Texas Carmelites insist they respect Bishop Olson’s authority as local bishop
August 25, 2023
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CWN Editor's Note: Five days after Discalced Carmelites in Arlington, TX, 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,” the nuns’ attorney clarified that the nuns “are not separating from the Catholic Church.”
“The Arlington Carmelite Nuns recognize the bishop as the local ordinary and respect his role therein, a role they have recognized for every single Diocesan Bishop since 1958, including Bishop Olson for the past 14 years,” said attorney Matthew Bobo. “The Arlington Carmelite Nuns do not and will not recognize this bishop’s unwarranted and unauthorized abuse and wielding of the complete power he suddenly is trying to exercise over the Monastery.”
In May, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life granted Bishop Michael Olson sweeping authority over the Carmelites as pontifical commissary. Following the nuns’ statement that they no longer recognized his authority, Bishop Olson warned that the nuns may have incurred excommunication.
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