A group of seven Spanish ex-nuns will face trial on charges of embezzlement and a litany of alleged abuse inflicted against five elderly nuns under their care, a Bilbao court ruled.
The seven women are part of a group of excommunicated Poor Clare nuns of the Monastery of Belorado that declared in 2024 that they were leaving the Catholic Church to align with sedevacantist groups. Their schism led to a two-year battle over control of the monastery that culminated with their eviction from the historic building in March.
The Spanish newspaper La Razón reported on Thursday that it obtained a copy of a ruling from the Fifth Court of Bilbao ordering trial proceedings for the ex-nuns. The seven women stand accused of the alleged crimes of abandonment, failure to render aid, coercion, degrading treatment, and property crimes involving breach of fiduciary duty and embezzlement allegedly committed at the monastery.
An eighth nun, also part of the excommunicated group, will not face charges due to insufficient evidence against her. At press time, the court has not set a date for the upcoming trial.
The charges follow an extensive investigation into corruption allegations that took a dramatic turn in December 2025, when officials of the Spanish Civil Guard entered the monastery and rescued five elderly nuns aged between 87 and 101 that, due to their advanced age, require adequate attention and care. Officials found them living in highly degrading conditions. The Spanish public broadcaster RTVE explained at the time that the Archdiocese of Burgos considers the five elderly nuns to be the true religious community of Belorado following the excommunication of the other nuns.
La Razón, citing testimonies and police reports cited in the court ruling, explained on Thursday that the rescued elderly nuns were found in deplorable sanitary environment, with no diaper changes, no breakfast, and had not received their prescribed medication in some time.
Most disturbingly, two dogs and “traces of feces and urine” were found by officials in one of the rescued elderly nuns’ room and bathroom. A second nun was found “sitting alone on the toilet, unattended,” while a third rescued nun was found in a “deteriorated general condition.” It was later revealed that “she had not received medical care for months.”
Equally disturbing, the Bilbao court reportedly stated the suspects allegedly exerted psychological control over their fellow residents to prevent them from leaving the convent, taking advantage of their vulnerability in light of their advanced age. La Razón, citing the court document, noted that the elderly nuns did not fully grasp the extent of the harm caused by those responsible for their care due to their “cognitive decline,” which in some cases was “severe.”
Furthermore, protected witnesses testified that the abused elderly nuns were subjected to “humiliation, punishment, abuse, and threats of retaliation.” In a harrowing testimony, of the elderly nuns reportedly said, “today they haven’t hit me yet.” The quote was testified before the court by one of the witnesses, who claimed that one of the elderly nuns “didn’t want to go out because the women under investigation had told her that the other Poor Clares were going to poison them.”
Similarly, a forensic report cited in the ruling described “widespread filth, stray dogs and cats, and birds in the central courtyard, as well as accumulated feces in some rooms” at the monastery. The report also noted that doctors’ access to the elderly nuns was at times hindered by the accused nuns.
In addition to the extensive abuse charges, the court found sufficient evidence to charge the seven ex-nuns with corruption after it was determined that they opened joint bank accounts with the abused elderly nuns to manage their pensions and other benefits — allowing them to misappropriate and manage the funds without the valid consent of the nuns they stand accused of having abused and mistreated.
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