SPAIN
The Local
Two nuns submitted “virginity tests” to a Galician court in an attempt to prove the leader of their religious order was innocent of sexual abuse, recently released court transcripts show.
Marta Paz and Ivana L. presented evidence of their virginity to a court in the Galician town of Tui after their leader, Feliciano Miguel Rosendo, was arrested and held without bail for crimes including sex abuse in December 2014.
Rosendo lead the Mandate and Order of Saint Michael Archangel, whose choir sang for Pope Benedict when he visited Madrid in 2011. Rosendo changed the name of the sect after he was expelled from the Roman Catholic diocese of Tui for “inappropriate behaviour”.
The majority of the sect’s 400 followers left after Rosendo was expelled from Tui, but a core group of supporters claim his innocence to this day.
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