After a Tarrant County judge dismissed the lawsuit between a group of Carmelite nuns and Fort Worth Bishop Micheal Olson in June, the nuns’ legal team initially said they planned to appeal.
Now, Matthew Bobo, the attorney representing the nuns on civil matters, released a statement Monday that the appeal won’t be happening after all. Bobo said the nun’s decision to not appeal came after the Vatican told the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity that they would not act on the canonical investigation until civil litigation was concluded.
Instead, the nuns “are praying that the Vatican will do what is right and just in the canonical process,” Bobo said in his statement.
The appeal was in response to Tarrant County’s 67th District Court Judge Don Cosby’s decision that the county did not have jurisdiction to make legal decisions about the lawsuit filed by two nuns from the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity.
The lawsuit claimed Olson invaded the nuns’ privacy and damaged their reputation within the monastery. The suit came after Olson dismissed Gerlach from the Order of Discalced Carmelites, alleging that she broke her chastity vow with a priest outside the diocese, according to a June 1 statement from the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth.
Bobo represented both the Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach and her primary caregiver, Sister Francis Terese, in the civil law while a canonical investigation is pending in Rome. Now that the nuns have decided not to appeal, they’re hoping that the canonical process within the Catholic Church can continue.
The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of the Apostolic Life, a group within the Vatican that oversees matters relating to religious orders, will be reviewing the investigation and Gerlach’s appeal on the bishop’s decision to dismiss her.
The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese released a statement that “the decision by the nuns not to appeal the dismissal of their lawsuit is appropriate and supports our long-held belief that this matter never should have been filed in a civil court.”
Gerlach remains on administrative leave at this time, the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese stated.
“The nuns place their hopes and prayers on a just and fair review of the case by the Vatican to ensure that acts taken by Bishop Olson will be reversed and they will be completely exonerated,” Bobo said in his statement.
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter at @marissaygreene.
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