Vatican expels Texas church after nun accused of breaking chastity vow

   Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach of the Order of Discalced Carmelite in Arlington, Texas, was accused by Fort Worth Bishop Michael Owens of breaking her vow of chastity with an unnamed priest outside the diocese. She denies the claim. | Screengrab

Though the nuns continue to dismiss the allegation against Gerlach as false, on their website, Olson insists that “her admission was recorded and entered into the public record at a civil court hearing brought about because of the former prioress’ first civil lawsuit filed against me and the Diocese.”

“The women who continue to occupy the premises in Arlington are no longer nuns because they have been declared ipso facto dismissed from the Order of Discalced Carmelites 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,” Olson insisted. “Second, the Holy See has suppressed the Monastery, so it exists no longer, despite any public self-identification made to the contrary by the former nuns who continue to occupy the premises.”

A recounting on the dispute by the Global Sisters Report citing court papers filed in 2023 when the feud between Owen and Gerlach starting highlight other issues such as allegations of marijuana use, abuse of power and an alleged conspiracy by Owen to take control of the valuable land on which the monastery sits.

The allegations are extreme: Adultery, abuse of power, marijuana usage, defamation, lies, theft, scandal, and a conspiracy to take valuable monastery land. Michael Podhajsky reportedly serves as Gerlach’s only canon lawyer, while attorney Matthew Bobo of Fort Worth is representing her in civil matters.

Tensions between Gerlach and Olson did not become public knowledge until he release a statement in May 2023 alleging Gerlach’s alleged affair with the unnamed priest.

Last June,  Arlington police conducted a criminal investigation of Olson and the diocese. The diocese responded by saying the Arlington police were investigating the Carmelites “regarding the use of marijuana and edibles at the monastery, along with other issues that the Diocese will address at another time and in a proper forum.”

According to Gerlach’s civil attorney, however, Olson targeted the monastery and the nuns to get control over their assets and donor list whose information they kept on electronic devices.

“That is a list that the bishop has been trying to get his hands on since he became bishop,” Bobo told the Daily Mail. The monastery, he said, also sits on 72 acres of prime real estate in Dallas and Fort Worth valued at $5 million by the county but is even more valuable for developers.

“He (Olson) 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 told the Daily Mail.

Olson, however, reiterated previous denials to that claim on Monday.

“The Diocese of Fort Worth has never made any claims to the property of the former Monastery, nor do we do so now,” he said.

“I repeat 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,” Olson insisted.

Bobo has denied Gerlach violated her vow of chastity or broke the Sixth Commandment and noted that she had likely only been around four of five men in the last 25 years.

“She did not have sex with a priest,” he told The Dallas Morning News.

Still, on June 1, 2023, Olson announced that Gerlach was guilty of breaking her chastity vow and invoked his authority as pontifical commissary to ex-communicate from her order.

In a statement on their website in October, the nuns appeared unfazed by church politics.

“The Vows we have professed to God cannot be dismissed or taken away. By virtue of them we belong to Him and are His,” they said.

“Given that we pray every day for the Holy Father, Pope Francis and our Ordinary, Michael Olson, any claim that we have departed from the Catholic faith is ridiculous,” the nuns added. “We firmly believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God. Disputes about one man’s wishes and man-made rules do not exclude us from the [Catholic] Church.”