Arlington nuns dismissed from Catholic religious life, Fort Worth Diocese announces

By Matthew Davisson, S.E. Jenkins, Jason Allen

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    FORT WORTH, Texas (KTVT) — The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese announced Monday that a group of nuns at the center of controversy have been dismissed from Catholic religious life.

CBS News Texas Reporter Jason Allen first broke this story over a year ago. In June of last year, The Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach was found guilty of violating her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.

Bishop Michael Olson’s statement released on Monday states:

“Mother Marie of the Incarnation, the legitimate Superior of the Carmelite Monastery in Arlington, Texas, has requested that I post her statement to the Catholic Faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth regarding the dismissal of the Arlington Nuns from Catholic religious life. I again ask that you continue to pray for all involved. I repeat that the Diocese of Fort Worth makes no claim and has never made a claim to the property and assets of the Carmelite Monastery in Arlington. I conclude with my repeated admonition that Catholics not attend Mass or other services at the Monastery and request that the lay faithful not offer financial support to the Carmelite Monastery.”

Mother Marie of the Incarnation also released the following statement:

“Specifically, the nuns have chosen to break faith with their Mother, the Church of Rome, by a triple denial: 1) of the authority of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, a Dicastery whose authority springs directly from the Supreme Pontiff himself, and 2) of their Bishop, and 3) of me as their Carmelite superior, and by extension, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, whose Rule and Constitutions they have spurned in praxis in multiple ways. To these foregoing breaches of ecclesial union, the nuns added, on September 14th, unlawful formal association with the Society of Saint Pius X. These wrongs are exacerbated by their illicit expropriation of the juridic person of the Carmelite Monastery, in which the nuns, utilizing civil law, entrusted to lay people, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, the patrimony and property of the Arlington Carmelite community, which had been entrusted to them by countless benefactors, for the purpose of serving Christ in the Church through the Discalced Carmelite life.”

The battle between the nuns and the Bishop became public in 2023 after Olson began an investigation into the Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach over a broken vow of chastity.

Gerlach and the monastery took the unusual move of asking the civil court for protection, alleging theft and invasion of privacy.

A Tarrant County judge sided with Diocese attorneys, who argued it was an internal church matter that the civil courts had no jurisdiction over. The nuns later dropped the civil suit, deciding instead to pursue relief through the internal church legal process.

A representative for the nuns said they had been working to strengthen their ownership of the monastery, its assets and independent governance, and protection from the courts became less necessary.

In April, the Vatican informed the nuns in a letter that the President of Christ the King, an association of monasteries, was their new lawful superior. Olson also said he would be overseeing the election of new leadership at the monastery.

The nuns rejected the arrangement though, calling it a “hostile takeover,” and reaffirmed they would not recognize the authority of Olson specifically.

Carmelites reopen chapel, announce new association In Sept., the faithful were invited back to the chapel for prayer and Mass, while the Bishop of Fort Worth pleaded with parishioners not to participate or offer the nuns their financial support.

The Arlington Carmelites offered the invitation in a statement posted on their website. They also announced a new association with a traditionalist society of priests at odds with changes ushered in by the Vatican.

The statement from the nuns said they also re-elected Teresa Agnes as their Prioress for another three-year term. The election was overseen they wrote, by a representative from the Society of Saint Pius X, with which they are now associated.

SSPX also posted the nuns’ statement on its website, along with a picture of what it says is the newly restored altar of the Carmel.

Olson called the election “illicit and invalid,” maintaining that Mother Marie of the Incarnation is the legitimate superior of the monastery.

Carmelite nuns transfer ownership of monastery In late Sept., the Carmelite nuns in Arlington transferred ownership of their expansive wooded monastery to a new foundation amid the ongoing dispute with Olson. The foundation, Friends of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington, is made up of supporters and benefactors who stand with the nuns.

Olson has denied having any designs on the property. However, representatives for the nuns believe it may be a key factor in their conflict.

“And we’re hoping now that he understands that this property is something he will never get his hands on that he will go back to concentrating on the other million and a half Catholics and leave these sisters alone,” Matthew Bobo, an attorney for the nuns and a director of the new foundation, previously said.

Tarrant County records indicate the property transfer happened in late April.

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