A group of Polish nuns have been told to stop occupying their convent a month after they were expelled from their order and laicised by the Vatican, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

The president of the regional court at Pulawy, Marek Stochmalski, told the Polish Press Agency he had issued the order at the request of the Sisters of the Family of Bethany, after the nuns repeatedly refused to leave the order's Kazimierz Dolny mother-house.

The dispute erupted two years ago when the order superior, Jadwiga Ligocka, was dismissed by a Vatican delegate but occupied the convent with 19 nuns and novices. In a statement last month, the Bethany Sisters said concern had arisen over "personal and organisational decisions" by Ligocka, who had recruited members with inappropriate "character and personality traits" and claimed "private visions" in conflict with Catholic teaching.

A Vatican decree expelling them from the order was published in mid-February by Archbishop Jozef Zycinski of Lublin. In a letter to inhabitants of Kazimierz Dolny, Archbishop Zycinski said the "former nuns" had used "bioenergotherapeutic techniques with nothing in common with the Holy Spirit".

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