ARLINGTON, Texas — The Vatican said in a statement Monday it considers the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington “extinct” in the eyes of the church.
The Vatican’s statement and Nov. 28 “decree of suppression” issued to the monastery and shared on the Diocese of Fort Worth’s website comes about a month after the nuns’ Vatican-appointed leader said the nuns were dismissed from their Catholic order and religious life.
“First, the women who continue to occupy the premises in Arlington are no longer nuns because they have been ipso facto dismissed from the Order of Discalced Carmelites for reasons of their notorious defection from the Catholic faith,” the letter reads. “They are neither nuns nor Carmelites despite their continued and public self-identification to the contrary.”
Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson said, though, that the Diocese of Fort Worth “has never made any claims to the property of the former Monastery, nor do we do so now.”
“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 notorious defection from communion with the Catholic Church by their actions,” Olson’s letter concluded.
Before that, the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity had announced the steps taken for the monastery to be associated with the Society of Saint Pius X, a group which has been the subject of controversy for decades and has no canonical status in the Catholic Church. In response to those steps, Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson told members not to participate in sacraments at the monastery or offer them financial support.
The nuns previously said the dismissal announced by Vatican-appointed Mother Marie of the Incarnation isn’t associated with the Society of St. Pius X and is a “moot point.”
"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 nun’s statement read. “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 have been embroiled in dispute with the Diocese of Fort Worth and the Vatican for more than a year. It began in June of last year after the bishop accused the monastery’s head nun, the Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, of violating her vows of chastity with a priest from outside the diocese.
The monastery then filed a civil lawsuit against Olson and the diocese, accusing them of theft and defamation. That civil suit was dismissed in June of last year.
The Vatican placed the nuns under new authority, Mother Marie of the Incarnation, President of the Association of Christ the King, earlier this year, but the nuns wouldn’t allow Mother Marie onto the premises.
