Vatican Expels Texas Church After Mother Superior Breaks Vows
The Vatican rendered a Catholic monastery in North Texas “extinct” after one of its nuns reportedly broke her chastity vows.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the judgment follows a year-long dispute between the Fort Worth Catholic Bishop Michael Olson and a group of nuns who came to their sister’s defense.
Olson said the nuns at the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of Arlington, Texas, have since been dismissed.
“They are neither nuns nor Carmelites despite their continued and public self-identification to the contrary,” Olson wrote in a Dec. 2 statement.
Olson added that any Masses performed at the “former” monastery would not be authorized.
“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,” Olson wrote.
The controversy began in April 2023, when a nun at the monastery allegedly self-reported to Olson that she had an affair with a priest, according to Olson’s statement.
The nun in question, Reverend Mother Teresa Gerlach, reportedly confessed to an online love affair with retired Father Philip Johnson, who lived in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Chronicle reported.
Gerlach, 43, confessed to Olson in a recorded conversation that she engaged in sexual misconduct through video chat with Johnson on two occasions, adding that nothing happened in person, according to the Global Sisters Report.
Olson accused Gerlach, who uses a wheelchair, of breaking her chastity vows and the Sixth Commandment, which condemns adultery, according to the Chronicle.
Six nuns and two in training at the monastery came to Gerlach’s defense, filing a $1 million lawsuit with Gerlach in May 2023 against Olson.
But the case was dismissed in June 2023, according to the Global Sisters Report.
“We are grateful for Judge Cosby’s ruling today in dismissing the nuns’ lawsuit,” Olson said. “The decision vindicates our steadfast belief that this is a private Church matter that does not belong in the courts.”
The battle between the nuns and Olson was multi-faceted, however.
The Arlington Police Department investigated the monastery after receiving an accusatory letter from a local law firm on May 31, 2023, according to The Dialog, a Catholic news outlet.
The letter expressed “serious concerns” about marijuana use at the monastery.
Police later closed the investigation and didn’t recommend any criminal charges, according to the Global Sisters Report.
Priest involved in nun sexting scandal, refuses to co-operate with church investigation. Father Phillip Johnson, 38, has also lawyered up as accusations about him and now-fired Rev. Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach, 43, swirl.🤔 pic.twitter.com/0dvZEi41P5
— Sumner (@renmusb1) June 30, 2023
“What is the real motivation for Bishop Olson’s ongoing persecution of a nun who has grave medical issues and is bound to a wheelchair?” asked Matthew Bobo, the attorney representing Gerlach and the nuns.
“The Holy See needs to urgently show the Catholic faithful and the world that it takes abuse of power and oppression committed against women and vulnerable female religious seriously,” Bobo said in a statement, the Dialog reported.
Bobo claims that Olson’s investigations are merely an attempt to take over the monastery in a land grab, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
When Olson first launched the investigation, a forensic specialist reportedly confiscated Gerlach’s electronic devices, some of which were used to handle the financial operations of the monastery. The technology was eventually returned, but its absence left the nuns unable to pay bills in the meantime.
“The stuff that was on that technology has their private personal information and has all the monastery’s financial information, but most importantly, it has their donor list,” Bobo told the Mail in May 2023. “And that is a list that the bishop has been trying to get his hands on since he became bishop.”
Bobo added that the monastery’s 72-acre property in Arlington is owned by the Discalced Carmelite Nuns religious order and not the diocese Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas.
“He could arguably have the monastery shut down, and then that piece of property, which is worth about $22 million, could become part of the diocese,” Bobo said.
The diocese responded to Bobo’s allegations in a comment to the Chronicle.
The “diocese never wanted the Arlington land, nor does it want the land now.”
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