Arlington nuns file for restraining order against Catholic officials
ARLINGTON — Nuns inside an Arlington monastery are again looking outside their gates for help, filing a new lawsuit Monday that seeks to stop Catholic church officials and an association of monasteries from taking over their organization.
The suit asks a judge to issue a temporary restraining order against Bishop Michael Olson, the Fort Worth Diocese, and the Association of Christ the King in the United States of America. They should not be allowed on monastery property, the suit says, or be allowed to take any action on behalf of the monastery.
The new action follows a Vatican decree last week that said Christ the King was being given full governance over the Arlington Carmelite nuns and their Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.
This is a separate suit from one the nuns filed in May of 2023 after Olson began an investigation into allegations the Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes had broken a vow of chastity through phone conversations with a priest at another monastery.
After a district court judge declined to intervene, with Diocese attorneys arguing it was a private church matter, the nuns focused on pursuing an appeal through an internal church legal process.
They said in a long statement Saturday they had received word as recently as February that a decision was still expected on that appeal, before unexpectedly receiving the decree the Vatican's decree of new governance.
Before the suit was officially filed Monday, the Diocese released a statement over the weekend saying the nun's refusal to accept that decision was "sad and troubling."
It also renewed an argument from attorneys in the previous suit, calling the dispute "an internal church matte," and that civil court has no standing.
The new suit restates complaints from last year, that Olson had taken a computer, tablet, and phone, and copied private data which included correspondence, medical records, financial information and donor lists.
However, from there, it focuses largely on the monastery's status as an independent Texas nonprofit corporation, with a board of directors, bylaws, and no mechanism by which the Diocese or Christ the King should be allowed to take over. It says the defendants are trying to "utilize a religious backdoor to usurp the laws of the State."
While the suit says the result of someone else taking over control is not easily measured an included affidavit from the Rev. Mother is more telling.
"If we were to lose control of the Corporation and its assets it would allow the Defendants to remove us from our home, as they have already threatened to do," she wrote. "I pray they be stopped."