Carmelites amend lawsuit against Fort Worth's Bishop Olson (WFAA)

A Carmelite monastery in Texas has filed an amended lawsuit against the Diocese of Fort Worth and Bishop Michael Olson, after the bishop dismissed the community’s superior from religious life.

A lawyer for the Most Holy Trinity Discalced Carmelite Nuns said the dismissal of Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach was “absolutely unjust and unconscionable in the light of moral, canonical, and natural law.” While a canonical appeal is anticipated, the attorney said that a civil suit, charging the bishop with defamation and theft, will go ahead.

The Carmelites charge that Bishop Olson wrongfully seized the mother superior’s computer, and while the computer was eventually returned, the diocese copied and retained “private correspondence, private documents, extensive medical records,” and other information that are the private property of the monastery.