Sisters Rita (right), 81, Regina (left), 86, and Bernadette (center), 88, at the convent chapel of the Goldenstein castle south of Salzburg, Austria, on Sept. 20, 2025. Supporters of the three nuns flocked to the convent in a show of solidarity. Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Joe Klamar/AFP via Getty Images BERLIN – Three octogenarian Austrian nuns who captured headlines last year when they staged an escape from their care home and broke back into their old convent are in Rome for the very first time. Sisters Rita, Bernadette and Regina joined tens of thousands of other visitors at St. Peter's Square for a general audience with Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday morning. The sisters' aide Christina Wirtenberger — who has known them since she was a pupil in the convent's adjoining school — told NPR that they boarded a plane for Rome "in secret" amid an ongoing dispute with the local provost, Markus Grasl.…