Breakaway Poor Clares in Spain have welcomed a sedevacantist bishop, while two more sisters have left the community amid a property dispute with the local archdiocese.
The Society of St. Joseph, founded by sedevacantist bishop Rodrigo Ribeiro da Silva, announced Oct. 30 that Ribeiro was leaving Mexico to settle in Spain with the sisters and “develop his new apostolate.”
Ribeiro has been in contact with the sisters since the summer and lived in the convent in Belorado, northern Spain, for a few weeks. In the meantime, they were accompanied by Jesús Casas Silva, a former Catholic priest who now serves as the sisters’ chaplain.
Casas Silva was originally ordained as a Catholic priest by Bishop Mario Picchi, head of the Argentine Diocese of Venado Tuerto. But he was expelled from the diocese by Picchi’s successor, Bishop Paulino Reale.
The Archdiocese of Rosario, the metropolitan archdiocese responsible for Venado Tuerto, said Casas Silva was “no longer a Catholic priest.” But the circumstances of his suspension or laicization are unclear.
Casas Silva was part of the Istituto Mater Boni Consilii, a sedeprivationist group. Sedeprivationists believe that the election of the current pope is valid, but he lacks authority and capacity to teach and rule unless he retracts alleged heresies that started at the time of Vatican Council II. Casas Silva left the sedeprivationist group in 2022 and became a sedevacantist, embracing the view that recent popes are invalid.
Ribeiro was ordained a priest in 2017 by Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four bishops consecrated by the Society of St. Pius X’s founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, which led to their excommunication, lifted in 2009.
Ribeiro would later move toward sedevacantism, leading to his episcopal consecration in 2021 by Daniel Dolan.
Dolan, originally a member of the SSPX, was one of the founders of the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV), a sedevacantist offshoot of the SSPX. He was consecrated a bishop by an SSPV bishop who had been consecrated by Ngô Đình Thục, a Vietnamese bishop who became a sedevacantist in 1968.
Ribeiro announced he would expand his sedevacantist apostolate with his move to Spain, with Masses being offered in Valencia and Madrid, and eventually the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.
His move comes amid changes within the Belorado community.
Originally, the community was made up of 16 sisters. Sr. María Amparo, one of the older sisters, left the convent when the intended schism was announced to the community. Ten of the remaining sisters were excommunicated due to the schism, while five of the older sisters were not defined as being in schism due to their old age.
Sr. Paz, the community vicar, left the convent over the summer. About a month ago, Sr. Adriana, another excommunicated sister, left the convent and is said to be living with her family.
Local media have also reported that one of the older sisters left the convent after her family insisted she should be under their care.
Of the original 16 sisters living in the convent, 12 remain. Local media report many of the sisters face pressure from their families to leave the convent.
Alongside the desertions, former sisters remaining at the convent face another challenge.
The Archdiocese of Burgos requested their eviction, which a first-instance court admitted Nov. 6. The court gave the defendants 10 days to respond to the lawsuit and ordered a visit to the convent on Dec. 19. If the defendants do not allow the visit, the court set Jan. 23, 2025, as the eviction date.
In a statement, the Burgos archdiocese said the eviction measure would not apply to the remaining older sisters who were not excommunicated.
The Spanish Federation of Poor Clares said Poor Clares from other Spanish convents were willing to move into the Belorado community to assist the remaining older sisters and keep the community alive.
The now former nuns declared their separation from the Catholic Church on May 13, when they signed a 70-page “Catholic Manifesto” describing the post-Vatican Council II Catholic Church as illegitimate.
In a letter sent to friends and beneficiaries and posted on the convent's website, the community’s superior Sr. Isabel said that “from the Throne of Peter we have been receiving contradiction, confusion and doublespeak, ambiguity, lack of clear doctrine which is all the more necessary in stormy times, to hold the rudder more firmly.”
She also mentioned a real estate dispute with Church authorities, complaining that the Vatican had blocked the sale of an empty monastery in the nearby town of Derio, owned by the community, which is believed to have triggered the break with the Church.
