Bishop Ángel Pérez Pueyo of Barbastro-Monzón accuses Opus Dei of failing to produce the original contract that would justify moving the 11th-century Virgin of the Angels statue from its historic hermitage. The missing document sits at the center of a legal and church standoff that has dragged on for years, with neither side willing to give ground.
Opus Dei says all basic legal documents are available online, including a notarial act referring to a 1966 agreement between then-bishop Jaime Flores and Opus representatives. The diocese, but, insists the actual contract, supposedly authorizing the statue’s permanent transfer to the new Torreciudad sanctuary, has never been handed over despite repeated requests. Diocesan officials say neither the cathedral chapter’s records nor the diocesan archives show any sign of such authorization or a permanent transfer of ownership or use.
On September 5, 2026, the statue of the Virgin of Torreciudad returned to its thousand-year-old hermitage for the first time in decades, though it stayed there for only a few hours during a major pilgrimage event, Infovaticana reported.
The dispute over control of the statue is part of a wider struggle over the Torreciudad sanctuary, which has continued between the diocese and Opus Dei since 2020. The Vatican intervened by appointing Archbishop Alejandro Arellano as pontifical commissioner, but no final decision came before Pope Francis died. The resulting uncertainty has deepened the standoff.
In recent weeks, Bishop Pérez Pueyo has stepped up his campaign, accusing Opus Dei of illegally keeping the statue and arguing that the historical and legal record does not support claims that the local community ever gave up its custodianship. The diocese points to a 1962 contract in which it ceded the hermitage land to Opus Dei’s real estate company, Inmobiliaria General Castellana, S. A., on the clear condition that the statue remain at its original site.
The Torreciudad sanctuary attracts around 200,000 visitors annually, information from reports in the Catholic press. That figure reflects the public and pastoral significance of the ongoing dispute over the statue and its location, Katholisch reported.
Despite the condition in the 1962 contract, Opus Dei took the statue to Madrid for restoration in 1975 and never returned it to the hermitage. Instead, the statue was installed in the new Torreciudad sanctuary. The bishop at the time, Ambrosio Echebarría, formally objected, warning Opus Dei’s Spanish vicar that the move lacked diocesan approval and demanding the statue’s return. Opus Dei responded with notarial testimony, but the original contract has never surfaced.
The bishop has already given up management of the sanctuary and the right to appoint its rector, leaving the statue itself at the center of the dispute. Pérez Pueyo has said he will resign if the pontifical commissioner’s final decision does not require its return. The diocese is willing to allow temporary transfers of the statue for pastoral reasons, but only after it is restored to its original home.
The dispute comes as Opus Dei’s influence within the Church has waned. Pope Francis reduced its status to that of a simple association of priests, placing it under the authority of the Dicastery for the Clergy and local bishops. The change has left Opus Dei with less autonomy and use in disputes such as Torreciudad.
A series of unpublished letters between Pope Francis and the Barbastro bishop have also surfaced. In them, the pope warned of “mafia-like intrigues” around the sanctuary and urged resistance to pressure from the ultraconservative group. The next move falls to León XIV, whose position on the Torreciudad dispute remains unknown.
As the legal and church battle continues, the missing contract remains basic to Opus Dei’s claim and the diocese’s resistance. In the diocese’s view, the fact that the statue has been outside its original hermitage for fifty years gives Opus Dei no legitimate right to keep it. The case echoes other church property disputes in Spain, where paperwork and history often collide. A previous investigation into church and state tensions also showed how such fights play out in legal archives and Vatican offices.
