The Vatican has reinstated a nun who had been dismissed from her Texas order a year ago over claims she committed adultery, church officials in Fort Worth said this week.
Rev. Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach, a Carmelite who was mother superior, or prioress, of the Monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Arlington, was booted from religious life by the Most Rev. Michael Olson, bishop of Fort Worth on June 1, 2023. He said Mother Gerlach was “guilty of having violated the sixth commandment of the Decalogue and her vow of chastity with a priest from outside the Diocese of Fort Worth.”
The Sixth Commandment in the Catholic Church is “You shall not commit adultery.”
The nun was accused of having a sexual affair with the Rev. Philip G. Johnson, a priest from the diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, according to a statement from Bishop Olson. He said he has reported Father Johnson to the diocese and is awaiting a report from officials there.
Mother Teresa Agnes appealed her dismissal to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of the Apostolic Life.
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, who heads the office, said that while the nun admitted a violation of the commandment, her admission did not demonstrate her actions were “perpetrated by the exertion of force or violence.” Those conditions are required under church law for a dismissal.
Cardinal Aviz also said she didn’t receive the full 15 days that church law requires she be allowed to respond to an allegation of “grave disobedience to the legitimate precepts of a superior.” That procedural violation also served to invalidate her dismissal, he said.
The now-reinstated nun will have the chance to “seek restoration and recovery” at the monastery, which will now be administered by Mother Marie of the Incarnation, president of the Association of Christ the King, the bishop said.
Mother Teresa Agnes, the bishop said, can be a “member of the Carmelite Order in accordance with her religious vows but without the burdens of leadership that come with the office of prioress.”
The dismissal had caused the Carmelite nuns in Arlington to seek a restraining order against Bishop Olson. According to a report in the National Catholic Register, an independent publication, the nuns labeled a Vatican declaration that the Association of Christ the King would oversee their monastery “a hostile takeover that we in conscience cannot accept.”
The nuns dropped the restraining order request on Tuesday, CBS News Texas reported.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.