A Texas bishop says a bunch of nuns is 'inciting hatred and animosity' towards him after he accused considered one of breaking her chastity vow

• A Texas bishop publicly accused a nun in Arlington of breaking her chastity vow.
• The nun and her sisters sued Bishop Michael Olson and the Fort Value Diocese for $1 million.
• Olson is now accusing the nuns of pushing a false narrative and “inciting hatred and animosity towards me.”

A Texas bishop who publicly accused a nun of breaking her chastity vow is now complaining that the nun and her Sisters are “inciting hatred and animosity” towards him by submitting a lawsuit and drumming up media protection, in keeping with a letter obtained by Insider.

The nuns have sued Bishop Michael Olson and the Fort Value Diocese for $1 million, alleging Olson invaded their privateness when he confirmed as much as their monastery in April and interrogated them for hours, confiscated their telephones and computer systems, spied on their texts, and made copies of the content material on these units.

Olson and the Fort Value Diocese issued a press release on Could 16 publicly accusing Reverend Mom Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach of getting “violated her vow of chastity with a priest,” and asserting an ecclesiastical investigation. In Catholicism, each nuns and monks take vows to stay celibate, however the Diocese didn’t title the priest allegedly concerned.

The Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington have vehemently denied Olson’s allegations concerning the chastity vow, and their lawyer, Matthew Bobo, advised Insider that Gerlach is in extraordinarily poor well being, makes use of a wheelchair and feeding tube, and sure has not even encountered greater than 4 or 5 males within the final 25 years.

Olson additionally shut down the monastery to parishioners and canceled their every day Mass and Confession — a transfer that has been “devastating” to the nuns, who’re accustomed to working towards their religion day-after-day, Bobo advised Insider on Tuesday.

In a letter dated Could 26, Olson refused to reinstate every day Mass and Confession, accusing the nuns of propagating “a false narrative relative to the pending investigation, which has led to native, nationwide, and worldwide media protection and has incited hatred and animosity towards me.”

In response to Olson’s letter, Bobo advised Insider the media protection is Olson’s personal fault.

“It is ironic. Primary, he is the one which selected to place this out within the public discussion board and never the Sisters,” Bobo stated. “And two, assume for a second there’s some validity to this allegation — what does closing the monastery and stopping folks from having Mass and Confession must do with that?”

A consultant of the Fort Value Diocese declined to remark to Insider on the contents of Olson’s letter.

Olson’s Could 26 letter famous that there’s “no obligation” to offer a every day Mass, and that Mass and Confessions “can’t be conveniently supplied for the members of the Monastery.” 

The letter additionally indicated that the every day Mass and Confessions would proceed to be withheld till the nuns full or withdraw their lawsuit, and “stop this habits which is opposite to and unbecoming of their non secular state and exhibit love for and obedience to Holy Church.”

Bobo stated the nuns on the Arlington monastery stay a quiet, cloistered lifetime of contemplative prayer, and withholding every day Mass and Confessions is nothing in need of punishment for them and the monastery’s parishioners.

“Spiritually, they can not get what they want — how they apply their religion has been taken from them,” he stated. “Solely a priest can take Confession or carry out Mass. It is not like they’ll try this themselves. Spiritually and emotionally, that is extraordinarily traumatic for them.”