The Provincial Court of Burgos has issued a ruling in which it confirms the decision not to admit for processing the lawsuit filed by the legal representation of the former nuns from the monasteries of Santa Clara de Belorado and Derio against the Pontifical Commissary, Monsignor Mario Iceta Gavicagogeascoa, and the Archdiocese of Burgos, by reiterating that they lack the legitimacy to transform the monasteries into associations.
As reported by the Office of the Pontifical Commissary of the Monasteries of Belorado, Orduña, and Derio in a statement disseminated by Europa Press, this new judicial resolution confirms the rejection of the alleged violation of fundamental rights that the plaintiffs claimed.
The lawsuit sought to recognize the monasteries of Belorado and Derio, as legal entities, with the power to separate from the Catholic Church by their own decision. Furthermore, the representation of the former nuns sought to consider valid the conversion of these religious entities into civil associations, to declare the civil ineffectiveness of the decrees appointing Monsignor Mario Iceta as Pontifical Commissary, and to condemn him to cease his functions of representation, management, and administration of said monasteries.
The ruling of the Provincial Court of Burgos supports the criterion of the Court of First Instance of Briviesca, which had already noted the lack of active legitimacy of the alleged new associations. The court emphasizes that everything related to the eventual transformation of these religious entities is exclusively subject to Canon Law and is reserved for the competence of ecclesiastical authorities, so that the plaintiffs do not have the necessary legitimacy as this modification has not legally occurred.
In its ruling, the court insists that none of the nuns gathered in conventual chapter are legitimized to transform a religious entity of Canon Law into a civil association or to alter their statutes. It further specifies that the intended transformation would imply the disappearance of the religious entity, which in the canonical sphere is called "suppression," and recalls that, according to canon 616.4, the suppression of an autonomous monastery of nuns corresponds to the Apostolic See, therefore said change cannot be carried out by the simple decision of the superior.
The court fully confirms the ruling issued in ordinary trial 504/2024 of the Court of First Instance number 1 of Briviesca, also imposing the costs of the appeal on the appellant.
Following this ruling, the Office of the Pontifical Commissary has indicated that the resolution now allows for the lifting of the suspension due to prejudice that weighed on the eviction proceedings related to the Monastery of Orduña.