Fort Worth bishop: Carmelite nuns might be excommunicated
August 21, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth (TX), granted extraordinary powers by the Vatican over the local Discalced Carmelites, dismissed the superior, Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, from religious life on June 1. She has appealed the decision to the Vatican.
On August 18, the nuns stated that “we no longer recognize the authority of, and can have no further relations with, the current Bishop of Fort Worth or his officials, and forbid him or any of his officials or representatives to enter our monastery property or to have any contact or relations with the monastery or any of its nuns or novices.”
Bishop Olson wrote, “It is with deep sorrow that I must inform the faithful of the Diocese of Fort Worth, that Mother Teresa Agnes, thereby, may have incurred upon herself latae sententiae (i.e., by her own schismatic actions) excommunication,” and that the other nuns, “depending on their complicity in Mother Teresa Agnes’ publicly, scandalous and schismatic actions, could possibly have incurred the same latae sententiae [automatic] excommunication.”
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