A Texas bishop is urging Catholics in his diocese not to participate in sacraments with, or financially support, a community of Discalced Carmelite nuns who recently announced a formal association with the Society of St. Pius X.
In a Sept. 17 letter to Catholics in the Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop Michael F. Olson wrote that “mindful of the salvation of souls, as your bishop I must plead with you, the faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth that for the good of your souls you do not participate in any sacraments that may be offered at the Monastery as such participation will associate you with the scandalous disobedience and disunity of the members of the Arlington Carmel.”
The nuns announced their association Sept. 14 on their website amid an ongoing feud with their local bishop that began in April 2023. In their statement, the nuns attributed their decision to a “re-discovery of the riches of the immemorial liturgical tradition of the Church” and a “desire to grow in holiness and an ever deeper fidelity to our Discalced Carmelite charism, and as an appropriate means to better serve Our Holy Mother the Church.”
SSPX priests “will henceforth assure our ongoing sacramental life and governance,” the nuns stated.
“We are profoundly grateful to the Very Reverend Father Superior General and to his delegates here in the USA for their paternal understanding and welcome,” they stated. The SSPX superior general is Father Davide Pagliarani, an Italian priest.
The Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX, is a traditionalist fraternity of priests without official canonical recognition by the Catholic Church that follows older forms of the Roman rite used prior to the Second Vatican Council, but has objections regarding the council’s teaching and the scope of its authority. While it is not in schism, the SSPX exists in an irregular state of communion with respect to the pope.
The nuns’ August decision to affiliate with the SSPX was unanimous, according to the statement. Under this new affiliation, the nuns reelected as their prioress Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach to serve a three-year term.
According to an April decree from the Holy See, the community, which resides at the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, is supposed to be governed by Mother Marie of the Incarnation, a Carmelite from a community in Minnesota and president of the Carmelite Association of Christ the King (USA). The Arlington nuns, however, have yet to recognize her authority, which she made clear in a Sept. 7 statement to the faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth.
In his Sept. 17 letter, Bishop Olson stated that Mother Marie of the Incarnation “remains the legitimate superior of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.”
“I am duty bound to inform the faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth that the attempted elections were illicit and invalid as they were not conducted in accord with ecclesiastical law and the Constitutions of the Order of Discalced Carmelites,” he wrote. “The same is true of any renewal of vows that may have occurred or should occur in the future.”
He continued: “Sadly, the deliberate and contumacious actions of Mother Teresa Agnes and the other members of the Community have taken them further down the path of disobedience to and disunity with the Church and with their own religious Order that they began to embark on so many months ago. Their rejection of their legitimate superiors — Mother Marie of the Incarnation, O.C.D., and me as their diocesan bishop — is scandalous and is permeated with the odor of schism.”
Bishop Olson said he is “in consultation with the Holy See, including the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, about this development and the appropriate and pastoral steps to be taken to address this matter.”
The bishop said he is also consulting Mother Marie of the Incarnation and “assured her of my continued support as she, too, addresses this matter and seeks to restore order to this manifestly disordered situation.”
Bishop Olson does not currently permit priests to celebrate Mass for the Arlington Carmelites. According to the Sept. 7 statement, Bishop Olson had offered to “restore the sacramental life of the Arlington Carmel” by providing a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a traditionalist community of priests who celebrate sacraments according to liturgical texts of the Roman rite used prior to the Second Vatican Council with papal approval.
In return, the bishop required the nuns to recognize his authority as well as that of Mother Marie of the Incarnation, and to remove certain materials from their website. He also asked them to publicly disassociate themselves from Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former apostolic nuncio to the United States whom the Holy See excommunicated in July for schism, after he repudiated both the legitimacy of Pope Francis and Vatican II.
In August 2023, Archbishop Vigano wrote an 800-word letter of support for the Carmelites, including their rejection of Bishop Olson’s authority, that the nuns published on their website.
The Arlington Carmelites meanwhile have had Mass celebrated illicitly by two priests from the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, who currently do not have permission to offer sacraments. One of those priests, Father Christopher Clay, who has lived in Fort Worth, has been credibly accused of child sexual abuse. In 2012, Bishop Olson’s predecessor, Bishop Kevin Vann, prohibited Father Clay from representing himself as a Catholic priest in the Fort Worth Diocese and from “setting foot on the property of any Catholic entity of the diocese.”
In a July 18 statement, Bishop Olson explained that neither priest had his permission to celebrate Mass within the diocese. “I continue to work with Mother Marie of the Incarnation to restore the sacramental life of the Arlington Carmel. However, until the Sisters accept her appointment as their legitimate Superior, I am unable to grant permission or faculties for the celebration of the sacraments to any priest of the Diocese of Fort Worth or from another Diocese or Religious Institute,” he wrote.
The public clash between the Carmelite community and Bishop Olson began in April 2023 with the bishop’s investigation into allegations that Mother Teresa Agnes had violated her vows of chastity, which she has denied. The nuns filed a lawsuit against the bishop, launching a feud that has involved both civil and church courts, as well as law enforcement, and included allegations that the bishop wanted access to the nuns’ donor list and the nuns were engaged in illegal cannabis use.
The nuns’ monastery is located within the boundaries of the Fort Worth Diocese, which Bishop Olson has led since 2014. He sought in June 2023 to dismiss Mother Teresa Agnes from the Carmelite order, but she appealed his decree, and it was nullified in May 2024 by a Vatican dicastery that oversees matters pertaining to consecrated religious life.
The exact nature of Mother Teresa Agnes’ alleged misconduct has not been publicized, beyond it involving a video phone conversation with a priest later revealed to be Father Philip Johnson of the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., who was then living at the Transalpine Redemptorist Monastery in Montana.
In April 2024, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life entrusted the Arlington Carmelites’ governance to Mother Marie of the Incarnation and the Carmelite Association of Christ the King’s council.
The Arlington Carmelites have resisted the interference of the Carmelite Association of Christ the King and filed a restraining order against the organization’s leaders, but in May the nuns withdrew their restraining order.
The monastery’s governance had previously been granted to Bishop Olson, although the nuns publicly rejected that authority in August 2023 in a statement posted to their website.
At that time, Bishop Olson suggested that the nuns, and Mother Teresa Agnes in particular, may have excommunicated themselves through public statements rejecting his authority. The nuns, however, then insisted on their continued communion with the Catholic Church.
In their Sept. 14 statement, the Carmelites said that “in union with the whole Church, we pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and Bishop Michael Olson, the Bishop of Fort Worth.”
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