A group of Catholic nuns in Texas were expelled from the church on Monday, after a protracted legal battle with authorities over accusations that their reverend mother engaged in an online affair with an out-of-state priest. The Vatican issued an order suppressing the Discalced Carmelite Monastery of Arlington and declaring all Masses and sacraments performed by the Texas nuns “illicit,” according to a statement published by Bishop Michael F. Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth. “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,” Olson wrote—even though the nuns still publicly self-identify as such. The conflict between the nuns and the Diocese began in 2023 when Olson launched an investigation into Rev. Mother Teresa Gerlach—which eventually concluded that she carried out an affair with a priest over email and video chat. Gerlach confessed to the online relationship, according to a transcript published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in June of that year. Attorneys for the nuns have long argued that Olson’s investigation and legal actions against them are part of a scheme to evict the nuns from their 72-acre monastery in Arlington—a claim that Olson refuted in his statement on Monday. Ownership of the monastery was transferred to a nonprofit organization earlier this year, CBS News reported.
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