The bitter feud between the Carmelite nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington and Bishop Michael Olson of the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese continues to escalate with a new statement from the bishop suggesting that at least one nun faces excommunication.
The bishop’s statement was issued in response to a hard-hitting statement the nuns posted on the monastery’s website on Friday (Aug. 18) announcing that they had banished Olson from their property and would no longer recognize his authority over them.
Olson’s “Statement to the Faithful,” dated Aug. 19, addressed he previous day’s announcement in which, the bishop said, Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach “publicly rejected my authority as diocesan bishop and Pontifical Commissary.”
“This has hurt me as a friend and as the bishop because of the deep wound this has cut in our unity as the Diocese of Fort Worth,” Olson stated. “Thus, it is with deep sorrow that I must inform the faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth, that Mother Teresa Agnes, thereby, may have incurred upon herself latae sententiae, (i.e., by her own schismatic actions), excommunication. The other nuns, depending on their complicity in Mother Teresa Agnes’ publicly, scandalous and schismatic actions could possibly have incurred the same latae sententiae excommunication.”
According to the website Catholic Answers, latae sententiae or “automatic” excommunication occurs when someone commits an act that is specifically punished in canon law by a penalty of automatic excommunication.
The nuns’ bold move in rejecting the bishop’s authority came after months of legal battles and fraught relations between the nuns and the bishop.
“In recent months our Monastery in general and our Mother Prioress in particular have been subjected to unprecedented interference, intimidation, aggression, private and public humiliation and spiritual manipulation as the direct result of the attitudes and ambitions of the current bishop of Fort Worth in respect of our Reverend Mother Prioress, ourselves and of our property,” the nuns said in the statement.
“… in order to protect the integrity of our monastic life and vocation from the grave dangers that the continued abuse to which we are being subjected threaten,” the statement added, “we hereby state that, in conscience, we no longer recognize the authority of, and can have no further relations with, the current Bishop of Fort Worth or his officials and forbid him or any of his officials or representatives to enter our monastery property or to have any contact or relations with the monastery or any of its nuns or novices. No one who abuses us as has the current Bishop of Fort Worth, has any right to our cooperation or obedience.
“For our own spiritual and psychological safety, and in justice, we must remain independent of this Bishop until such time as he repents of the abuse to which he has subjected us, apologizes in person to our community for it and accepts to make due public reparation. Should that day never arrive, we hope and pray that in due course his successor will be a God-given instrument of that reparation and healing which, in justice, is now due.”
Asked to respond, the Diocese of Fort Worth issued a preliminary statement saying, “Bishop Olson and the Diocese of Fort Worth have not been notified of this dangerously rebellious decision by the dismissed prioress and the other nuns to reject formally the authority of the Holy See to name Bishop Olson as Pontifical Commissary and acting superior of the Arlington Carmel with the associated rights and duties of oversight.
“Bishop Olson asks the faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth and all people of good will to pray for the Carmelites that they will stop their open disobedience.”
The bishop subsequently posted the statement referencing excommunication.
The nuns issued their statement following ongoing and unreasonable demands from the bishop, according to the nuns’ attorney Matthew Bobo.
In a lengthy letter obtained by the Fort Worth Business Press Bobo responded to Olson’s demands, which included an unprecedented request for an annual financial report from the monastery.
“It is interesting that you have never requested same in any previous year and your time of such a request in light of your obvious aggressive and hostile approach towards the sisters is highly suspicious,” Bobo stated.
He also informed Olson that the nuns would not close the monastery’s gates as the bishop ordered.
“My clients are a Texas non-profit corporation who own and control all the property at the monastery,” Bobo stated. “They, not you, dictate who can and who cannot come on their private premises. They will not be closing the gates and they welcome all lay faithful who support their cause and who wish to come and pray at the monastery.”
Bobo also pointed out that Olson “promised in writing” that he would restore mass for lay worship once civil litigation had ended.
“You have gone back on your word, a direct violation of the Eight(h) Commandment,” Bobo also stated.
The feud between the monastery and the bishop stemmed from an investigation that Olson launched in April over reports that Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach broke her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the diocese.
As a result, Gerlach and Sister Francis Therese sued Olson for $1 million, charging that he overstepped his authority and invaded their privacy by confiscating a cellphone and other electronic devices belonging to Gerlach and making a copy of all the information as part of his investigation into allegations regarding her vow of chastity.
A civil court hearing in Fort Worth was settled with a ruling from 67th District Court Judge Don Cosby that he did not have jurisdiction in the case and that it was a matter for the church to resolve.
On the witness stand in June, Olson testified that he went to the monastery on April 24 to confront Gerlach about reports that she broke her vow of chastity with a priest.
Father Jonathan Wallis, vicar general of the Diocese of Fort Worth, testified that he learned of the relationship months earlier, when Gerlach confided in him in a non-confessional setting on several occasions that she had broken her vow of chastity. In an audio recording played in the courtroom, Gerlach could be heard acknowledging a relationship with a priest “on the phone” and indicating they had never met in person.
The nuns also claimed in the lawsuit that they were defamed by the bishop, who accused them of using of illegal drugs at the monastery. Olson also alleged that Gerlach abused prescription medication. Gerlach suffers from a chronic medical condition that has kept her wheelchair-bound and dependent on a feeding tube and a central catheter.
An investigation by the Arlington Police Department, based on separate complaints by the nuns and the bishop, ended without charges.
Olson dismissed Gerlach from the monastery as punishment for breaking her vow of chastity with a priest from Transalpine Redemptorists community near Billings, Mont., who was identified as Father Bernard Marie in the audio recording played in court and identified in the Catholic media as Father Philip Johnson of the Diocese of Raleigh in North Carolina. He reportedly has been suspended.
Throughout this protracted dispute there has been speculation that the highly valuable 72-acre property occupied and owned by the monastery is at the heart of the dispute. Olson testified in court that he was not seeking to gain control of the property, which was purchased and donated to the Carmelite nuns by Ruth Carter Stevenson, daughter of Fort Worth media mogul, civic leader and philanthropist Amon Carter.
Sheila Johnson, daughter of Stevenson and granddaughter of Carter, has been a long-time benefactor of the nuns and the monastery and has committed to protecting the property from any attempts at seizure by the bishop or the diocese.
The nuns have dropped plans for an appeal of Cosby’s ruling and are awaiting a canonical hearing on the case.
In addition to their own statement, the nuns posted on their website a statement of support from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former apostolic nuncio to the United States.
“The repeated abuses of power by those who hold ecclesiastical authority over religious communities – especially communities of contemplative women – are part of a subversive plan carried out by corrupt and heretical prelates whose purpose is to deprive the Church of the Graces which such Consecrated souls cause to descend upon Her,” Vigano said.
He further encouraged “everyone to support the courageous resistance of the Carmelite Nuns of Arlington with prayer and material help, not only for the sake of supporting them but also in order to send a clear signal to those in the Church who believe that that they hold absolute power.”
