JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
We have an update today on the three Austrian nuns in their 80s who fled a care home and broke back into their former convent in defiance of church authorities. Their superior, the local provost, said the sisters can stay if they give up social media. The nuns rejected these terms, so the provost says the sisters must now answer to Rome. Esme Nicholson has the latest.
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ESME NICHOLSON, BYLINE: Since breaking into their former convent near Salzburg, sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita have been busy.
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NICHOLSON: On Instagram, 82-year-old Sister Rita can be seen rushing about the cloisters, even dabbling in a bit of boxing. Eighty-six-year-old Sister Regina is now so used to climbing four flights of stairs she forgets to take the recently reinstalled stairlift.
BERNADETTE: (Non-English language spoken).
NICHOLSON: And 88-year-old Sister Bernadette regularly shares sharp observations about matters both sacred and secular with the sisters' growing flock of Instagram followers, currently totaling more than 200,000. Yet the novice influencers are still essentially squatting. Before the church authorities moved the nuns into care, the sisters unwittingly signed over what they understood to be their lifelong right to remain in the cloister.
Now, their superior, Provost Markus Grasl, says the sisters can stay, but his offer comes with conditions. The nuns must come off social media, stop talking to the press and cease seeking legal advice. The nuns have rejected the proposal, and Grasl has called on the Vatican to intercede. The nuns say the provost's offer is nothing short of a gag order. Speaking on Instagram, Sister Regina says the press is their protection.
REGINA: (Through interpreter) We can't agree to this deal. Without the media, we would have been silenced.
NICHOLSON: Sister Bernadette, a nun at the convent for 70 years, appealed to the provost.
BERNADETTE: (Through interpreter) We need to resolve this. But any agreement we reach must be in accordance with God's will and shaped by human reason.
NICHOLSON: Canon law scholar and priest Wolfgang Rothe told NPR that the deal is neither reasonable nor humane.
WOLFGANG ROTHE: (Through interpreter) The provost's demands are simply unlawful. He seeks to restrict the sisters to such an extent that is nothing less than a violation of their human rights.
NICHOLSON: The provost's proposed agreement, which NPR has seen, also bans laypersons from entering the cloister, including the sisters' helpers, many of whom they've known for decades.
Speaking to NPR on Monday, the provost's spokesperson, Harald Schiffl, says the sisters' rejection of his offer is regrettable, especially the sisters' refusal to give up their social media presence, which the provost views as unbecoming.
HARALD SCHIFFL: (Through interpreter) What the sisters show on social media has very little to do with real religious life. And that's why the abbey is asking them to stay offline.
NICHOLSON: Sister Bernadette points out that the nuns' superior is just as media savvy as they are.
BERNADETTE: (Through interpreter) The provost and the church invite journalists to the big parties they throw. It helps raise money. Why shouldn't we do the same?
NICHOLSON: Canon law scholar and priest Rothe says there's nothing to stop the provost from removing the sisters a second time because his promise to let the sisters remain is conditioned by the clause until further notice. But the provost's spokesperson, Schiffl, says the matter is out of his hands.
SCHIFFL: (Through interpreter) I cannot say how to resolve this. It's now up to Rome.
NICHOLSON: And while they await news from Rome, the sisters continue to follow the papal Instagram account.
For NPR News, I'm Esme Nicholson in Berlin.
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