Defiant nuns flee care home for their abandoned convent in the Alps

If you’ve not seen it yet here’s a thread casting Nuns on the Run
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5410483-this-will-warm-your-cockles-3-nuns-on-the-run-in-austria?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

If they're in their 80s, they would probably have joined the order about 60 years ago and may have retired from active work within the order 20 or more years ago. So 'in this day and age' and modern rules on minimum wage, employer pension contributions etc don't really apply.

Sorry no men allowed in the convent unless necessary tradesmrn

You are welcome to leave the convent for overnight stays elsewhere!

Austria (and Germany) have contribution based welfare systems. I wonder if convent run schools have to contribute to the various welfare systems for their staff who are members of the order, certainly they will have health insurance at the very least. You could make it a condition for being allowed to run a school. They will have to contribute for their staff who aren't nuns anyway. It would make sense, but then many things that would make sense to me aren't implemented.

Go sisters!

This reminds me of a similar case in Belgium years ago. The nuns were given eviction notice from their convent which was to be sold by the church. They took legal advice and found the property belonged to their order rather than the diocese. So they sold up and moved to sunny Spain together. They even bought a special ambulance to take one of the sisters who was too ill to fly. Nuns are badass.

If they taught in a school run by their order, no salary, no. If they worked for an external organisation, any money earned goes to the order. But you’re given money to help you set up on leaving, or, if you arrived with a ‘dowry’, it’s returned to you. No idea about state pension.

Well, they’re not they just think they are.

These nuns had clearly been teachers (ones whose students now are happy to help look after them). Would they really have received no salary at all for that in this day and age? Wouldn’t they have been individually entitled to some sort of state pension?
Idk how these monastic orders work but if I was running one and didn’t want to be accused of being a financially abusive cult I’d make sure members had the financial ability to leave should they wish.

I’m not a Catholic. However, I thought that it was the ‘job’ of some orders to live a contemplative life of prayer. Given the horrors of the world, I rather like to think of a community of holy individuals who spend their time praying for good. In that sense, they are benefiting their community.

My aunt was a nun, just across the border in Munich, Arme Schulschwestern not Augustiner like these three. She would be a few years older than Sister Bernadette if she wouldn't have died at age 51. She had no bank account and I'm not sure if she would have qualified for a pension despite having worked as the secretary to the head mistress (also a nun, first woman to gain a doctorate in pedagogy in Bavaria) at the school they run in Munich, until her death. Her share of her inheritance from my maternal grandparents went to the order. She certainly had some money for buying a few personal things and I and my siblings and cousins always got a small birthday present every year but there were certainly no savings. I assume if she had lived to old age the order would have taken responsibility for her care and this is the deal when someone joins the order.

I miss having our sisters around - they were amazing, albeit one drove like the devil himself was within striking range. But they're getting older and after a lifetime of work (and fighting the diocese), they actually wanted to finally withdraw into their convent and have some peace.

As nuns who've taken a vow of poverty, do they actually have personal bank accounts or is it the convent account (which presumably belongs to the church)? If they do have personal accounts I don't suppose there's very much in them. Certainly not enough to maintain and run a building of that size. Would they get pensions?

These women have all been indoctrinated and are trauma bonded in my view. Attending the school as a child, staying on and becoming a teacher as a nun rings all sorts of alarm bells.
Moving these women out of the only home they have known when they are in their 80s is nothing short of inhumane.
Best interest assessments anyone??

Let us not judge them about their actions in years gone by unless we have some evidence or at least an account.

Towanda sisters.

I had never seen that come up a a suggestion, so have agreed that to my Prime watch list.

Thank you.

1923 isn't as good as 1883 but very watchable.

OMG amazing!

If they don’t re-write sister act 3, currently in production, to be based on this, I’ll be fuming!

You’re right @IwantToRetire- that really does sound bad. Unless under their legal system there’s some sort of power of attorney sort of thing, but it doesn’t sound like they’re all mentally incapable or anything like that.

They look weird - most nuns haven't worn those old-style habits for decades, these days they tend to wear sensible skirts and cardis, and no veil.
Maybe these ones have broken out the old habits to look more photogenic...

It's interest to read posters saying they'd like to join them in their convent - becoming a nun was the only way out of compulsory marriage and annual childbirths for girls in Ireland in the past, and also the only way to get teacher training or a university education, which most families couldn't afford.

Obviously there were pretty serious downsides - chastity probably wasn't the worst of them for some nuns, given the alternatives on offer - but it was a choice which gave women a degree of protection, independence from men on a day-to-day basis, educational opportunities and a job.

In the fields of education and nursing, a lot of them did a good job. Obviously nuns are a mixed bunch, and there are negative stories, but many of us convent girls can remember teaching nuns who encouraged and inspired us.

As a previous poster said: underestimate nuns at your peril!

It's interesting that religious orders putting old nuns in retirement homes is unpopular here in Ireland for a different reason - the feeling is that the orders should be paying reparation to the residents of institutions instead of providing comfy homes for old nuns...

It is the best news story in ages. The newsreader also had a huge smile. Go nuns. They looked so happy escaping

I loved 1883, though I haven't watched any of the others, and looking at the reviews that's maybe the best one.

Maybe you'd like The English (Prime). The cinematography is absolutely outstanding.

Actually I might sub out Judi Dench for Stephanie Cole who played Diana in Waiting for God, she was a battleaxe.

And that's my Netflix binge for tomorrow sorted, I was wondering what to watch next as I'm currently on the last episode of 1883 (having accidentally watched 1923 first... Actually I watched Yellowstone first, so I'm working my way backwards through time in that story arc)

Ooh good cast