The Carmelite nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington reiterated in a new statement their rejection of Bishop Michael Olson’s authority over them as pontifical commissary and bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth.
In their Aug. 26 statement, the nuns again announced that they refuse to accept any interference by Olson “as Pontifical Commissary, an office conferred on him with contempt for canonical norms and procedures.”
“Every action he has taken with regard to us has proven to be devious and deceptive, marked by falsehood and an intent to persecute us, and gravely defamatory of the Mother Prioress,” the statement said.
The nuns also stated they are willing to risk “unjust canonical sanctions that the present Ordinary may inflict on them, in the awareness that his authority cannot demand obedience towards him when he himself is first in disobedience to the authority of God.”
The statement is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle between the nuns and Olson that began with an announcement in April that the bishop was investigating Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach based on a report that she had broken her vow of chastity with an out-of-state priest – a priest she said she never met in person.
The fraught relations resulted in a $1 million lawsuit brought by the nuns against the bishop, alleging that Olson overstepped his authority, wrongly confiscated their electronic devices and defamed them with allegations that illegal drugs were used at the monastery and that Gerlach abused prescription medication she used to treat a chronic medical condition that has kept her wheelchair-bound and dependent on a feeding tube and central catheter line.
After Tarrant County Civil District Judge Don Cosby conducted a hearing on the lawsuit and ruled that he had no jurisdiction in the case because it was a church matter, the nuns dropped a planned appeal based on “written promises” that Olson would restore Mass and confession to the monastery once the civil litigation ended, according to the nuns’ attorney Matthew Bobo.
Most recently, the nuns and their attorney have lobbed public statements against one another over Olson’s continuing efforts to exert his authority over the nuns, resulting in the nuns’ rejection of his authority and banishment of him and his allies from the monastery.
Olson struck back with a pronouncement that Gerlach “may have incurred upon herself latae sententiae (i.e. by her schismatic actions) excommunication.” Furthermore, the other nuns depending “on their complicity in Mother Teresa Agnes’ publicly scandalous and schismatic action could possibly have incurred the same latae sententiae excommunication.”
Among the nuns’ supporters in their battle with the bishop is Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, former nuncio to the United States, who issued a statement in support of the nuns along with an outline of the ways Olson “abused his role as diocesan Ordinary” in his dealings with the nuns.
“The persecution of the Carmel of Arlington by the Bishop of Fort Worth, Michael Olson, shows no signs of abating,” Viganó said in a in a lengthy statement released on Tuesday. “We have witnessed a crescendo of aggression, verbal violence, abuse of power, institutional cover up, intimidation and outrages carried out against a religious community that is firmly determined to return to tradition.”
