Nuns sue Texas Catholic diocese after bishop accuses sister of violating chastity vow

A group of nuns accused Fort Worth’s Catholic bishop of shutting down their monastery over “fabricated” allegations that the reverend mother violated her vow of chastity with a priest.

The nuns, who live at a secluded monastery in Arlington, said in a lawsuit filed this month that Bishop Michael Olson and the Diocese of Fort Worth have abused their power and invaded the sisters’ privacy.

According to a court affidavit, the bishop and other diocese leaders stormed into the monastery on at least three occasions in April and interrogated the nuns for hours, seized their computers and a phone, and later blocked priests from conducting Mass for them. The affidavit is signed by the monastery’s head nun, the Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach.

In a public statement on its website, the church accused Gerlach of breaking her vow of chastity with a priest outside the Fort Worth diocese. The priest’s superiors have been notified, the statement says.

A spokesman for the diocese declined to comment further, but the church said in court filings that Gerlach admitted to violating the vow, which the church considers adultery.

The nuns’ attorney, Matthew Bobo, said that is “completely fabricated.” Gerlach, who uses a wheelchair and feeding tube, had undergone a medical procedure and was still under the effects of general anesthesia and painkillers when she was questioned, he said. She cannot remember what she said, he added.

“They are making it sound like she had a sexual affair with a priest, and that absolutely did not happen,” Bobo said. “They are trying to smear her name and defame her character.”

The nuns, members of an order called the Discalced Carmelite Nuns, have lived in Tarrant County since 1958. They now live quietly on 72 wooded acres in Arlington, where they spend their days praying, cooking, cleaning and caring for the grounds. Save for medical care, they rarely leave the premises.

Some have spent decades at the monastery, including Gerlach, who has lived there for 25 years. Until recently, the nuns have had little interaction with the Fort Worth diocese. That changed last month.

In the affidavit, Gerlach detailed the nuns’ recent encounters with Bishop Olson. During one visit, the bishop told Gerlach where she could sit, eat and with whom she could talk. He barred her from communicating with Sister Francis Therese, her primary caregiver, and required her to relocate from her bedroom to a guest room.

Olson seized a cellphone, laptop and iPad, then told Gerlach and Therese they would no longer handle the monastery’s administrative duties, the affidavit says. After seeking legal counsel, the sisters told Olson they would answer more questions once they were informed about the purpose and scope of questioning.

As a result, the bishop “threw a temper tantrum, and in an agitated and raised voice yelled that the monastery was shut down, no mass would be celebrated, he then slammed the door and left the monastery, traumatizing the sisters,” Gerlach said in the affidavit.

Because they belong to an autonomous order, the nuns contend they answer to the Vatican, not the local diocese. In addition to seeking in excess of $1 million in damages, the nuns have asked the diocese to return all property, stop surveillance of their technology and communications and refrain from contacting them.

“The level of emotional trauma and infliction of psychological stress this whole episode has caused me personally and the sisters is incomprehensible,” Gerlach said in the affidavit. “We have never faced such moral violence and adversity.”

Arguing that secular court has no authority in ecclesiastical matters, the diocese is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, and a hearing on that motion is scheduled for June. Canonical lawyers who handle Church matters are separately reviewing the case.

Sunday Mass has returned to the monastery, but the diocese has not permitted the usual daily Mass. Bobo said the sisters simply want to resume their lives of quiet prayer and solitude.

“This has been absolutely emotionally devastating for the sisters,” he said. “The glare of the spotlight is very uncomfortable.”

CORRECTION, 12 p.m., May 23: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Discalced Carmelite Nuns have lived in Arlington since 1958. The nuns moved to Arlington in the 1980s.