A community of “heretical” nuns has appeared in court to fight an attempt by the Catholic Church to evict them from a convent.
The former Poor Clare sisters insisted on their right to occupy the disputed convent of Belorado, in Spain, despite denouncing the Vatican as a false church and calling the late Pope Francis a “usurper”.
Arriving at court in Briviesca, Burgos province, the sisters of the Convent of Our Lady of Bretonera reaffirmed their Catholic faith.
Sister Paloma, their spokeswoman, said: “We arrive optimistic and with much peace” and added, “this monastery is ours”. She criticised Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos, the Vatican-appointed pontifical commissioner, whom she described as “cowardly” for failing to attend the hearing.
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He was given authority to act on behalf of the church in the dispute with the nuns, and is tasked with communicating with them to find a resolution.
The nuns reiterated their longstanding argument: while they acknowledge the monastery belongs to the Poor Clare order, they maintain that they — not the archbishop — are its legitimate representatives.
“We are not being evicted; we are attending a trial,” Paloma said. “We submit ourselves to the judgment of the court, but we only live according to the judgment of God.”
The nuns were followed by the press as they appeared in court for a trial hearing on Tuesday
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The conflict follows their public denunciation of the late Pope, accusations of persecution by church authorities, and a break with canonical obedience.
Part of the dispute centres around a disagreement over property, after the nuns condemned as “persecution” the Church’s decision to “block” their request to sell a convent that they own so they can buy another.
They also claimed the late Pope was a heretic and that the ecclesiastical authorities failed to defend them from a rival abbess who called them lesbians and prostitutes.
The fight with the archbishop erupted last year when their mother superior announced theological differences with Rome. The community of Poor Clare sisters, then numbering 15, published a 70-page letter declaring that the Roman Catholic Church had lost its way after the Second Vatican Council in 1962 and that every pope since Pius XII has been a heretic.
One of eight former nuns, Laura Garcia de Viedma, outside the court
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The Vatican excommunicated ten of the nuns, sparing the eldest five who were deemed too old to be part of the heresy.
Despite being excommunicated, ten of the sisters remain in the convent. Their situation has prompted international media headlines, with implications extending beyond Spain into the wider Catholic world.
The court will determine whether the group may remain or must vacate the premises in accordance with the Church’s directives. A ruling is expected within weeks. The nuns plan to appeal if they lose the case.
The Convent of the Poor Clares of Santa Clara de Belorado, near Burgos in northern Spain
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Archbishop Iceta said at the time of the excommunication: “Following their excommunication and expulsion from the consecrated life, the ten nuns no longer have any legal right to remain in [the convent] and the adjoining buildings, and must therefore abandon them.”
The nuns then joined the Pious Union of the Apostle Saint Paul, considered a sect by the Catholic Church and headed by Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco, who was excommunicated in 2019 by Iceta when he was the Bishop of Bilbao.
“They are going to call us heretics and schismatics, madwomen and many other things, very slanderous and unpleasant. Don’t believe them, at least not this time, don’t let them fool you,” the mother superior said.