Originally published at National Catholic Register
The dismissal caps a bitter and divisive feud between the Carmelite nuns and Church authorities ranging from Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson to the Vatican itself.
A group of Texas nuns has been dismissed from religious life and returned to the lay state after a lengthy feud with their bishop over the governance of their monastery.
Mother Marie of the Incarnation, the president of the Association of Christ the King, said in a letter to the Diocese of Fort Worth on Monday that the nuns of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, Texas, have been dismissed from the Order of Discalced Carmelites and “reverted to the lay state” after more than a year of sustained defiance of their superiors.
The dismissal caps a bitter and divisive feud between the Carmelite nuns and Church authorities ranging from Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson to the Vatican itself.
The controversy began last year when Bishop Olson launched an investigation into the monastery amid allegations that Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach had conducted an affair with a priest.
The nuns in May 2023 filed a lawsuit against Olson over the investigation, claiming violations of privacy and harming the physical and
