Opus Dei have responded to a bishop’s incendiary comments, which opened the latest chapter in a long-running dispute between the personal prelature and the local diocese, over a revered Marian icon.

Earlier this week, Bishop Ángel Pérez Pueyo of Barbastro-Monzón released a statement on the diocesan website saying, among many other things, that Our Lady of the Angels of Torreciudad should be returned to its original hermitage and that he would resign if it was not.

The bishop said the image should never have been moved to its current residing place over fifty years ago, and that the diocese had documentation to suggest it was not “a voluntary renunciation.”

RELATED: Spanish bishop renews dispute with Opus Dei over Marian image

Ahead of a pilgrimage this weekend that will see the image temporarily returned to the original hermitage, he said after “more than fifty years, our Mother returns home.”

Opus Dei’s response

On Thursday, Opus Dei replied saying the bishop’s assertion – that the image should never have been removed from its original hermitage – was an “unfounded and offensive accusation.”

“It is legitimate for differing interpretations to exist regarding the legal effects of the agreements. It is up to the competent authority to resolve them. However, a legal difference cannot become an unfounded and offensive accusation,” a statement from Opus Dei  communications office in Spain said.

“For all these reasons, we reject the characterization of what happened as a theft, usurpation, or illegal detention, as suggested by the Bishop of Barbastro in his statement of August 31,” Opus Dei added.

In the long statement that sought to “to recall some documented facts,” Opus Dei said the “diocese’s ownership of the image has never been in dispute.”

“The controversy concerns the scope and validity of the rights of use, custody, and placement established through agreements between the parties,” the statement said.

The bishop argues that the image should stay in its original hermitage where it was venerated for centuries. Over fifty years ago, it was moved to the current complex in Torreciudad, which is under the control of Opus Dei.

However, Pérez Pueyo disputes the legitimacy of that decision.

A fifty-year controversy

“During these last few years, the diocese has gathered historical and legal documentation which, in our opinion, prevents us from considering the removal of the image from its hermitage as a voluntary renunciation by this town of its custody and its original place,” he said.

“Before the current church, before the controversies, and before any of us, for more than a millennium this image was united to this land and its hermitage. And its authorized removal, in accordance with the law, is not recorded in the archives of either the Cathedral Chapter or the diocese,” he added.

“We are not asking for privileges. We are asking that the Mother remain in her eternal home, where she always was for more than a thousand years until she was taken away fifty years ago,” he also said.

Opus Dei said the documentation makes it clear that the bishop at the time the agreement was made to move the image — Bishop Jaime Flores — authorized the arrangement.

“The sculpture was never stolen. Always with the bishop’s authorization, it was restored in 1964 and again around 1970, and since 1975 it has presided over the altarpiece of this new church, publicly displayed for the veneration of all the faithful,” the statement said.

Opus Dei said the public deed of 1962 shows that the old hermitage and the image were “ceded in perpetuity” and an agreement documented in 1966 was made so that the old hermitage and the new church would form a “a single, suitably enclosed complex.”

“Since the inauguration of the new church in 1975, visits and access have been free. According to data published by the sanctuary, more than ten million pilgrims have visited Torreciudad, and currently, around 200,000 visitors are received annually, including parish groups, families, and pilgrims from numerous countries,” Opus Dei added.

2020-present

The modern aspect of the dispute began in 2020 after Opus Dei requested that the diocese recognize Torreciudad as a diocesan sanctuary under the 1983 Code of Canon Law. This would involve the establishment of a formal canonical framework for the sanctuary, as well as retaining aspects of the agreement from the 1960s.

However, Pérez Pueyo challenged parts of this agreement, particularly the idea that the image was lawfully handed over. A Pontifical Commissioner was appointed to mediate in October 2024.

The bishop has asked that Torreciudad becomes an international shrine overseen by the Holy See and in his letter said that he wasn’t looking for any financial recompense.

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