Arlington nuns embroiled in a monthslong feud with the Fort Worth bishop have been dismissed from their Catholic order and religious life, the nuns’ Vatican-appointed leader announced.
In a statement Monday, Mother Marie of the Incarnation wrote the nuns are no longer members of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, to which they belonged. The nuns “have reverted to the lay state by their own actions,” says the letter, published on the Fort Worth diocese website.
The letter does not mention excommunication, instead indicating they could return as nuns if they repent: “Our only wish is that the dismissed members of the Carmel would repent, so that the monastic property could again be rightly called a monastery, inhabited by Discalced Carmelite Nuns, in good canonical standing with the Church of Rome.”
An attorney for the nuns did not respond to a phone call and text message Monday from The Dallas Morning News. It was unclear what the dismissal means for the nuns moving forward.
The statement comes one month after the nuns reopened the monastery to the public for prayer and daily Mass and announced they were associating with the Society of St. Pius X, a breakaway traditionalist Catholic group. In response, Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson warned members not to worship with or provide financial support to the nuns and that doing so would amount to “scandalous disobedience.”
Earlier this year, the nuns transferred ownership of their monastery, set on 72 wooded acres in Arlington, to a new foundation. The women have said for months that Olson started the feud in a bid to acquire the land, which he has repeatedly denied.
Matthew Wilson, the Kairo endowed director for the Center for Faith and Learning at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said the statement essentially means the Vatican no longer recognizes the women as nuns.
“In the view of the Vatican, these are Catholic lay people,” Wilson told The News on Monday. “They are no longer considered members of a Catholic religious order.”
Monday’s statement is the latest in an 18-month fight between the nuns and Olson that has included back-and-forth statements and civil court hearings, and drawn both local and international attention. It began in April 2023 when the bishop accused the Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, the monastery’s head nun, of violating her vow of chastity with a priest.
The reverend mother and monastery then filed a civil lawsuit against the bishop and diocese, accusing Olson of invading the sisters’ privacy and overstepping his authority.
A nearly six-hour court proceeding included explosive testimony from diocese officials, references to “sexting” and drug use, and audio of a 40-minute conversation between Olson and the former head nun. A Texas state judge ruled that civil court did not have jurisdiction to decide the church matter.
Gerlach admitted to breaking her vow of chastity on two occasions, but at another point in the conversation she said she only spoke to the priest by phone. She had been hospitalized in November 2022 for seizures and was taking pain medication as a result, her attorney, Matthew Bobo, has previously said. Gerlach, who is in poor health, uses a wheelchair and feeding tube.
Olson attempted to dismiss Gerlach in 2023, but the nuns refused to recognize the bishop’s authority. In August 2023, Olson warned they could face excommunication if they continued to do so.
Earlier this year the Vatican weighed in and placed the nuns under new authority, an association of Carmelite nuns led by Mother Marie of the Incarnation. But the Arlington nuns said the decree amounted to a hostile takeover, and they have barred both Olson and Mother Marie from the premises.
Last month, the nuns said they voted unanimously to join the Society of St. Pius X, the breakaway Catholic group that has been in a schism with the Vatican in the past. Wilson, who is also an associate professor of political science at SMU, said he was surprised the nuns affiliated themselves with a conservative, ultratraditional group.
“It was a strange move,” he said. “They were at that point grasping at straws trying to align with any organization that had a following in the Catholic world.”
Before last year, the nuns had little interaction with the Fort Worth diocese. They live and work at the monastery in Arlington, spending their days praying, cooking, cleaning and caring for the grounds. Some have spent decades at the monastery, including Gerlach, who has lived there for 25 years.
