November 29, 2025, 4:08 p.mNovember 29, 2025, 4:08 p.m
The sisters Rita, Regina, and Bernadette.Image: keystone
The conflict over three nuns and the monastery they occupied in Austria comes to a head. The elderly nuns recently rejected an offer to stay in Goldenstein for legal reasons. Now the responsible head of the monastery, Provost Markus Grasl, wants the Vatican to decide the matter, as his spokesman told the German Press Agency.
The provost will contact the Vatican authority responsible for order matters, the spokesman said. Grasl took into account all the wishes of the nuns, who are over 80 years old, but they categorically rejected the suggestion. “What else should we give them or enable them?” the speaker asked himself.
Sister Bernadette, Sister Regina and Sister Rita left a retirement home assigned to them at the beginning of September because they no longer wanted to live there. They gained access to the empty monastery in Goldenstein Castle near Salzburg, where they had previously lived for decades and worked in the monastery school.
Offer to stay in Goldenstein
The nuns came into conflict with Grasl because of the occupation and their international media presence. This week he sent them a proposed agreement to resolve the dispute. In the document available to the dpa, he promised, among other things, that you could live in Goldenstein until further notice and that you would be provided with nursing staff, medical care and a clergyman. The building will also be adapted to suit the age of the child.
According to a statement distributed by a spokeswoman and helper for the nuns, the three nuns rejected the proposal because of, among other things, the conditions set by the provost. The document had “the character of a gagging agreement,” it was said.
Conditions: No Instagram, no lawyer for the nuns
For example, women would have to stop all activities on social media. This includes an Instagram channel that has now been subscribed to around 111,000 times. The women religious, who had also taken legal action against the church, should also refrain from taking any legal action and separate from their lawyer.
In addition, the commitment to remain in Goldenstein was only vaguely formulated and “legally worthless,” the statement said. Grasl’s spokesman, however, emphasized that the agreement would be binding. But the matter is “now no longer in the hands of the provost.” (sda/dpa)