Sister Belén and several other nuns are now effectively squatters — they are cloistered inside the two convents, known as the Orduña and the Belorado. The Derio convent has been empty since the sisters moved out following years of what they describe as persecution by “the devil.”
The unusual dispute, now tangled in a Spanish court, has involved a search warrant for a mysterious gun — plus demons, debts, a mortgage and a manifesto in which the nuns denounced the Catholic Church. The saga has gripped local residents and called into question who actually controls the convents: the sisters or the Vatican?
“They have taken our bank accounts and want to take our properties, land and donations, too,” said Sister Belén, who entered the order of the Poor Clares at Belorado in 1999. “It’s very hard. But we have to fight.”
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