The conflict between the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón and the Opus Dei over the control and regulation of the Torreciudad sanctuary has caused Pope Francis to take control of the place, after appointing Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, current dean of the Tribunal of the Rota, as an envoy from the Vatican.
This oratory inaugurated in 1975 and located in the province of Huesca was founded by Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, creator of Opus Dei, to honor the Virgin Mary.
Over time, the Marian sanctuary has become a place of pilgrimage that welcomes more than 190,000 faithful each year.
A childhood memory and an ETA attack
The sanctuary is located in this location because Escrivá de Balaguer made a pilgrimage there with his family in 1904, when he was two years old, so that his family could ask the Virgin of Torreciudad for her healing, since he suffered from meningitis, according to the archives on the life of the priest.
Already in the 1960s, the founder of Opus Dei decided to build the sanctuary there as a way of gratitude. The work began on January 2, 1970 and on July 7, 1975, a few days after the death of Escrivá de Balaguer, it was inaugurated.
Since 1980, the sanctuary has been part of the so-called Marian route, which connects Zaragoza (via the Pilar basilica), Torreciudad and Lourdes. In addition, it hosts the longest relay race in Europe, with a 500 km route from the Tajamar school in the Madrid neighborhood of Puente de Vallecas to the sanctuary itself.
Torreciudad was also the protagonist of the first ETA terrorist attack in Aragon. On June 24, 1979, a bomb composed of about ten kilos of rubber-2 exploded in the sanctuary, according to El País.
After months of negotiations and without having reached a definitive agreement, the Vatican has taken the reins of managing the conflict between Opus Dei and the Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón in relation to the legal, canonical and pastoral regulation of the sanctuary.
