Overview
- The Fiscalía and the Comisario Pontificio, which asked for 12‑year sentences on July 1, 2026, have sent seven former Belorado nuns to trial on multiple criminal counts.
- The indictment charges the seven with coercion, degrading treatment, abandonment, omission of aid and patrimonial crimes including disloyal administration and unlawful appropriation of funds.
- Court and forensic reports describe severe care failures such as widespread lack of hygiene, dogs on beds, traces of excrement, restricted medical access and hospital admissions after a December 18, 2025 judicial entry that led to one sister’s death on January 9, 2026.
- The instructing judge found that in November 2024 the abbess and others arranged shared online bank accounts for the elderly sisters and made numerous transfers that prosecutors say amount to misappropriation of pensions.
- The accused deny wrongdoing and call the process persecution; the case stems from a May 2024 schism that led church authorities to block monastery accounts and appoint a Comisario Pontificio, raising broader concerns about oversight of vulnerable elders in closed religious communities.