A Texas monastery of discalced Carmelite nuns has taken issue with how the Vatican is handling what they called “continued attack and abuse” from the local bishop.
Diocese of Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson and the Arlington Carmel Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity Discalced Carmelite Nuns have been feuding since April 2023.
The case
In that month, the Bishop began an investigation that ended in June 2023 with his dismissing the Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes (Gerlach) of Jesus Crucified, the prioress of the monastery, after finding her guilty of violating the Sixth Commandment and her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the Diocese.
CNA reported in June 2023 that Gerlach admitted in an audio recording that was played in the Diocese’s testimony in a Texas court that she had video chats with a priest and twice violated her vow of chastity. Gerlach said in the interview that the affair was consensual, that there were video chats and that most actions were done over the phone, the article said.
“At the time I was having seizures and I was in a very difficult position, and I think my brain just got really messed up,” Gerlach told the Bishop, according to the article. “It was a horrible, horrible mistake and I’m so sorry.”
According to the article, in the interview, the Bishop told Gerlach that he was removing her from her office as her illness has influenced her judgment that she was led into grave sin twice.
The article said that a spokesperson for the Diocese of Raleigh said the priest was Fr. Philip Johnson, even though Gerlach had identified him as “Father Bernard Marie.”
“In the past year, since April 2023, our monastery has suffered continued attack and abuse from Michael Olson, the current Bishop of Fort Worth, in an ugly attempt to seize control of our governance, finances and life,” the monastery’s nuns said in an April 20 statement.
In the statement, the nuns claimed that the Bishop made an unannounced interrogation of the prioress and that they are confident in her moral integrity. They said the Bishop illegally seized monastery property, copied private information from the monastery, attempted to cut the monastery off from the sacraments by forbidding Mass, sought to influence monastery supporters, attempted to bully nuns and other actions.
Tarrant County District Court Judge Don Cosby granted the Diocese’s request to dismiss the monastery’s lawsuit against the Bishop, CNA reported in July 2023. The lawsuit sought $1 million in damages. The monastery accused the Bishop of defamation, theft of property and abuse of power.
The nuns appealed to the Holy See.
The Bishop said in an August 2023 statement that Mother Teresa Agnes publicly rejected the Bishop’s authority and his role as Pontifical commissary, and that, by doing so, she might have excommunicated herself. The other nuns might be complicit, too, the Bishop said in the statement. The Bishop closed the monastery to public access until the monastery “publicly disavows itself of these scandalous and schismatic actions of Mother Teresa Agnes.”
Holy See’s response
In an April 18 letter addressed to the nuns, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life said that the terms of office of the prioress, subprioress and councillors of the monastery expired on Jan. 8 and that even though the monastery’s constitution says that the Bishop has the authority to preside over the monastery’s elections, the nuns haven’t contacted the Bishop to officiate over new elections. The Dicastery’s letter said that the monastery’s “genuine autonomy of life” is lacking because lawful governance is absent, but “every effort” should be made to preserve the monastery’s “spiritual health and longevity.”
The Carmelite Association of Christ the King (USA)’s president, Mother Marie of the Incarnation, requested that the Dicastery entrust the monastery to the association, the Dicastery said. The Dicastery obliged that request, so the monastery must cooperate fully with Mother Marie of the Incarnation. The monastery must also respect the Bishop’s authority and rescind its August 2023 statement rejecting the Bishop’s authority.
In its April 18 letter to the Bishop, the Dicastery said it chose to entrust the governance of the monastery to the Association’s president and her council effective April 18. It also thanked the Bishop for his “heroic and thankless” service to the local church and the monastery as Pontifical commissary.
“We are fully aware that the health and longevity of the Monastic community was always your goal, throughout the ordeals of the last year,” the letter said. “Be assured that the welfare of the Carmel is also of utmost concern to this Dicastery.”
The parties’ responses
In an April 18 statement, the Bishop said that he counseled the association to ask the Holy See to be allowed to govern the monastery and that, because the Dicastery granted the request, he considers his role as Pontifical commissary to have ended. Mother Marie of the Incarnation is now the lawful superior of the monastery, and the Bishop will work closely with her and oversee the election of new leadership for the monastery. The Bishop said the decisions will ensure the nuns will be heard, cared for and nurtured with proper ecclesiastical governance and that he hopes the monastery will again flourish.
The nuns, in their April 20 statement, said that the Holy See accepted the association’s request to govern the monastery without the nuns’ knowledge or consent, and that such a change in governance is “a hostile takeover.” They will not welcome the president or any delegate into the monastery.
The Dicastery could extend the office terms while the issues are being handled, the nuns contend.
“To accept this (the takeover of governance) would risk the integrity of our monastery as a community, threatening the vocations of individual nuns, our liturgical and spiritual life and the material assets of the monastery,” the nuns said. “This outside authority could easily disperse us, impose its agenda in respect of our daily observance and dispose of our assets—even of the monastery itself—as it wishes, contrary to our vows and to the intentions of those who founded our community and our benefactors.”
The nuns said that the Holy See needs to address the actions the Bishop took, not just move on.
“Additionally, we continue to wait for the responses to the recourses we sent to Rome last year against the illegal action of the Bishop, as promised by the Secretary of the Dicastery in a letter to us received in early February,” the nuns said in their statement. “The letters dated April 18, 2024, sent by the Dicastery are perplexing, since the responses to our recourses have yet to be received, and are not normally pre-empted.”
They want active, ongoing and direct dialogue with the Holy See “to find a suitable way of moving forward that respects the integrity of our life and monastery,” according to the statement.
“We note that every US citizen is entitled to justice according to the law,” they remarked. “Religious Profession does not cancel that right. Episcopal Consecration does not give the one consecrated the power to violate it. Last year we ceased our civil action so that the Holy See could proceed with their own processes. Once we receive the responses to the recourses, we will instruct our civil lawyers to review the option of the further vindication and protection of our civil rights.”
The nuns noted that they believe that Pope Francis and Bishop Olson rightfully have the authority that their respective offices confer.
“However—to clarify any confusion in respect of our statement of August 18th 2023—in line with our own rights, for reasons of conscience, for the good of our souls and to protect the integrity of our life and vocations, in these extraordinary circumstances, we have had to withdraw our cooperation in respect of the unjust exercise of any authority over us by the current Bishop of Fort Worth,” they explained. “Let it be said clearly—to borrow a phrase—that authority without integrity is no authority at all. Anyone who knows the workings of our diocese will understand the reality we face only too well.”
The nuns said they are open to any solution that seeks to fix “the damage that has been done to (them)” and that respects the nuns.
“We pray that the Bishop of Fort Worth will repent of his abuse, apologize for it publicly as well as to us in person, and make due reparation to the Monastery. Until he does so, neither he nor his delegates are welcome on our property,” they stated.
They will, however, welcome Visitators, or apostolic visitors, whom they believe have integrity and are impartial, they noted.
The Bishop said in an April 20 statement that the monastery’s response is “sad and troubling.”
“It manifests a skewed and selective misunderstanding of the nature of the Catholic Church and of the charism of the monastic life,” the Bishop said. “It is a slap at the nuns who are their sisters in the Carmelite order. It is an apparent rejection of the ministry of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The Holy See has acted in a way to promote and foster unity in Christ for the healing of the Arlington Carmel and of each of the nuns who are members of the community—not simply the former prioress and her former councilors. This is an internal church matter that the former prioress continues to attempt to exploit in the civil court—in which it has no standing. Please pray for all of the nuns that they accept the legitimate leadership of their Association entrusted to them by the Holy See.”