Austria's Rebel Nuns Refuse To Give Up Instagram To Stay In Their Convent (npr.org)
- Reference: 0180254061
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/01/2239244/austrias-rebel-nuns-refuse-to-give-up-instagram-to-stay-in-their-convent
- Source link: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/01/g-s1-99892/austria-nuns-convent-vatican
> 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.
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> 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.
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> 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."
[1] https://www.npr.org/2025/12/01/g-s1-99892/austria-nuns-convent-vatican
[2] https://www.instagram.com/nonnen_goldenstein/
Punk rock nuns (Score:2)
I am really enjoying this story.
Waiting for the young one to pop an ollie off one of the pews.
Except for the stupid headline, yes (Score:2)
The grandmas are not "refusing to give up Instagram", they are refusing to be silenced. They're also refusing other attempts to have them "pacified".
The difference is small, but important.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the demand was to get rid of their legal counsel, not contact the press... and give up Instagram, which was just thrown in there to confuse people and make the nuns look silly when the real intent is to take away their legal rights
secrecy required (Score:1)
If they have access to social media they might find out that the Pope protected a sex pest before he even became pope. I believe that's actually a requirement, though...
Re:What would Jesus do? (Score:5, Informative)
They are Augustinians, following the Rule of Saint Augustine [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Augustine isn't as detailed as others as he did not intend to formally create an order, so Augustinian monasteries have some independence to decide their own rule. Augustinian principles include "detachment from the world", "silence".
On one side, Blessed Alix Le Clerc (1576-1622) [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] , Canonesse of Saint-Augustin of the Notre-Dame Congregation [3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] founded the girls' schools at Schloss Goldenstein [4]https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] (famous actress Romy Schneider was there pensioner 1949-1953). The congregation exists elsewhere [5]https://cnd-csa.org/?lang=fr [cnd-csa.org] but Goldenstein isn't formally affiliated with them.
On the other side, Reichersberg Abbey [6]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] are also Augustinian Canons.
Due to variations in Augustinian rules, the latter house might follow a stricter rule than the former.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Saint_Augustine
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alix_Le_Clerc
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonesses_of_Saint-Augustin_of_the_Notre-Dame_Congregation
[4] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Goldenstein
[5] https://cnd-csa.org/?lang=fr
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichersberg_Abbey
I know about Julie Andrews and Sally Fields (Score:1)
But who is the third nun?
But who is the third nun? (Score:1)
Whoopi Goldberg
Is it, or isn't it? (Score:2)
> must be in accordance with God's will and shaped by human reason.
Who says that the proposal isn't according to the fictional character's will, which no one can prove or disprove? And it certainly is shaped by human reason.
A gag order about what? (Score:4, Informative)
The summary makes it sound like much ado about nothing, but from the article:
> The octogenarian nuns made headlines across the world this fall after staging an escape from the care home they say church authorities took them to against their will.
So they're being told they can stay if they don't complain about what the church allegedly did.
Re: (Score:2)
So they're being told they can stay if they don't complain about what the church allegedly did.
It's the same thing for Indigenous peoples wherever the Church went.
Re: (Score:2)
> So they're being told they can stay if they don't complain about what the church allegedly did.
> It's the same thing for Indigenous peoples wherever the Church went.
Or of the poor children everywhere that were put in their care. Or for that matter, of altar boys of any socioeconomic strata
They may have been pointedly awful to indigenous peoples, but few children of any stripe escaped the priests 'attention'
News for nerds? (Score:2)
News for nerds? Just because of Insta?
Re: (Score:2)
News for Nuns.
I'm so sick of clickbait (Score:5, Interesting)
Headline is they refuse to give up Instagram reality is that they refused to gag order.
I just got a article in my feed that the lead actress for the Asoka series at Disney refused to do another season because she wasn't paid enough.
The actual facts are that season 2 filming is already done and one of the other less important characters didn't come back because they didn't offer her enough money to afford to live in London where the shooting was.
I'm so sick of clickbait. Lately it's being written by shitty AI so it's gotten even worse.
So, Instagram is better than sex? (Score:2)
Hard to believe you can quit sex, but not Instagram. Guess social media really is addictive. *gag*
Just give it time (Score:2, Troll)
They're not that young anymore. Give it it 3-5 years and the time will solve the problem for you.
Re: (Score:2)
> They're not that young anymore. Give it it 3-5 years and the time will solve the problem for you.
That sentiment lives here in the U.S. too. :-)
Re:Just give it time (Score:4, Interesting)
They're apparently active recalcitrant nuns. Odds are at least one lives to 100.
[1]Life expectancy [lifeexpect...lators.com] for an 85 year old woman is 7-8 years.
Given 3 of them, I'd bet at least one lasts a decade.
[1] https://www.lifeexpectancycalculators.com/life-expectancy-tables/
Re: (Score:3)
> The nuns have rejected the proposal, and now Grasl has called on the Vatican to intercede.
And if that doesn't work, we'll appeal to an even higher authority. The minute God tells us to leave, preferably in writing, we'll go.