In this statement he clarifies, without a doubt, with data and references to documents, some of the claims, suspicions and misrepresentations of the reality that had sown the episcopal text, mainly on the process of the appointment of the Pontifical Commissioner Plenipotentiary, the dean of the Roman Rota, Monsignor Alejandro Arellano Cendillo, his subsequent actions, on the ownership and use of the image of Our Lady of the Angels.
Defend the truth
Although at first authorized spokesmen of the Prelature insisted that Opus Dei would not answer what was written in a passionate way by the bishop, before the avalanche of demands that the truth be defended, before the accumulation of questioning and before a series of news published by the media, some of them based on leaks of personal documents of the bishop's relationship with Pope Francis on the case, the Opus Dei
"This particular Church has not been curated"
The bishop of Barbastro-Monzón pointed out, in the beginning of his letter, after a series of emotivistic arguments, that “on October 9, 2024, Pope Francis arranged a plenipotentiary pontifical curatorship for the Torreciudad complex.
That curatorship falls on Torreciudad; not on the Diocese of Barbastro Monzón.
This particular Church has not been curated and retains intact the pastoral responsibility that corresponds to its faith in its people, its popular piety and the memory that has been entrusted to it”, to add, later, that “I have contemplated in these months how the plenipotentiary curatorship on the complex of Torreciudad was transformed into a kind of mediation between them and the diocese, as if this people who expected justice had to accept resignations instead of defending their rights
A year ago, the drafting of the opinion was completed
According to Religion Confidential, what the bishop of the diocese on Torreciudad did not say is that about a year ago the drafting of the opinion on the issue in dispute was already concluded. Opinion that was communicated to the parties and the higher bodies and that has not been implemented.
On the appointment and functions of the Pontifical Commissioner, the Prelature now points out that this appointment, made by Pope Francis, “came at the request of the bishop of Barbastro-Monzón.”
In a statement on October 9, 2024, “the diocese itself recognized it this way, and “thanked the response to “his request,” expressed his “absolute confidence in the Holy See’ resolutions,” and made himself available to the commissioner.”
“The Prelature also expressed its full readiness to collaborate and remains committed to welcoming the Holy See’s resolution,” the statement added.
But the central question is the statement, by the bishop of Barbastro, in his letter that “in recent years the Diocese has gathered historical and legal documentation that, in our opinion, prevents us from considering the departure of the image of its hermitage as a voluntary renunciation of this people to their custody and their original place.
Before the present temple, before the controversies and before any of us, for more than a millennium this image was united to this earth and its hermitage.
And his authorized departure, according to right, does not appear to us in the archives of either the Cabildo or the Diocese.”
The ownership of the image has never been in discussion
Opus Dei recalls that “it has never been in dispute that the ownership of the image corresponds to the diocese. The dispute relates to the scope and validity of the rights of use, custody and location established by agreements between the parties.”
The legal milestones, whose documentation Opus Dei has made available to the public, start from that “in the public deed of September 24, 1962, registered in the Property Registry of Benabarre, the useful domain – not the property, which corresponds to the diocese – of the old hermitage and the image was given in perpetuity.
In return, its restoration and conservation, the promotion of worship and the guarantee of access to pilgrims were assumed, among other obligations.”
“Subsequently, the agreement documented on September 8, 1966 established that the Board of Trustees would build and finance the new sanctuary on the express condition that the image received worship and veneration in it. The same agreement provided that the old hermitage and the new temple form “a single enclosure conveniently fenced.”
The image was not transferred to another town or apart from Torreciudad
According to the Prelature of Opus Dei, “the bishop who accepted this provision was Monsignor Jaime Flores, the same one who had signed the 1962 agreement.
The image was not transferred to another town or apart from Torreciudad: it was placed, with documented authorization of the diocese, in the new temple built a few meters from the hermitage and within the same devotional set.
Therefore, “the carving at no time was clandestinely appropriate. Always with the authorization of the bishop, it was restored in 1964 and again around 1970, and since 1975 presides over the altarpiece of this new temple, publicly exposed to the veneration of all the faithful.
A legal difference cannot become an offensive accusation
It follows from this story, according to the statement published today, that “it is legitimate that there are currently different interpretations about the legal effects of the agreements. It is up to the competent authority to resolve them. But a legal difference cannot become a baseless offensive accusation.
For all these reasons, we reject that what happened can be described as a subtraction, a usurpation or an illegal withholding, as the Bishop of Barbastro suggests in the statement of August 31.”
The bishop of Barbastro-Monzón, as he did earlier in another intervention, uses documentation and private conversations with Pope Francis about Torreciudad.
He recalls, for example, that “during the visit ad Limina of December 2021 welcomed our concern for popular piety and the ecclesial rootedness of Torreciudad. Later, in a manuscript dated July 13, 2023, he wrote to me in his fist and letter: “Do not give in!”
And on September 18, 2024, when I met him in St. Peter’s Square, he asked me directly again: “Angel, have you already lowered the Virgin?” A few weeks later, in another manuscript dated October 13, 2024, he expressly warned me of “the mafia intrigues that are ongoing” around this matter, as I warned in the homily of our cathedral just now a year ago.”
On this matter, the prelature of Opus Dei affirms nothing, logically. No one in ordinary conditions, even in extraordinary conditions, publicly comments on private conversations or does not control the making public of a pope’s private correspondence with a bishop.
The fact that the bishop of Barbastro reproduces that conversation, and today the media reproduces some personal writings of Pope Francis to the bishop, according to canonical sources consulted by Religion Confidential, does not imply, neither that the cause is judged, nor that the procedure established by Pope Francis or has been replaced.
Personal writings, these sources point out, which deserve to be treated with great respect, do not amount to legal decisions, nor do they replace the established legal procedures.
Opus Dei has promoted the rootedness of this advocation in Barbastro-Monzón
What if we met writings or private conversations of this case in the opposite direction to that adduced by the bishop, for example?
Opus Dei concludes, after recalling the value of this devotion and the centrality of the Shrine of Torreciudad, which “deeply respects and has promoted the rootedness of this advocation in Barbastro-Monzón and in Upper Aragon. That bond is enriched by the fact that Our Lady of the Angels is venerated by people from many other places.
The Prelature has promoted since 2020 the legal update of Torreciudad and came to propose that the new temple be recognized as a diocesan sanctuary. He now reiterates his willingness to dialogue, his respect for the bishop, his willingness to collaborate with the pontifical commissioner and to accept what the Holy See has in place.”
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