Carmelite nun shares public message from inside Arlington monastery
ARLINGTON (CBSNewsTexas.com) — A nun inside the Arlington monastery at the center of a growing dispute with a Catholic bishop told supporters in a letter Thursday that behind the locked gates, the group is at peace.
Sister Joseph Marie never mentions specifics in her letter about the now six-week long battle with the Fort Worth Diocese. However, she references the Biblical trial of Jesus, writing that "He, too, asked for justice during His mock trial, 'Why do you strike Me, if I have told the truth?'"
She also wrote that it's a mystery as to why the group was facing continued difficulties.
The letter to supporters in the Ladies Auxiliary group that supports the nuns came a day after the mystery deepened when the Fort Worth Diocese sent out pictures of tables covered in marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
A statement said the pictures were taken inside the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity, provided by a confidential informant, and raises serious questions the bishop was working tirelessly to address.
Fort Worth attorney Matthew Bobo, who is representing the Carmelite nuns in a civil suit against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson, called the allegation absurd Thursday, and said his clients had no idea where the pictures were from or who took them.
He said Arlington police had not mentioned any possible drug use when they visited the monastery Wednesday. He also said the allegations and pictures had never been mentioned or included during an internal church investigation process into alleged adultery by Reverend Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, which the bishop said last week was concluded after finding her guilty.
"Whether allegations are real, imagined or false, it is handled within the canonical process, and the dirty laundry is not aired," Bobo said.
Gerlach first sought help from Bobo in late April, when she felt Olson had bypassed the canonical process in investigating her, denying choices for representation and seizing monastery computers and a phone. A hearing on their claims of invasion of privacy and defamation is set for later this month.
Arlington police confirmed they planned to visit with the diocese before the end of the week. They are looking into any possible criminal violations that may have occurred connected to the dispute.
While supporters of the nuns have met to pray publicly at a nearby park, and in front of the locked monastery gates this week, a new website has launched encouraging people to lobby Vatican officials to have Olson removed from his position.
The developer behind Justice4txnuns.com, who did not want to be identified, said it was started to give the general public a place to learn more about the ongoing issue.
There had been more than 12,000 views in the two weeks the site has been up, the developer told CBS News Texas. There have been offers from doctors to attend to any health needs for the nuns, donors offering money and groceries, and one woman who was interested in possibly committing to a life of prayer and labor inside a monastery.
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