It never occurred to me that a nun could be fired, but that’s precisely what happened to a bunch of nuns in Texas after one of them found love online.
The nuns have been feuding with church authorities for close to a year, but let’s rewind here. Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach was the head of the Carmelite Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas.
Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach reportedly carried out an online affair with a former priest, and Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson was made aware of the allegations.
On April 24th of last year, Bishop Michael Olson paid the nuns a visit, and he took Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach’s devices with him when he left, according to court documents. This included her cellphone, computer, and her iPad.
The following month, Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach and the other nuns filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Fort Worth and Bishop Michael Olson.
In their lawsuit, they sought $1 million dollars and made allegations that their emotional and physical well-being had been harmed and their privacy violated.
The attorney for the nuns, Matthew Bobo, issued a statement that Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach had been “under heavy medication from a procedure” when she was questioned about her online romance, so she didn’t exactly remember the statement she provided while she was being investigated.
“[Bishop Michael Olson] and his agents are abusing their power, inflicting moral violence and psychological distress on the plaintiffs and the sisters by undertaking an illegal, unholy, unwarranted, explicit, and systematic assault upon the sanctity and autonomy of the plaintiffs and the sisters,” Matthew Bobo went on to say.
Ultimately, Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach was dismissed from religious life after Bishop Michael Olson stated that she was found “guilty of having violated the Sixth Commandment of the Decalogue and her vow of chastity.”
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Earlier this year, Bishop Michael Olson referred to the nuns as “scandalous,” and the Vatican has since weighed in, dismissing all of the nuns while deeming their church to be “extinct.”
On their website, the nuns stated that “What began in April 2023 with a false accusation against our Mother Prioress and that has been pursued relentlessly since then by Bishop Olson for his own ends has been compounded over time so that we have now reached the point where it is asserted that we are dismissed from religious life and that we have somehow “defected notoriously from the Faith.” These assertions are egregiously false.”
They added that “any dismissal” is just a “moot point” since their vows cannot be revoked or taken away from them.
According to a statement Bishop Michael Olson shared on December 2nd, the nuns “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.”
You can read the statement from Bishop Michael Olson here.
