The Vatican has ended a yearlong feud between Fort Worth Catholic Bishop Michael Olson and a group of cloistered nuns in North Texas over chastity vows, saying the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of Arlington is "extinct" and no longer part of the church.
In a Monday statement, Olson described the "women" who live at the "former monastery" are "neither nuns nor Carmelites despite their continued and public self-identification to the contrary." Olson said any masses and sacraments held at the 72-acre property are "illicit and done so without faculties or permission to minister" in the Fort Worth Diocese. He warned that Catholics would be "gravely wrong" and would "do harm" to the church by attending the ceremonies.
"The actions of the former nuns have perpetrated a deep wound in the Body of Christ," Olson wrote. "I ask all of you to join me in praying for healing, reconciliation, and for the conversion of these women who have departed from the vowed religious life and notoriously defected from communication with the Catholic Church by their actions."
Olson has attempted to characterize himself as a man of the cloth sussing out a group of disobedient nuns from the Catholic Church. However, supporters of the nuns have accused the bishop of wanting to gain control over the monastery. On Tuesday, Fort Worth attorney Matthew Bobo, who represents the nuns, told me via email that the "nuns are safe from the efforts of Bishop Olson and continue their devotion to their life of contemplative prayer" on the property. The 72-acre property is currently appraised at $3.8 million.
Bobo previously told KERA NEWS that he helped the nuns transfer the property from the nonprofit monastery to the Friends of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington Inc. in September "to add a very ironclad and certain barrier to any claim Bishop Olson thinks he ever will have on that property." Bobo now serves on the foundation's board of directors.
A nun at an Arlington monastery accused Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson, right, of shutting down their monastery over allegations that she violated her vow of chastity with a priest. (Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
The remarks come after Bishop Olson in April 2023 launched an investigation into Rev. Mother Teresa Gerlach, who uses a wheelchair, over accusations that the nun had an online love affair with Father Philip Johnson, a former priest from the diocese in Raleigh, N.C. Olson accused Gerlach of committing sins of adultery against the sixth commandment and of violating her vow of chastity. (The church allowed Johnson to retire this year for medical reasons, per reporting by CBS News. He's still able to perform priestly duties.)
In May 2023, the group of nuns including Gerlach, six other nuns and two nuns-in-training sued the Fort Worth Diocese and its bishop for $1 million for alleged violations of privacy and harming the physical and emotional well-being of the sisters, per reporting by the Catholic News Agency. Then in June 2023, Olson dismissed Gerlach from religious life.
Apparently, Gerlach had acknowledged that she committed unspecified sexual conduct over video chat with Johnson, but that nothing occurred in person, according to the Global Sisters Report. However, Bobo, the attorney representing the nuns, claimed that Gerlach was "under heavy medication from a procedure" and didn't recall her statement to investigators.
At the center of the battle is the nuns' claims that Bishop Olson investigated Gerlach as a ploy to take over the monastery. In April 2024, the Vatican announced the Association of Christ the King in the U.S. would oversee the monastery. That same month, the nuns defied the Vatican's decree and filed a lawsuit in Tarrant County District Court asking the judge for a temporary restraining order against the Fort Worth Diocese and Bishop Olson.
Bishop Michael Olson enters the 67th District Court in the Tom Vandergriff Civil Courts Building on Tuesday, June 27, 2023, in downtown Fort Worth.
Then in September, the nuns joined the Society of St. Pius, a Roman Catholic priestly group that broke with the Vatican over the Latin Mass. This week, Bobo said that the Society of St. Pius X "is addressing the latest attempts by Bishop Olson to harass the nuns and we are confident in that process."
On Monday, John Cuccaro, a spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Worth, told me via email that the "diocese never wanted the Arlington land, nor does it want the land now." He referred to the Pope-led government of Vatican City State when dismissing the nuns and the property: "The Arlington residents are no longer nuns and the property is no longer a Catholic monastery, per The Holy See."
The nuns were unavailable for comment this week. As of press time, their sitestill identified them as Discalced Carmelite Nuns.
https://www.chron.com/culture/religion/article/north-texas-nuns-expelled-19955638.php
