The by turns troubling, saddening, and hilarious saga of the Arlington, Texas Carmel—Black Narcissus on the range—has taken a new turn. The Carmelites, after a long canonical and civil legal battle against Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson, have reportedly affiliated with the irregular group the Society of St. Pius X. Bishop Olson has urged other Catholics not to worship with the nuns, whose behavior he describes as “scandalous and permeated with the odor of schism.”
While surprising in some ways (the scurrilous details of the nuns’ disputed practices, involving, among other things, marijuana use and allegations of “violating the sixth commandment” with a priest, do not exactly suggest a rigid, upright traditionalism), this move on the nuns’ part did not come out of nowhere. As Mike Lewis reported earlier this summer, the suspended Pennsylvania priests Christopher Clay and Marshall Roberts have been illicitly celebrating the pre-conciliar Mass for the nuns. (There now seems also to be a third out-of-ministry priest from the same Pennsylvania dicoese, Vincent Young, who is incardinated in Scranton but has a mailing address in the State of Washington.) There has also been an intervention in support of the nuns from the ubiquitous former Titular Archbishop of Ulpiana. Moreover, as we have seen with groups like L’Eau Vive in the 1940s and Emmanuel Milingo’s “Married Priests Now!” movement in the 2000s, it isn’t exactly new for innovative and even antinomian tendencies to coexist with traditionalist ones in fringe Catholic outfits.
This story has troubled the waters of the Catholic press for a year and a half now, and it’s starting to get picked up localy in Dallas-Fort Worth as well. Not only have some current or former University of Dallas people in my circles (including my godson’s family in Plano) been aware of the dispute for a while, a Jewish friend in the DFW area has also recently found out about it. There’s some informative, solid, just-the-facts reporting happening on it even in the secular press, but also, it must be said, a lot of (understandable) sensationalism and name-calling.
From the linked article by Marissa Greene of the Fort Worth Report:
The Arlington Discalced Carmelite Nuns have not been formally excommunicated, but Olson could do so in the future, making the sisters ineligible to receive the sacraments or the Eucharist, [Southern Methodist University Professor Matthew] Wilson said.
To avoid such an outcome, the sisters could disaffiliate from the Society of Saint Pius X, but Wilson said he isn’t sure they have any inclination to do that.
The more likely option, Wilson said, would be for the diocese to declare the nuns in rebellion — in schism — against the authority of the Catholic Church, as Olson alluded to in his Sept. 17 statement.
“(Olson) seems to be moving in that direction without quite going there yet, maybe hoping to give them a chance to recant, repent and amend their ways,” Wilson said. “He clearly believes that that’s the direction in which they are moving.”
I agree with Olson, Wilson, and Greene. Now that the SSPX has entered the fray, it’s difficult to tell exactly where things will go, but the general trajectory is clear. Arlington’s “weed nuns,” if they continue on their current path, will find that schism is very much interested in them, even if they say that they are not interested in schism.
Image: YouTube screenshot of the Arlington Carmel gate.
Nathan Turowsky is a native New Englander, an alumnus of Boston University School of Theology, and one of the relatively few Catholic alumni of that primarily Wesleyan institution. He works in the nonprofit sector and writes at Silicate Siesta.
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