A televised statement by the Poor Clares of Belorado, who have joined a sedevacantist sect, has left the Archbishop of Burgos, Mario Iceta, emotionally challenged ("very painful"), writes ReligionDigital.org (16 May).
The nuns have declared that Francis is "a heretic and usurper" and that there has not been a valid Pope since Pius XII.
Mgr Iceta mentioned that a change of abbess was due on 29 May. He wants to "build bridges" and sit down with the nuns "when the conditions are right", but "at the moment they are not, with all the media tsunami".
He is "particularly concerned about the older sisters who are not at their best mentally". One of the nuns, Sister Amparo, has left the community. She saw some suspicious things but didn't know what was going on in her convent. The story she can tell is very fragmentary.
For about a year, the nuns have been in contact with the sedevacantist leader Pablo de Rojas, who, according to InfoVaticana.com, likes extravagant furniture, clothes and servants, and is friends with a local homosexual celebrity.
Mgr Iceta notes that the sisters have suddenly begun to believe that all the sacraments they have received are invalid, except for baptism.
The bishop hopes that "this state of shock will pass and that the conditions for dialogue will be created". However, if the sisters persist in their sedevacantist position, "the final step is that they place themselves on the margins of the Church and a declaration of excommunication comes".
This would have to be done nun by nun, "taking into account the possibility of forgiveness and mercy". But first, Mgr Iceta wants some time to pass and to try some kind of encounter. He doesn't believe that the nuns are "motivated by financial and business interests".
If the sisters had at the same time denied the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, the virginity of Our Lady, the existence of hell, and promoted Pachamama, homosexual sins, adultery, liturgical abuses, blasphemy, sacrileges, heresies, paganism, laxism, secularism and communism, no one would have complained or even spoken of "excommunicating" them.
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