A community of Poor Clares in northern Spain have been summoned to appear before a Church tribunal.
The nuns of Belorardo near Burgos risk excommunication if they adhere in court to their decision announced last month to leave the “Conciliar Church”.
On 13 May, the community said they believed no pope after Pius XII to be legitimate.
Their prioress, Sr Isabel of the Trinity, said on a Spanish television chat show that the community no longer followed Pope Francis “because we don’t believe he is the Pope”.
She explained the community would henceforth accept Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco as their spiritual leader. A self-styled bishop excommunicated in 2019, de Rojas is known for his fascist sympathies.
The nuns added that in recent years “contradictions, double and confusing language, ambiguity, and loopholes in clear doctrine have been coming from the chair of Peter”.
They also accused the Vatican of blocking a property deal involving the sale of a monastery they own in the Basque country and the purchase of another in the Diocese of Vitoria.
Originally, the 15 nuns (one has since left the community) were asked to before the ecclesiastical tribunal of the Archdiocese of Burgos last Sunday. Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos accepted their request for the date of their appearance to be delayed.
Sr Isabel has filed a legal suit against Iceta, accusing him of abusing his power, usurping the nuns’ access to legal representation and infringing their right to free association.
A priest of the Archdiocese of Madrid has accused the community of falling prey to “paranoia”.
In a video analysing the nun’s 70-page “manifesto” outlining their reasons for leaving the Church, Fr Jesús Silva said the community would need to profess their vows again, before a priest ordained in the Tridentine rite and using pre-Vatican II formulas “because according to them their own vows are invalid”.