Sister Rita, 82, (left), Sister Regina, 86 (centre) and Sister Bernadette, 88, fled a care home and entered their former convent earlier this year, saying church officials had taken them to live there against their will. The nuns have also rejected an offer to remain in the convent if they leave social media, among other conditions. Now his superior has asked the Vatican to take action.
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BERLIN – Since moving into their convent near Salzburg, Austria, Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita have been busy.
On her Instagram account, 82-year-old Rita can be seen running around the monasteries try boxing Lesson. Sister Regina, 86, has become so used to climbing the four stairs that she has forgotten to take the recently donated stair lift. And 88-year-old Sister Bernadette regularly shares sharp-tongued observations about matters both sacred and secular over a cup of coffee.
octogenarian nun made headlines Church officials took him there against his will after he escaped from a care home around the world this fall, he says.
The Augustinian nuns are supported by the local community and a growing flock of more than 185,000 Instagram Follower.
Yet they are still essentially sitting. Before the nuns were transferred to the care of the church authorities about two years ago, the local monastery and the Archdiocese of Hamburg took over the convent. The sisters say they were not aware that they were signing away their lifelong right to live in the monastery.
On Friday, their superior, Provost of Reichersberg Abbey Markus Gräsl, announced that the sisters could stay. But their offer comes with conditions: the nuns must cease all social media activity, stop speaking to the press and stop taking legal advice. The nuns have rejected the offer, and Grassl has now called on the Vatican to intervene.
In a statement issued on Friday, the nuns said the provost’s offer is nothing less than a restraining order.
Speaking via instagramSister Regina said, ,We can’t agree to this deal. Without the media, we would have been silenced.”
Sister Bernadette told Instagram followers: “We need to resolve this but any agreement we reach must be in line with God’s will and shaped by humanitarian reason.”
Canon law scholar and priest Wolfgang Roth told NPR that the deal is neither fair nor humane and has no legal basis in church or state laws. “The Provost’s demands are absolutely unlawful; he seeks to restrict the sisters to an extent that is nothing less than a violation of their human rights.”
The provost’s proposed agreement — seen by NPR — also prohibits laypeople from entering the monasteries, including the sisters’ assistants, many of whom he has known for decades and on whom the nuns now depend for help.
Speaking to NPR on Monday, the provost’s spokesman, crisis PR manager Harald Schieffel, said the provost could not understand why the nuns rejected his proposal and, in response, he has requested Vatican officials responsible for religious orders to intervene.
The Vatican has not commented on the situation. So while they wait for news from Rome, the sisters continue to follow the Pope’s Instagram account.
Schiffl says that the conditions regarding the nuns’ use of social media are reasonable: “The abbey wants to close the sisters’ social media accounts because what they show has little to do with actual religious life.”
In an interview with NPR, Sister Bernadette explained that Provost Grassl is as media-savvy as she and her fellow nuns are. For example, she mentions Grassl’s 2022 photo shoot Together Austrian TV chef,
“Provosts and churches invite journalists to big parties they throw,” says Bernadette. “It helps raise money. Why shouldn’t we do the same?”
The Provost’s promise to allow the sisters to live in the convent is revoked by a “until further notice” clause.
Roth says there is nothing in the proposal that would prevent the provost from removing the sisters a second time. “Once again, the Provost is trying to exert pressure to achieve something that is in his best interest, without taking into account the sisters’ interests or even asking what the sisters want.”
“I can’t say how to resolve this; it’s up to Rome now,” says Schieffel, the provost’s spokesman.
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