What’s behind the Spanish Poor Clares’ erratic behavior?
A change in leadership brought about a radical shift in the convent's spending habits.
Since the Poor Clares of Belorado, Spain, announced their break in communion with the Catholic Church in May, details of the state of the convent have slowly been made public.
Recently, it was reported that the nuns owed more 42,000 euros in unpaid invoices and almost 10,000 euros in unpaid salaries to convent staff. The archdiocese has not accessed all of the sisters’ financial information, so those numbers may not be complete.
The former sisters also owe an undisclosed amount in a mortgage loan for the acquisition of a second monastery in Derio.
In the last two months, observers have questioned how the convent had come to the point of breaking from the Catholic Church - and how the sisters had embraced an apparently lavish lifestyle that led to utter economic collapse.
It appears that the transformation of the community came about when Sister Isabel de la Trinidad, now Laural Gil de Viedma, was elected as the superior of the community, in 2012.
Before that, under the leadership of Sister Pureza, the former abbess, the community had no vocations, but healthy finances, according to Vida Nueva.
In fact, it was during Sister Pureza’s tenure that the sisters bought the convent in Derio and were able to secure a loan to that end.
But the leadership of Gil de Viedma brought about a radical shift in the community, ultimately leading to a declaration of schism.
Gil de Viedma had professed her vows in the Poor Clare convent of Lerma, Spain. That particular convent is renowned for a vocation boom that is largely credited to the leadership of Sister Verónica Berzosa.
Berzosa eventually founded a new community in 2012, called Iesu Communio, which today includes two convents and more than 200 nuns.
Berzosa and Gil de Viedma studied together in Lerma and professed their first vows together.
Many believed that Gil de Viedma wanted to replicate Berzosa’s success in Belorado. A source told Vida Nueva that Gil de Viedma’s “obsession to make the convent a vocational reference and her economic management led her to take too risky investments.”
A diocesan official told The Pillar that one of these investments was raising puppies to sell, which requires a special expertise and permits that the sisters did not have. Gil de Viedma pushed the idea because of the economic benefits it could bring, but eventually the business had to be scrapped.
The community did attract some younger vocations - the sisters who are now supporting Gil de Viedma’s schism.
A diocesan official told The Pillar that the Archdiocese of Burgos was concerned with Gil de Viedma’s style of governance and personality—a number of people have described her as narcissistic, self-centered, and conspiratorial.
“We’re afraid she started to brainwash the younger sisters two or three years ago and it’s building a sect, a personality cult around herself,” the source said.
However, sources also told The Pillar that some of these younger vocations disagreed with the direction the convent was taking, and left the community before the schism was publicly announced.
According to Vida Nueva, Gil de Viedma not only copied Iesu Communio’s vocational apostolate, but also its means of subsistence, leading the community to produce baked goods to sustain itself.
Convent baking is well known across Spain, with many communities selling sweets and baked goods to fund their needs. However, Iesu Communio opted to sell more creative and modern sweets, and not simply traditional Spanish baked goods.
The Poor Clares of Belorado followed suit, and subsequently became famous across Spain. Their products even reached Michelin Star restaurants and Madrid Fusión, the largest gastronomic conference in the country. Their products became a staple in Christmas gifts for parish and diocesan employees around Spain.
However, the convent’s finances were negatively impacted by the Covid pandemic, an increase in the cost of caring for the older sisters, and poor economic decisions, such as the ill-fated dog business.
As a result, the superior decided to sell the empty convent in Derio, but the sale was blocked by the Vatican.
Three weeks ago, local media reported on a series of eccentric purchases made by the community.
According to local reports, the sisters had been buying eccentric items such as high-quality jamón, laptops and cell phones, and even a fighting bull that had to be sold after it could not be tamed. The community racked up over 42,000 euros in debt.
An administrative commission appointed by the archdiocese to manage the community’s funds said that there are fewer than 6,000 euros in the community bank accounts which they have gained access to - which would cover less than 12% of the community’s debt.
The commission said that it has started the process of paying the 9,600 euros due to the 11 employees of the community, and has already paid 3,000 euros in debt to various vendors, as well as 3,000 euros in service bills, and 18,000 euros in bank credits.
One of the largest unpaid bills - for more than 18,000 euros - is from a French company, for an oven and raw materials to make the chocolates that the sisters sold to sustain themselves.
A diocesan source told The Pillar that among the eccentric expenses was a makeover of the abess’ office in Derio. The source, who has been to the office, mentioned it looked “like a Renaissance Cardinal palazzo.”
Gil de Viedma was known to frequent the convent in Derio – despite it being empty – and work there until late hours, according to the source. For example, the email announcing the community’s schism was sent to benefactors of the convent after 4 a.m.
With the Poor Clares in schism, it is unclear what will happen next to the former nuns.
The Poor Clares’ announcement of the schism in May intensified their poor economic situation.
Most of their ecclesiastical clients have stopped buying their products, sources have told The Pillar, and many Catholic websites stopped promoting them, which has impacted the economic viability of the community.
The community decided to crowdfund via PayPal, attempting in early July to raise 20,000 euros to deal with their economic woes. So far, they have only raised 2,653 euros.
The former nuns say they have created a civil association to open new bank accounts and receive this funding.
But the Archdiocese of Burgos has challenged this claim, arguing that the alleged civil association has not been registered with the Spanish authorities, and the community has not asked for the Holy See’s permission to transform the religious entity into a civil association.
I was hoping there'd be details on the bull: it's been living rent-free in my mind ever since it was reported.
Why a bull? Is a bull something you can make money with in Spain? Do other monasteries have bulls? They said it couldn't be tamed: were the sisters trying to tame it? I'm imagining a rodeo but with nuns. Did one of the sisters have bull-taming experience?
When I read only the headline, my first reaction was "maybe mental illness?" (because some of the purchases were irrational on the face of it), but it sounds like the answer is "pride", which is both more and less dramatic (Pride goes before a destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall, which I learned from 3-2-1 Penguins!, and that denouement or crisis can be dramatic, but pride itself seems very commonplace because we are used to living with it within ourselves, like someone might be used to having termites in the walls or radon in the basement or asbestos in the ceiling or squirrels in the attic or a sinkhole in the yard or some other home-inspection nightmare, and nothing terrible has happened *yet* so really it's fine.)