EWTN News reports on the conflict between three elderly Augustinian nuns (ages 81-88) and their religious superior, Fr. Markus Grasl of Reichersberg Abbey. After being forcibly relocated from Goldenstein Monastery to a nursing home in December 2023, the sisters returned to their convent in September 2025 with public support. Grasl’s compromise offer – permitting their stay conditional upon ending media contact, dismissing lawyers, and accepting nursing home registration – was rejected. The case now heads to Rome for resolution.
Illegitimate Authority Usurps Christ’s Kingship
The entire dispute unfolds under the false premise that Jorge Bergoglio’s “Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life” possesses jurisdiction. Quas Primas (Pius XI, 1925) declares Christ’s kingship over all societies, yet here we witness the conciliar sect reducing religious life to bureaucratic control. The 2020 imposition of Cor Orans – a modernist directive violating Canon 492 of the 1917 Code which guaranteed monastic self-governance – demonstrates the sect’s hatred for traditional religious structures. When the article states “the Vatican appointed Grasl as spiritual superior,” it conceals the truth: an antipapal apparatus nullified the nuns’ God-given rights under Sponsa Christi (Pius XII, 1950), which affirmed that “the law of enclosure is the safeguard of chastity” and the very essence of monastic life.
Medicalized Faith: Modernism’s War on Suffering
Grasl’s claim that nursing home placement was necessary due to “advanced age and poor health” exposes the conciliar sect’s materialist worldview. Contrast this with Lamentabili Sane (1907) condemning the proposition that “the Church is incapable of effectively defending evangelical ethics.” True shepherds would provide chaplains and caregivers within the monastery walls, honoring their vows of stability. Instead, the modernist “superior” treats consecrated virgins as medical cases, disregarding Pope Pius XII’s teaching that “suffering accepted with faith becomes participation in Christ’s redemptive work” (Haurietis Aquas, 1956). The nuns’ rejection of his conditions constitutes implicit resistance to the sect’s dehumanizing pragmatism.
“An independent life in Goldenstein was therefore no longer possible — neither for health reasons nor spiritual or structural ones.”
This statement drips with naturalism. Since when do “structural reasons” justify dissolving a monastic community? The 1917 Code (Canon 554) mandated bishops to preserve monasteries even with few members. The conciliar sect’s real agenda emerges in the 2022 property transfer to Salzburg’s apostate “archdiocese” and Reichersberg Abbey – both neck-deep in the German Synodal Path heresies. This is asset-stripping disguised as pastoral care.
Media Circus Replaces Cloistered Silence
The nuns’ embrace of BBC and CNN spotlight proves their formation was gutted by conciliarism. Authentic Augustinians would follow St. Clare’s admonition: “Love the whole world but live in it as if it did not exist.” Instead, these sisters – likely formed under Novus Ordo deformations – weaponize secular attention against ecclesiastical discipline (however illegitimate). Both sides parade before cameras, violating Canon 2341 forbidding clerics from civil courts. Their lawyer’s criminal complaint against Grasl completes the scandal: a canonical matter dragged into Caesar’s realm, betraying Christ’s warning that “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
False Obedience Versus True Surrender
While Grasl demands “cessation of all social media activities,” true authority flows from valid sacraments – which the conciliar sect lacks. The 1917 Code (Canon 147) states: “No office is validly obtained without canonical provision.” With post-1968 “ordinations” being doubtfully valid, Grasl’s governance is theatrical. The sisters intuitively rebel because the sect offers neither true sacraments nor true paternity. Yet their defiance isn’t virtuous – it’s the chaos of children rebelling against abusive parents. Traditional Catholic obedience requires a legitimate superior, which hasn’t existed since Pope Pius XII.
Conclusion: Schism Within Schism
This spectacle exemplifies the conciliar sect’s death throes. As the Syllabus of Errors condemns those who claim “the Roman Church became the head of all Churches due to purely political causes” (Proposition 56), we see Bergoglio’s regime reducing religious life to property disputes and media management. The sisters’ plight elicits human sympathy, but their fight occurs within the anti-church’s false paradigm. Until they recognize the conciliar sect’s total apostasy – and seek refuge with validly ordained priests preserving the Tridentine Mass – no “compromise” will heal this rupture. The true solution? Flee Babylon (Rev 18:4) and join the remnant Catholic resistance.
Source:
Austrian nuns who escaped nursing home reject compromise offer (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 02.12.2025