The Court of Instruction Number 5 of Bilbao, through a resolution known this Tuesday, prohibited the eight former schismatic nuns of the monastery of the Poor Clares of Belorado (Burgos) from approaching their former sisters of this monastery, as a protective measure given their advanced age.
This ban, considered as a precautionary measure, also extends to lawyers and prosecutors of dissident ex-nuns, said in a statement the Office of the Pontifical Commissioner whom the Holy See appointed to resolve the schism and who is the Archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta.
Discharge from hospital
On the other hand, two of the three oldest nuns of Belorado who were admitted, not expelled and who follow the rule, left this Tuesday afternoon from the Basurto University Hospital, in Bilbao, where they were transferred on December 18 with three other companions from the convent of Orduña (Vizcaya), by decision of the judicial authority, to examine their state of health.
Having since been admitted to this hospital, “due to the great deterioration in which they found themselves due to the unsanitary, precarious and deficient conditions in which they lived and which they themselves expressed”, both received medical clearance, another remains hospitalized awaiting discharge “in the coming days”, and the other two did not need to be admitted.
The four sisters, not hospitalized, will spend Christmas in some of the fourteen monasteries that make up the Federation of Poor Clares of Our Lady of Aránzazu in Spain, “under the care and affection of those who make up these monastic communities”, according to the press release from the Pontifical Commissioner for the Poor Clare monasteries of Belorado (Burgos), Orduña and Derio (Vizcaya).
Furthermore, the nuns’ relatives had filed complaints regarding the impossibility of visiting them, which led the judge to decide to order their transfer to Basurto Hospital, where they had to undergo a medical examination. Subsequently, and as reported by the Office of the Pontifical Commissioner of the Monasteries of Belorado, Orduña and Derio, the nuns will be transferred to the monasteries of the Federation of Poor Clares of Our Lady of Aránzazu and will not return to the convent of Orduña.
Inadmissible complaint
On the other hand, regarding the lawsuit for violation of fundamental rights brought against the Archbishopric of Burgos by the ex-schismatic nuns, after their expulsion from the Catholic Church, it was inadmissible by the District Court of Briviesca (Burgos) by an order signed on December 19.
In this sense, also on December 19, the Court of First Instance number 11 of Bilbao decreed that the so-called Associations Monastery of Santa Clara de Belorado and Monastery of Santa Clara de Derio that the former nuns adopted to defend their fundamental rights of religious freedom, association and the principle of equality are devoid of legal personality.
Therefore, since these entities do not exist legally, the schismatics cannot grant powers of representation and in this sense, the incapacity of Laura García de Viedma, the person chosen by them to represent the monasteries of Belorado and Derio in their claims, is proven, as previously determined by the TSJ of Madrid and ratified by the Supreme Court.
Among other consequences of the two resolutions (Briviesca and Burgos), according to the press release from the Office of the Pontifical Commissioner, dissidents will not be able to appear in the procedure for the expulsion of the monastery of Derio and “self-proclaimed” associations are excluded “from the procedure for resolving the contract of purchase and sale of the monastery of Orduña”.
The solution to this last question, according to the press release, is subject “to the possible agreement that may be reached by the Pontifical Commissioner and the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception of Vitoria.”
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