Two former Poor Clare nuns in Spain return to Catholic communion after repentance and conversion following their excommunication in 2025.
Newsroom (24/02/2026 Gaudium Press ) Two former Poor Clare nuns from Belorado, Spain, who were excommunicated and laicized after joining a schismatic community, have been formally received back into the Catholic Church following a period of repentance and conversion.
Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos, acting under the Vatican’s direction, lifted the excommunication of the two women—known as Sister Paz and Sister Adriana—on Ash Wednesday. The decision followed what Church authorities described as a “humble and heartfelt process of conversion.” A letter dated February 22, 2026, confirmed the move to the Poor Clare Federation of Our Lady of Aránzazu, the umbrella association for communities in the region.
The Archdiocese of Burgos said the two women, previously among ten excommunicated in June 2025, are now fully reconciled with the Church. They will live as laywomen, having lost their religious status when they were laicized. “If they wished to become nuns again, they would have to profess their vows anew in some monastery,” the archdiocese clarified in its statement.
Schism and Division in Belorado
The episode stems from a turbulent period that began on May 13, 2024, when the Belorado Poor Clare community announced it was leaving what it called the “conciliar Church.” The group accused the post–Second Vatican Council Church of doctrinal ambiguity and declared Pope Pius XII the last valid pontiff, a stance aligned with the sedevacantist movement.
At the time, the 16-member convent split. Sister Amparo publicly denounced the move, while 15 others stayed. The Holy See and Spanish bishops treated the act as schismatic, leading to the formal excommunication of 10 sisters later that year.
Both Sister Paz and Sister Adriana distanced themselves from the group in the months that followed—Paz in the summer of 2024 and Adriana that autumn—but their canonical status remained unresolved until this Lent.
Aftermath of the Schism
Civil authorities intervened in December 2025 to relocate five elderly sisters, aged between 87 and 101, from the Belorado convent to receive medical care. One of them, Sister Getsemaní, passed away in early 2026. Meanwhile, another nun, Sister Myriam, who managed a restaurant venture opened by the schismatic group in northern Spain, formally declared herself “absent from the community” in January 2026.
According to Church officials, the “legitimate community” of Belorado now continues under Sister Amparo and the remaining elderly nuns, who remain in unity with the wider Poor Clare Federation.
Mercy and Return to Communion
In his pastoral letter announcing the women’s reinstatement, Archbishop Iceta reflected on the purpose of excommunication as a “medicinal measure” meant to awaken conscience rather than condemn. “The Church always shows her heart of mercy and, as a mother, is ready to welcome her children who, like the prodigal son, trust in God’s mercy and begin the journey back to the Father’s house,” he wrote.
He called on the faithful and fellow Poor Clares to “rejoice for these sisters who are returning home,” invoking a passage from the Gospel of Luke: “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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