Schism of Poor Clare nuns of Belorado: Lawyers will mediate with the Archbishopric of Burgos

After consummating the crime of schism this Friday, June 21, the 10 Poor Clare nuns of Belorado and Orduña (Spain) have communicated that they have conferred their representation on a “negotiating commission” of lawyers to “seek a peaceful and extrajudicial solution to the conflict” with the Archbishopric of Burgos.

Through your account Instagramthe nuns reiterate that “it is their will” not to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court of Burgos, because they do not consider it “competent” in this matter and specify that with their lawyers they will seek to be allowed “the recognition of their personal and patrimonial rights that are being plundered (ed. stolen) by the Archbishopric.”

The agency Efe informs that the commission is made up of the Santander Sarabia y Asociados firm, GTRS and the lawyer Florentino Alaez, who have made themselves available to the Archbishopric for negotiation.

Lawyer Diego Sarabia told Efe that the Poor Clare nuns “are defenseless and without any type of resources.”

What happens to the Poor Clare nuns of Belorado?

On May 13, 2024, the community of Poor Clare sisters of the Monasteries of Belorado and Orduña, located respectively in the Archdiocese of Burgos and the Diocese of Vitoria (Spain), made public a manifesto and a letter in which they announced that they were abandoning the Catholic Church and placed themselves under the tutelage of the excommunicated false bishop Pablo de Rojas.

At the end of May, the Vatican appointed the Archbishop of Burgos, Mons. Mario Iceta, Pontifical Commissioner with full powers. When he began to take action, the nuns decided to take the conflict to civil justice, accusing the prelate of “violation of the fundamental right of association and the principle of separation, free voluntary separation, as well as abuse of power and usurpation of rights.” legal representation.”

At the beginning of June, the Archbishopric of Burgos formally informed the 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, punishable by the penalty of excommunication. The deadline expired on Friday, June 21, 2024.

The aforementioned canon specifies that the schism is “the rejection of subjection to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him”.

Briefly, excommunication can be defined as the most serious penalty for a baptized person, which consists of separating him from the communion of the faithful of the Catholic Church and from access to the sacraments.

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Major Penitentiary Emeritus of the Church, once explained that the objective of excommunication is to bring “the guilty to repentance and conversion.”

“With the penalty of excommunication the Church is not trying in some way to restrict the field of mercy, but simply to highlight the seriousness of the crime,” he noted.

Why is he excommunicated?

Excommunication is not only a punishment and goes beyond the restriction of access to Holy Communion.

With excommunication, those who “cause scandal or serious disturbance of order with their conduct” are publicly reprimanded, as canon 1339 points out.