pile of the Cathedral, the bishopric explains that she was transferred to the General House of the Prelature in Rome, Villa Tevere, and that it should be replaced in the chapel of the Pantocrador in the SEO of Barbastro, since in it “both martyrs” of the diocese, some of them in the process of beatification.

For the bishopric, the transfers of the size and the baptismal stack, “in addition to being an element of justice towards the faithful people and communion between the prelature of Opus Dei and the local Church, they will enrich the route of San Josemaría in Barbastro (composed of the temple of St. Josemaría, the center between arches, the house of San Josemaría, the cathedral, the hermitage and sanctuary of Torreciudad) ”.

The Opus Dei Wait for the Pontifical Commissioner to decide

The statement says at the beginning that the proposal has been transferred “to the Holy See” and, in the end, which has been “raised to the discernment of the Holy Father Leo XIV.” ACI Press has consulted the bishopric by which concrete institution or ecclesiastical authority, expressly citing Pope Leo XIV, the Pontifical Commissioner, Mons. Arellano, or another Vatican instance, but has declined to give more details, referring to the statement.

For its part, from the Press Office of Opus Dei a Successful text in which he affirms that he has known the bishop’s proposal through the public statement. Without going to value it in its detail, remember that in October 2024 a pontifical commissioner was appointed.

“Throughout these months we have put ourselves to its total disposition for everything that has required and we are waiting for its resolution,” is noted.