Three nuns near Salzburg have been making headlines for months.
The 80-year-old Augustinian nuns - Bernadette, Regina and Rita - left their retirement home in September and returned to their former convent with the help of a locksmith, against the will of the church.
You can follow their occupation of the convent on Instagram.
Their superior, Provost Markus Grasl, finds the women's publicity a thorn in his side. He demands that they withdraw from the public eye.
The sisters refuse. The case is now before the Vatican.
Rome should put its foot down.
Conflicts between nuns and church authorities are not unique.
Time and again, it is about property, authority and the question of how much autonomy communities are allowed to have - despite vows of poverty and obedience.
Monastic women and Katy Perry
In the 1960s, there was a scandal in Los Angeles. After the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965 ), the sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary order demanded more self-determination and wanted to decide for themselves about prayer times and their convent vestments.
For the cardinal in charge, the wishes of the nuns were unacceptable. He saw them as an attack on the identity of the church.
In the dispute, the Vatican backed him. In 1970, the community broke up: a small conservative branch remained and complied with the Roman decision, and around 300 women founded the lay community "Immaculate Heart Community".
Almost 50 years later, the remaining conservative nuns fought again - this time with the diocese of Los Angeles.
The elderly sisters in need of care were living in a home, their convent was empty and the diocese wanted to sell it.
According to the diocese, the proceeds were to be used to finance the sisters' care.
While the bishop presented pop star Katy Perry as the buyer, the sisters wanted to sell to entrepreneur Dana Hollister.
In a dispute, a court ruled that the women were not authorised to sell. The deal finally fell through in 2019.
According to the diocese, the building remains empty to this day; the last sister lives in a nursing home - at the diocese's expense.
There have also been similar disputes in Europe. In Mallorca, nuns fought with their bishop for years over the Santa Isabel convent in Palma, which had been owned by the order since 1485. After moving out in 2014, they wanted to convert their old convent into a hotel.
However, the bishop registered the building as the property of the diocese. The nuns felt cheated of their rights and sued. After a long legal battle, the sisters finally asked for help from Rome in a letter in 2024 and spoke of "years of great suffering".
At the end of monastery disputes, the Vatican is usually called upon to put its foot down. This was also the case with Goldenstein.
Another case from Spain recently caused a stir: Religious women from Belorado renounced the Catholic Church in 2024 and did not recognise all popes after Pius XII.
As a result, the Poor Clares were expelled from the church. An eviction action has been ongoing for months as the women are occupying the convent.
A few days ago, the police arrested two ex-nuns - including the former abbess.
The charge: unauthorised sale of convent property.
In Switzerland, a long-running dispute over a convent came to an end at the beginning of December.
The conflict had centred on the last remaining nun in the community. The 81-year-old Capuchin nun had been living alone and refused to leave the Wonnenstein convent.
She finally moved out at the end of October - after the bishop in charge sent her a letter demanding that she leave and threatening to dismiss her from the order if she refused.
At the beginning of December, it was announced that new nuns would be moving into the convent.
Trouble on the Amalfi Coast and in Tuscany
In 2023, two Italian monasteries caused a stir. On the Amalfi Coast, two nuns refused to vacate the Santa Chiara convent in Ravello, which Rome wanted to close due to its lack of future viability.
Together with a 97-year-old co-sister, they stayed - until the Vatican removed them from the order for disobedience.
At around the same time, a Benedictine convent in Tuscany was shaken following a Vatican visitation.
The Vatican dismissed the abbess in charge. The reasons were not communicated. The sisters spoke of arbitrariness and refused to recognise the authority of the bishop in charge.
Observers suspected that their unusually open public relations work did not fit in with the strict monastic life. The sisters then closed their convent to outsiders and the media reported on a "mysterious convent revolt".
Many of these monastery disputes got lost in the shoals of church administration.
The ball is now also in Rome's court in the Goldenstein dispute. It is uncertain when a decision will be made.