Madrid: A Spanish nun with a social conscience would ordinarily be expected to help underprivileged children in her community, or perhaps do missionary work in the developing world.

But Teresa Forcades from the Benedictine monastery of Montserrat, near Barcelona, is no ordinary sister.

A Harvard-educated doctor in public health, she has clashed with medical orthodoxy with her outspoken views on vaccines. She is a devoted member of the Catholic Church, but has written critically about the institution as misogynistic and uncaring.

Now Forcades is taking a step further and is moving into front-line politics.

Her new mission is to unite Catalonia’s Left-wing parties to bring about an independent state that is also free of the ravages of global capitalism. Sister Teresa has left the mountaintop monastery which has been her home for two decades to become a radical candidate for the next Catalan election, scheduled for September and which regional premier Artur Mas has billed as a de facto referendum on independence.

In mid-June Forcades was selected as the number one candidate on the ballot list of Proces Constituent a Catalunya, a grouping which she founded.

It calls for an independent state with a nationalised banking system and energy sector, no armed forces, payment for parents who stay at home and on-demand abortion. Even before the election campaign has begun in earnest, Forcades enjoys huge popularity. Her Twitter account has 35,000 followers and her YouTube videos, in which she explains the ills of “big pharma” and global capitalism, have been viewed by hundreds of thousands.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Forcades admits that being a nun has disadvantages in the Spanish political arena.

“I have read negative comments along the lines of ‘How can you have a nun running the country?’ and I know there are people who will be deterred from voting for me because I am a nun,” she said.

“People are still very anticlerical and with the history we had with Franco in power, it is understandable.”

However, the fact she is critical of the Church from within may have helped boost her credibility, she adds. She is awaiting permission for her exclaustration, a period spent outside the convent or monastery, before she takes to the political arena to press her case for independence.

But is Forcades sure she will not be tempted to stay down from the mountain?

“Life is open-ended,” she said. “But I feel attached to the monastery. I feel I belong there. I am very happy the sisters agreed to let me do this for three years. We are ready in this country for a major change and I am ready to play a part in it.”