“Private Property. No Trespassing,” reads the sign at the entrance to the Monastery of Saint Clare of Belorado. The gate is locked. Inside are the nuns who, on May 13, 2024, broke with the Roman Catholic Church, which entails excommunication. They have no intention of leaving, but on March 12, they will be evicted by court order, with backup from law enforcement if necessary. “If you wish for assistance, please call this number,” reads a second sign hanging below the first. On a side door, there is graffiti that urges them to “Occupy and Resist.” About 100 meters away, someone has scrawled on a huge wall: “Considering what little time I have left in the convent, I might as well take a dump in it.” The street that runs parallel to Camino Monjas (Nun Road, the one leading to the monastery), is Camino del Matadero (Slaughterhouse Road).
Perhaps this is the scene that best describes the situation at Belorado, in Spain’s northern Burgos province. The case of the rebel nuns, initially seen as an eccentricity that attracted worldwide media attention, has become an endless legal battleground of civil and criminal lawsuits in which even the Holy See has intervened.
