Pope Leo XIV has received in audience His Excellency Monsignor Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, titular archbishop of Bisuldino and dean of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, on the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year. The note does not report on the topics discussed, nor does it establish any link with specific matters. However, the name Arellano, by itself, inevitably refers to Spain: he is the full-powered pontifical commissioner appointed by Rome to channel the conflict over the Torreciudad complex, a file that remains without a definitive public resolution.
Arellano continues to be a first-level figure in the Vatican institutional circuit, and his presence on the Pope’s agenda reminds us that the Torreciudad matter is not closed.
Arellano, full-powered pontifical commissioner for Torreciudad
Monsignor Alejandro Arellano Cedillo is not a secondary actor. As dean of the Roman Rota, he holds one of the most relevant judicial positions in the Curia. In October 2024, the Holy See officially appointed him full-powered pontifical commissioner and delegate of the Holy See for the Torreciudad complex, with the task of seeking a solution to the differences regarding its legal, canonical, and pastoral regularization.
Infovaticana has followed this case by highlighting precisely the exceptional nature of the Roman intervention and the fact that the file has been placed in the hands of a commissioner with full powers, something that reveals the gravity of the conflict and the accumulated wear and tear.
Torreciudad: an open conflict between the diocese and Opus Dei
Torreciudad is a Marian shrine in Aragon promoted by Saint Josemaría Escrivá and managed for decades by Opus Dei. The conflict pits the diocese of Barbastro-Monzón against the prelature regarding the institutional fit of the complex: effective authority over the shrine, rectory, pastoral regime, and way of canonically regularizing a complex that, due to its symbolic weight and projection, has ended up becoming a problem of Roman scope.
Read also: Torreciudad: confusion, tensions, and a poorly managed ecclesial war
In this context, and while reports, proposals, and denials continue to emerge, Opus Dei itself has publicly reiterated that it is awaiting the resolution of the pontifical commissioner.
Recount of the other audiences of the day
In addition to Monsignor Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, the Holy See Bulletin reports that Leo XIV received in audience Monsignor Luis Alberto Barrera Pacheco, bishop of Callao (Peru); members of the presidency of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil; Bernhard Scholz, president of the Foundation of the Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples; Paolo Garonna, president of the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation; Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences; members of the College of Prelate Auditors of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota; other prelates of the Roman Rota on the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year; and Barham Salih, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).