Pope Francis told bishop of Barbastro not to give in over Torreciudad, letters show

Pope Francis wrote to the bishop of Barbastro-Monzón, Ángel Pérez Pueyo, asking him not to back down in the dispute over the shrine of Torreciudad, in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain. He did so while the Vatican was conducting its own institutional intervention in the same matter. The two handwritten letters, dated July 13, 2023 and October 13, 2024, had not been made public before. El País published them and had exclusive access to the originals, which the bishop provided to the paper.

In the first, Francis wrote: "Don't give in!" Four days after receiving it, on July 17, 2023, Pérez Pueyo removed the rector of Torreciudad and appointed a priest he trusted in his place. The second letter arrived four days after Francis placed the shrine under an extraordinary commissioner, that is, once the matter had formally passed to a delegate sent to settle the dispute.

The conflict began in January 2020, when Opus Dei asked for a change in the shrine's legal status, in force since 1962. Under the original agreements, the diocese had granted the organization "el dominio útil", the beneficial ownership of the religious complex, in perpetuity. Pérez Pueyo refused to sign any update of those terms and the negotiations stalled for three years.

A commissioner for the shrine and a letter to the bishop

Talks continued through 2024 without result. On October 9 that year, Francis intervened at the shrine and named Archbishop Alejandro Arellano, dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, as extraordinary commissioner. Four days later, on October 13, he sent Pérez Pueyo the second letter, in which he explained the purpose of the appointment: "In appointing the Dean of the Rota I make visible my discreet intervention in the activities of Opus Dei there."

According to the text published by El País, the same letter added another reference to his intentions: "And, in proposing a new assignment to you, I am seeking to free you from all 'the mafia-like intrigues' that are under way. That way it is clear that my intervention is total." That "new assignment" referred to a Vatican effort to move the bishop to the diocese of Ciudad Real, in central Spain. Church sources cited by the paper said the pope had been told that the bishop "could not withstand the pressures of the confrontation."

By Pérez Pueyo's own account, he was surprised by a decision taken without consulting him, concluded that others had acted behind his back and requested an audience with Francis. At the meeting in Rome he set out the full situation. In that version, leaked to El País, Francis realized that someone in the Vatican or in Spain had tried to deceive him, and he froze the appointment. It remained on hold and was settled in July by Pope Leo XIV, after Francis's death. The same sources said that "it is not the first time that the Vatican and Spain have tried to take Pérez Pueyo out of Barbastro and move him to another diocese. They already tried years earlier over another conflict unrelated to Torreciudad."

The medieval statue at the center of the case

The core of the dispute is the image of Our Lady of the Angels, a statue of medieval origin kept in its hermitage until Opus Dei moved it to Torreciudad 60 years ago, after offering to restore it. The organization says the bishop of the time granted it the sculpture in perpetuity in 1966, and cites notarial documents and a record of an emphyteutic lease as proof. Pérez Pueyo has said that documentation does not appear in the archives of the cathedral chapter or of the diocese, and he considers the statue's presence at the shrine an unlawful retention.

The bishop has announced that he will submit his resignation to the Vatican if the image is not returned to the diocese. In a recent statement he also demanded the cathedral's baptismal font, which by his account was taken to Opus Dei's headquarters in Rome. The font was found shattered in the river and rebuilt by Opus Dei. Along with those requests he has proposed a structural solution: that the Vatican designate the shrine as international and that the Holy See audit and approve its accounts, as well as those of the foundations and commercial companies linked to the complex.

Diocesan sources cited by El País do not rule out going to court if the matter is not settled amicably. The diocese has gone to court before, suing the diocese of Lleida, its Diocesan Museum and the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Catalan regional government, over the return of 111 religious items from 42 parishes in Barbastro.

The Zaidín precedent

Litigation over a Marian statue is not new in Barbastro-Monzón. In March 2021 the diocese obtained the forced handover of Our Lady of Zaidín by court order, after a case that ran for more than two decades. The justification argued throughout was the return of heritage to the communities it came from, the same argument now behind the request over Our Lady of the Angels.

That Gothic statue did not end up on the altar of its parish. Instead of resuming its devotional and liturgical role in the town of Zaidín, the image was moved to the display cases of the Diocesan Museum, where it has been on show since.

The letters and the change of legal status

Both letters are handwritten, with Francis's usual handwriting and signature, and El País verified them by comparing them with other documents written in his own hand. Church sources told the paper that these letters, like other direct communications from Francis, were scanned by someone he trusted and then emailed to the recipients.

Francis's decisions on Opus Dei went back further. In the summer of 2022 he placed the organization under the Dicastery for the Clergy, to which it must report on its activities. He also ruled that its head "will not be distinguished" with the office of bishop and may not wear the episcopal ring or vestments.

A year later, in 2023, he changed the status of personal prelature that the organization had held since 1982. That status had no defined territory and recognized its own authority over its charism, while keeping it subject to each bishop in matters common to the rest of the faithful of the diocese. Francis reclassified it as a public clerical association, able to incorporate clergy along with lay faithful, and ordered it to rewrite its statutes in line with the new category. With those changes, Opus Dei would no longer have a singular legal form in canon law and was placed in a common category.

Francis died with the Torreciudad conflict still open. Arellano, the extraordinary commissioner, did not close the matter or settle one of its central points, possession of Our Lady of the Angels.

The case under Leo XIV

Church sources consulted by El País expect Opus Dei to regain control of the shrine during the new pontificate. Pérez Pueyo has said the diocese is giving up management of the complex and the appointment of the rector, and is asking only for the return of the statue and of the cathedral's baptismal font.

Leo XIV's formal position toward the organization remains in line with his predecessor's. He has not yet approved the updated statutes Francis ordered rewritten, and he has not spoken on the substance of the Torreciudad case. In March he gave a private audience to the writer Gareth Gore, author of a book that accuses Opus Dei of manipulating and mistreating its members, and published photographs of the meeting. Gore told reporters that the pope congratulated him on his "rigorous work," though the Vatican has said nothing about the meeting.