ARLINGTON — Nuns living in an Arlington monastery are inviting the faithful back to their chapel for prayer and Mass, while the Bishop of Fort Worth is pleading with parishioners not to participate or offer the nuns their financial support.

A bitter public battle between the bishop of the Fort Worth Catholic diocese and a group of secluded Arlington nuns is again escalating. Calling the nuns “scandalous,” Bishop Michael Olson warned members of his diocese that supporting the nuns — either by participating in communion or providing financial assistance — would amount to “scandalous disobedience and disunity.

Bishop Michael Olson has accused the nuns of holding invalid elections to re-appoint Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach as their superior.

The Carmelite nuns’ new affiliation with a group once in a schism with the church has prompted warnings from the Fort Worth diocese.