Arlington Nuns Say Fort Worth Bishop is Overstepping, File $1 Million Lawsuit

After accusations of breaking a vow of chastity, an order of nuns from Arlington has filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.

In court documents obtained by NBC 5 (see below), the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington claim Olson is overstepping his power by disciplining them and taking personal property from the monastery when they answer directly to the pope and not the local diocese.

In response to the lawsuit, the diocese posted a statement on its website saying they were notified in April a nun at the monastery violated her vow of chastity with a priest outside of the diocese and that an ecclesiastical investigation is underway.

Olson said the priest's supervisors have been notified but did not go into any further detail.

Among the documents filed in the lawsuit is an amended request for an injunction and restraining order filed on May 10 that allege Olson took monastery property, namely a computer, iPad, and mobile phone, from Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes, and that after she replaced her confiscated phone her texts were monitored and the defendants were aware of communication she had with her legal counsel.

The nuns also alleged Olson, "forced himself onto our peaceful community," interrogated the sisters, and then "threw a temper tantrum and in an agitated and raised voice yelled that the monastery was shut down and no mass would be celebrated."

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"They're emotionally traumatized. They're scared. They're fearful," said attorney Matthew Bobo, who is representing the nuns. "They don't leave the monastery unless they seek medical care. They do prayer seven times a day. Most of the time it's in silence … It's a very private, cloistered, serene environment with very little interaction with the outside world. Even when parishioners attend mass, the nuns are separated from the parishioners. And so to have, for the first time ever, a bishop come in and start issuing mandates and start ordering them to do things and threatening to interdict their monastery, threatening to kick them out of the order, it is extremely traumatizing and emotionally damaging to them."

Agnes said in documents, "the order of women are not, and have never been under the control of the bishop of the local diocese and that they answer directly to the pope."

"Defendant Michael Olson is the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth and he and his agents are abusing their power, inflicting moral violence and psychological distress on the plaintiffs and the sisters by undertaking an illegal, unholy, unwarranted, explicit, and systematic assault upon the sanctity and autonomy of the plaintiffs and the sisters," the plaintiffs wrote in the lawsuit.

According to the court documents, the nuns said they have been unable to manage the financial operation of the monastery without their phone, which was used to verify their identities online, and they are seeking damages of $1 million from Olson and the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.

"The basis of our suit was simply, first of all, give them their devices back that not only do those devices belong to the monastery, they had private information on them," Bobo said. "Not only their private information, but they had information on them that helps them run the monastery. That's where all their bill pays were. That's where all their online accounts are. That's how they operated the monastery. And so, our lawsuit was to stop them from doing that, get that information back. And to try to take it back to where it was on April 23 before this this all started with the bishop."

NBC 5 learned Friday that the confiscated devices were returned to the nuns on Monday but that they're going forward with the lawsuit because they said the devices had been mirrored.

"The diocese still has a mirror image of those devices. So, they still have in possession my client's private information. And we are trying to get that back," Bobo said.

In his statement, Olson acknowledged the lawsuit but made no further statement about the accusations within.

DISCALCED CARMELITE NUNS v. BISHOP OLSON, CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF FORT WORTH