Austria's Rebel Nuns Refuse To Give Up Instagram To Stay In Their Convent

Three Austrian nuns in their 80s who escaped a care home and reclaimed their old convent are refusing the church's offer to stay because it requires them to quit Instagram, stop speaking to the press, and avoid legal counsel -- conditions they call a gag order. Their standoff with church authorities has now escalated to the Vatican as the nuns continue posting to their 185,000 followers. NPR reports: Before the church authorities moved the nuns into care almost two years ago, the local abbey and Archdiocese of Salzburg acquired the convent. The sisters say they were not aware they were signing away what they understood to be their lifelong right to remain in the cloister. On Friday, their superior, Provost Markus Grasl from Reichersberg Abbey, announced that the sisters can stay. But his offer comes with conditions: The nuns must cease all social media activities, stop talking to the press and forgo seeking legal advice. The nuns have rejected the proposal, and now Grasl has called on the Vatican to intercede.

In a statement released Friday, the nuns said the provost's offer is nothing short of a gag order. Speaking via Instagram, Sister Regina said, 'We can't agree to this deal. Without the media, we'd have been silenced.' Sister Bernadette told Instagram followers: 'We need to resolve this but any agreement we reach must be in accordance with God's will and shaped by human reason.' The provost's proposed agreement -- which NPR has seen -- also bans laypeople from entering the cloisters, including the sisters' helpers, many of whom they've known for decades and on whom the nuns now depend for help.

Speaking to NPR on Monday, the provost's spokesperson, crisis PR manager Harald Schiffl, said that the provost does not understand why the nuns reject his offer and that, in response, he has requested the Vatican authorities responsible for religious orders to step in. The Vatican has not commented on the situation. So while they await news from Rome, the sisters continue to follow the papal Instagram account. Schiffl says the terms relating to the nuns' social media use are reasonable: 'The abbey wishes to discontinue the sisters' social media accounts because what they show has very little to do with real religious life.'

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