Bishop Ángel Pérez Pueyo of Barbastro-Monzón alluded to the sanctuary of Torreciudad during a Mass on 8 September: “Pope Francis warned me in a letter on 13 October 2024 to beware of intrigues he described as “mafiosi” – and that alerted all of us.”
He told a packed congregation at Barbastro Cathedral in northern Spain that the Pope had said: “Ángel, don’t give in.”
The diocese and Opus Dei are locked in conflict over Torreciudad, near Aragon in northern Spain. St Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, was cured of an infant malady after his family brought him to Torreciudad, where a Romanesque statue of the Virgin Mary has been venerated since the eleventh century.
Since 1975, the sculpture of Our Lady of the Angels has been kept in a new Torreciudad chapel built by Opus Dei. In 1962, the diocese agreed to lease in perpetuity the statue, original chapel and annexes to Opus Dei.
In 2020, Opus Dei requested the bishop sign a new contract which would involve Torreciudad being instituted in canon law as a diocesan shrine. After prolonged discussion, the diocese declared the original contract null and void. The bishop had requested Opus Dei return the statue of Our Lady to the original chapel.
Last October, Pope Francis requested that Archbishop Alejandro Arellano, the dean of the Roman Rota Tribunal, investigate Torreciudad. Arellano’s report was expected imminently in July when Bishop Pueyo launched an appeal – without, sources told The Tablet, giving Opus Dei prior warning – for the Vatican to assume control of the shrine.
Bishop Pueyo made a veiled threat he would resign should the long-anticipated Vatican report favour Opus Dei. He compared himself to the Old Testament figure Eleazar, the high priest of Israel who was prepared to die rather than eat pork.
“I will fight to the point of exhaustion with pleasure to defend our people, their dignity, devotion and popular religiosity,” he said. “No sacrifice shall be too great. Therefore, if I am obliged to as a pastor I shall repeat the same words as Eleazar of old facing pressure to accept what I cannot accept.”
In 2022, 190,000 pilgrims visited the shrine of Torreciudad.