The Vatican says it no longer recognizes an Arlington monastery at the center of a bitter feud with the Fort Worth bishop over allegations the head nun violated her vow of chastity with a priest.
In a statement published Monday on the Fort Worth diocese website, the Vatican called the monastery “extinct” and asked followers to pray for the women to repent. The decree comes one month after the nun’s Vatican-appointed leader dismissed the women from religious life.
Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson said in a written statement the ordeal has brought “great sadness” to the local Catholic church and himself.
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An attorney for the nuns, Matthew Bobo, said the Society of St Pius X, a breakaway Catholic group with which the nuns have aligned, is “addressing the latest attempts by Bishop Olson to harass the Nuns and we are confident in that process.”
“The nuns are safe from the efforts of Bishop Olson and continue their devotion to their life of contemplative prayer,” Bobo said in an email to The Dallas Morning News on behalf of the board of directors of the Friends of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Arlington.
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