Francis letters shed light on dispute over Opus Dei shrine in Spain

Opus Dei said it rejected the claim that it had ‘stolen’, ‘usurped’ or ‘illegally retained’ the Romanesque statue of the Virgin Mary at Torreciudad ‘as the Bishop of Barbastro is suggesting’.

Pope Francis wrote to a bishop voicing support for him in a dispute with Opus Dei, according to letters published in Spain.

“Don’t give in,” said Francis in a hand-written message in July 2023 to Bishop Ángel Pérez Pueyo of Barbastro-Monzón in northern Spain, revealed last week by the Spanish daily El País.

His words reportedly allude to the conflict between the bishop and the Prelature of Opus Dei over the Marian shrine of Torreciudad, near Aragon.

St Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, was cured of an infant malady after his family brought him to Torreciudad, where a Romanesque statue of the Virgin Mary has been venerated since the eleventh century. 

In 1962, the diocese agreed to lease in perpetuity the statue, original chapel and annexes to Opus Dei. Since 1975, the statue of Our Lady of the Angels has been kept in a new Torreciudad chapel built by Opus Dei.

In 2020, Opus Dei asked the bishop to sign a new contract to institute Torreciudad in canon law as a diocesan shrine. After long discussion, the diocese declared the original contract null and void. The bishop urged Opus Dei to return the statue to the original chapel.

In a second letter to Bishop Pérez published in El País, dated 9 October 2024, Pope Francis referred to his decision to ask the dean of the Roman Rota to intervene in the dispute.

“By naming the dean of the Rota, I am rendering visible my direct intervention in the activities of Opus Dei over there,” wrote Francis.

He continued: “And, by suggesting a new destiny for you, I’m seeking to free you from all the ‘mafiosi intrigues’ that are going on, so it is perfectly clear that my intervention here is total.”

Church sources told El País the term “new destiny” referred to Francis’ plans to appoint Pérez as Bishop of Ciudad Real, “because he had been told that [Pérez] could not withstand the pressures of the confrontation [with Opus Dei]”.

Pérez was surprised, according to the sources. Guessing that he had been manoeuvred behind his back, he decided to contact Francis to tell him he wished to remain Bishop of Barbastro-Monzón.

“The bishop obtained a meeting with the Pope and went to Rome and told him everything,” said the source, who claimed that Francis, indignant that he had been deceived, then halted Pérez’s nomination to Ciudad Real.

Hours after El País published the letters, which the bishop had previously quoted in public, the prelature of Opus Dei issued a statement providing “clarifications” concerning “information published about Torreciudad and the statue of Our Lady of the Angels”.

This referred to a statement published by Bishop Pérez on 31 August where he repeated his demand for the statue to return from the chapel built by Opus Dei to its original location. Pérez said that if this did not happen, he would be obliged to resign from the diocese.

Opus Dei said it “rejected” the claim that it had “stolen”, “usurped” or “illegally retained” the statue of the Virgin Mary “as the Bishop of Barbastro is suggesting”.

“The fact the statue belongs to the diocese has never been questioned,” it said. “The controversy refers to the reach and validity of rights concerning its use, custody and location, which were established via agreements between both parties.”

The statement continued: “The statue was not removed to another place or taken away from Torreciudad. It was placed, with authorisation from the diocese – as is documented – in the new chapel built a few metres from the shrine and within the same religious precinct.”

“The fact there may be differing interpretations of the legal consequences of these agreements is legitimate,” said the statement. “It is incumbent on the relevant authority to resolve them.”

Opus Dei expressed “its willingness for dialogue, its respect for the bishop and will to work with the pontifical commissar and accept whatever the Holy See decides”.

The bishop previously requested that Torreciudad should become an international shrine dependent on the Holy See.

However, preaching at a pilgrimage Mass last Saturday, Bishop Pérez thanked Opus Dei “for all the good” it had done in Torreciudad.

“There have been confessions, conversions, vocations here. Families have recovered their faith, individuals have encountered Jesus through the hands of Mary. This goodness is of God,” he said, at a liturgy during which the statue of Mary returned temporarily to its original location.

“I desire all this goodness to continue and to flourish. It is my desire that Opus Dei should be able to continue developing its mission here and that Torreciudad should remain a major focus of Marian and family conversion, which is fully integrated in the diocese.”

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