A controversial Texas monastery was suppressed by the Vatican on Saturday, after a years-long fight between nuns and a diocesan bishop, which has included allegations of sexual misconduct, drug abuse, and schism at the Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.
But, while the Vatican’s handling of the monastery may be complete, questions are likely to remain about the monastery’s property, and the women who are living there.
The Diocese of Fort Worth said in a statement Monday that the women living on the former monastery property are no longer considered nuns, and that they have been dismissed from the Carmelite order, “for reasons of their notorious defection from the Catholic faith.”
“They are neither nuns nor Carmelites despite their continued and public self-identification to the contrary,” Bishop Michael Olson wrote Dec. 2, in a communique asking that Catholics pray for healing, and for the women’s conversion.
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A Nov. 28 Vatican decree published by the Fort Worth diocese on Monday explained that the Arlington, Texas, monastery had been suppressed because the Vatican determined it was “extinct” — that the former members had been dismissed in October from the monastery in response to their “defection from the Catholic faith.”
Because the monastery had no official members, the Vatican declared its formal suppression, directing that “the norms of universal and proper law” governing suppression “will be respected.”
It is not clear how many women are presently in residence at the former monastery, though five solemnly professed nuns and a novice were dismissed from the monastery in October, and the vows of a temporarily professed nun expired in October — meaning that it is possible seven women continue to remain at the monastery.
Olson noted that some former nuns continue to “occupy the premises,” but did not indicate how many remain.
But canon law governing the suppression of extinct monasteries, established in the Vatican’s Cor orans, would seem to indicate that the monastery property should devolve to the Carmelite Association of Christ the King of the USA, the federation of Carmelite monasteries to which the Texas Carmel belonged.
While they have not yet responded to The Pillar’s request for comment, it is not likely that the former nuns will surrender the property soon — in October, they rejected the claim that they had defected from the Catholic faith, and said they rejected their dismissal from religious life.
“The Vows we have professed to God cannot be dismissed or taken away. By virtue of them we belong to Him and are His,” the nuns said, adding that “we continue our vowed life of prayer and sacrifice in the Discalced Carmelite tradition for the Church and the world, and for all of you, our dear friends and benefactors, including those who may disagree or disapprove of the decisions we have had to make in the best interests of our Community.”
The former nuns also claimed to associate themselves with the Society of St. Pius X, a de facto traditionalist association of priests which has been described as having “imperfect communion” with the Apostolic See.
The women said they re-elected their former superior, Mother Teresa Agnes of Jesus Crucified Gerlach, O.C.D, in defiance of the Vatican’s appointment of a nun from another monastery as the Arlington Carmelites’ superior.
The former nuns said they had elected with “supplied jurisdiction” from the SSPX — referencing a claimed argument which has been rejected by the Vatican, that priests of the association have “supplied jurisdiction from the law” for sacramental and pastoral ministry because “personal jurisdiction is unjustly refused to them simply because of their attachment to the Faith and its traditional expression.”
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If the Carmelite Association of Christ the King attempts to make a claim for the monastery, the civil title of the property will likely prove itself a difficulty.
While the move would be regarded as an invalid alienation by canon law, it was seemingly intended to distance the property from canonical oversight, and to ensure that the former nuns could make use of their monastery regardless of the Vatican’s decision about their future.
Nonprofit records indicate that the board of the non-profit is headed by the nuns attorney, Matthew Bobo, and the nonprofit’s headquarters share a legal address with his law office. Bobo has long argued that Olson’s investigation into the monastery is motivated by a desire to see the diocese seize the nun’s real estate — while the diocese has said consistently, including in its Monday statement, that it has no designs on the property, previously calling Bobo’s claims “false and unfounded.”
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Controversy between the Diocese of Fort Worth and the Carmelite monastery began in April 2023, when Bishop Olson launched a canonical investigation into the alleged conduct of Mother Teresa Agnes, who had allegedly admitted to violating her vow of chastity with an initially unnamed priest.
Lawyers for the community and for Gerlach, both civil and canonical, have said that her supposed admission of an affair was made following a serious medical procedure, under the influence of painkillers, and when she was in and out of lucidity.
But the issue escalated, coming to involve a million-dollar lawsuit filed by the nuns against Olson, images released by the Fort Worth diocese purporting to show tables inside the monastery strewn with large amounts of drug paraphernalia, and the Vatican’s involvement, supporting Olson and ordering new leadership for the monastery.
The former nuns were dismissed from their monastery for “defecting” from the faith — which could be construed as the canonical crime of schism, which carries with it the penalty of excommunication. But despite the sanction of dismissal, it is not clear whether they have also been formally declared to be excommunicated, as there has been no publicly published document to that effect.
The Carmelites have garnered the support of the now-excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Vigano, and have had Mass celebrated illicitly by two priests without faculties, both from the Scranton, Pennsylvania diocese, one of whom was was accused of child sexual abuse and in 2012 prohibited from presenting himself as a priest or engaging in priestly ministry in the Fort Worth diocese.
In his statement Monday, Olson emphasized that “any Masses and sacraments celebrated at the former Monastery are illicit and done so by priests without faculties or permission to minister in the Diocese of Fort Worth. It is gravely wrong for Catholics knowingly to assist at these Masses. Catholics do harm to the Communion of the Catholic Church by intentionally attending these ceremonies.”
The bishop also asked for prayer.
“The actions of the former nuns have perpetrated a deep wound in the Body of Christ. 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 communion with the Catholic Church by their actions,” Olson wrote.
