In a message to the Catholic News Agency (KNA), the sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita explain that they withdraw "from now on and until further notice" from the platforms Instagram and Facebook.
On the Instagram account "nonnen_ goldenstein" around 280,000 people had recently followed the fate of the three nuns, who have been resisting the move to a retirement home for months.
There you can see short videos from the everyday life of the senior women in the occupied monastery.
Now the religious women explicitly distance themselves from the existing social media appearances, which have so far been led under their name.
At the same time, we would like to make it clear that the accounts 'nonnen_ goldenstein' (Instagram) and 'nonnengoldenstein' (Facebook) in particular were not operated by ourselves at any time."
All the contributions and comments published there were "neither brought to their attention in advance" nor were they subsequently approved.
"To this extent, we are not responsible in any way for the content of the posts and comments posted on our behalf on the aforementioned platforms." Should the accounts continue to be actively operated, this would be done explicitly against their will.
Post from the Vatican
As a reason for their media withdrawal, the sisters mention Post from the Vatican. From there, they would have received a response to a letter a few days ago.
According to the religious women, the competent Vatican office is working to find a "just, human and sustainable solution" for the monastery dispute near Salzburg.
In this context, the Vatican has invited them "to spend the remaining Advent season and the coming Christmas season in inner peace and reflection in the spirit of the exam." For this, they should "appropriately reduce their foreign activities."
The religious thank the public for the sympathy and support of the past months. Without the media attention, they would have been "at the mercy of the recklessness and arbitrariness of our superior without protection and help."
They were now hoping for support from the Vatican so that they would be given "a peaceful future in our monastery."
The fate of the Goldenstein nuns, all three over 80 years old, had made headlines internationally. At the beginning of September, they had returned from a retirement home to their former monastery against the will of their superior.
Since 2022, the building has been owned by equal parts of the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Reichersberg Abbey.
The sisters say they were originally promised to stay in life, but after hospitalizations, they had to move to a home at the end of 2023.