Nuns of Burgos: The Sister Who Left the Convent Speaks
The nun has been in religious life for 62 years, 20 of them spent in Belorado. She left three days after the nuns' declaration of schism. Sister María strongly denies Mother Isabel’s claim that the decision was unanimous.
“You can’t make such a decision like that without a chapter, and there was no meeting. We were presented with facts that had already been established,” she said. According to the sister, the 16 nuns were called to gather in a parlour, where Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco waited and told the nuns that he was now in charge.
Sister María says she spoke out against the [pseudo-] bishop at the meeting: “The Lord put words in my mouth. I told him: We are under the jurisdiction of Bishop Mario Iceta.”
She said that it was not licit to raise this matter without a chapter meeting but Mother Isabel replied that it was a decision that "had been made a long time ago and that everyone was in agreement".
The sister then said that Sister Pilar, the older sisters and herself didn’t know anything. Mother Isabel replied that a majority was enough. Sister María decided to leave because she doesn’t want “to belong to this sect, not for anything in the world”.
She has not been able to say goodbye to the five elderly nuns and is concerned about how much these sisters have been told about the current situation.
Mother Isabel is nearing the end of her third term as superior this May, and is barred by canon law from being re-elected.
According to the vicar for consecrated life in the Diocese of Vitoria, Rev. Manuel Gómez Tavira, the crisis was allegedly triggered by Isabel’s desire to remain in office. He told Eitb.eus that “this whole issue could be just another Netflix series, were it not for the fact that there are 15 religious who are being fooled by the superior, who for some time has been trying to perpetuate herself in her position.”
The Confederation of Poor Clares of Spain and Portugal, which represents 180 convents and 10 federations, has issued a statement calling on the Belorado convent to reconcile with the Church.
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