Torreciudad: Is It All About Money?
While everyone thought that the conflict between the bishop and Opus Dei had been resolved, Monsignor Pérez Pueyo filed a lawsuit against Opus Dei at the 2nd Court of First Instance in Barbastro.
The Prelature did not appear at the previous conciliation hearing for legal reasons.
The purpose of the lawsuit is to force Opus Dei to terminate a contract signed with the diocese on 24 September 1962, and to cancel the contract for the transfer of the right to exhibit the image of Our Lady of Torreciudad.
The Diocese also requested that the image be returned to its original location.
In its written statement to the court, the diocese points out that it has tried to settle its claim out of court, but that its requests have been ignored.
The diocese considers that the agreement signed in 1962 between the then bishop, Monsignor Jaime Flores, and Florencio Sánchez Bella, the conciliator of the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei in Spain, was "prejudicial".
Over the decades, this agreement has never been denounced by successive bishops.
According to the existing contract, Opus Dei gives 19.23€ a year to the diocese. However, this is not the only amount it has given to the diocese in recent years, having responded to all the bishop's specific requests.
It seems that Monsignor Pérez Pueyo launched the civil action because he was angry that Opus Dei had lodged a canonical appeal against his decision to appoint the parish-priest, José María Mairal, as rector of the shrine.
Picture: Torreciudad © wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsCvzhudbjji