The Carmelite nuns who sued the Bishop of Fort Worth last year have fiercely rejected a new decree from Vatican City that they be governed by an association of monasteries, calling the decision a hostile takeover.
“We are not things to be traded or given away in backroom deals,” the nuns wrote in a four-page response to the decree posted to their website Saturday afternoon.
The statement reaffirms their position that they do not recognise the authority of Bishop Michael Olson, with whom they have been in a dispute since April of last year.
It also says no one from the Association of Christ the King, the organisation the Vatican says now governs the monastery, is permitted on the grounds of the monastery in Arlington.