PhiladelphiaCarmelites.org reports how the Vatican, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and a modernist association of Carmelite nuns hijacked Philadelphia Carmel.
- 2017: Philadelphia Carmel is dying out. Archbishop Chaput, 78, invites Roman Rite Carmelites from Nebraska to take it over.
- January 2020: Archbishop Perez replaces Archbishop Chaput.
- April 2021: The Roman Rite Carmelite Sisters unexpectedly return to their former community. Mother Pia, the last Philadelphia Carmelite (since 1964), stays.
- 2021: Francis' document Cor Orans (2018) is used to close Philadelphia Carmel.
- June 2021: The Nebraska Carmelites announce that Archbishop Perez has not kept the promise concerning the community's [forced] membership in the St. Joseph Association, a modernist group of Carmelites that exercises authority over Philadelphia Carmel.
- 2021: Mother Pia finds Carmelite nuns willing and able to come to Philadelphia, but Auxiliary Bishop Michael Fitzgerald vehemently urges her to cease her efforts.
- Archbishop Perez ("Synodality Church") refuses to meet with Mother Pia.
- Mother Pia wants to transfer the property to a non-profit organisation to preserve its religious use and eventually resume Carmelite life.
- She chooses a cautious approach, believing that the Archbishop is of good will and able to be persuaded.
- But the archdiocese pulls the wool over Mother Pia's eyes and persuades her to leave the convent and spend her old days near her good friend, Father John Mary, chaplain of the Carmelite Order in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.
- Archbishop Perez assures her that her stay in Lake Elmo does not mean that she has given up Philadelphia and therefore still has control of the building.
- January 2022: Mother Pia leaves Philadelphia.
- February 2022: Rome abolishes the Carmel, calling it "abandoned" and extinct because there are "no surviving members". Had the decree of abolition - for which Mother Pia waited for months - come while she was living in the monastery, she would have had a say over the building.
- Mother Pia feels deceived and wants to appeal the suppression, but the Saint Joseph Association tells her not to appeal and promises to give her what she is entitled to.
- The association is given complete control over the properties.
- Late summer 2022: The association allies with Perez and breaks its promises.
- The main gates of the Carmel are permanently locked to prevent anyone from entering or praying on the premises.
- Recently the keys were handed over to the association, which changed the locks.
- Now the sale of the Carmel is expected.