Pope Francis on Saturday ordered the removal of the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a conservative prelate lively on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and has come to symbolize the polarization inside the U.S. Catholic hierarchy.
A one-line statement from the Vatican said Francis had “relieved” Bishop Joseph Strickland of the pastoral governance of Tyler and appointed the bishop of Austin because the temporary administrator.
Strickland, 65, has emerged as a number one critic of Francis, accusing him in a tweet earlier this yr of “undermining the deposit of religion.” He has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the long run of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including ways to higher welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics.
Earlier this yr, the Vatican sent in investigators to look into his governance of the diocese, amid reports that priests and laypeople in Tyler had complained and that he was making unorthodox claims.
The Vatican never released the findings and Strickland had insisted he would not resign voluntarily, saying in media interviews that he was given a mandate to function bishop in 2012 by the late Pope Benedict XVI and couldn’t abdicate that responsibility.
The conservative website LifeSiteNews, which said it interviewed Strickland on Saturday, quoted him as saying one in every of the explanations given for his ouster was his refusal to implement Francis’ 2021 restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass.
Francis’ crackdown on the old liturgy has change into a rallying cry for traditionalist Catholics against the pontiff’s progressive bent. Strickland told LifeSite he refused to implement the restrictions “because I am unable to starve out a part of my flock.”
He said he stood by his decision, would do it again and “I feel very much at peace within the Lord and the reality that he died for.”
His firing sparked a direct outcry amongst some conservatives and traditionalists who had held up Strickland as a number one point of Catholic reference to counter Francis’ progressive reforms. Michael J. Matt, editor of the traditionalist newspaper The Remnant, wrote that with the firing, Francis was “actively attempting to bury fidelity to the Church of Jesus Christ.”
“This is total war,” Matt wrote on social media. “Francis is a transparent and present danger not only to Catholics the world over but additionally to the entire world itself.”
The two Vatican investigators sent into investigate Strickland — Bishop Dennis Sullivan of Camden, New Jersey, and the retired bishop of Tucson, Arizona, Bishop Emeritus Gerald Kicanas — “conducted an exhaustive inquiry into all features of the governance and leadership of the diocese,” said the pinnacle of the church in Texas, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo.
After their investigation, a suggestion was made to Francis that “the continuation in office of Bishop Strickland was not feasible,” DiNardo said in an announcement Saturday.
The Vatican asked Strickland to resign Thursday, but he declined, prompting Francis to remove him from office two days later, DiNardo’s statement said.
It is rare for the pope to remove a bishop from office. Bishops are required to supply to resign once they reach 75. When the Vatican uncovers issues with governance or other problems that require a bishop to go away office before then, the Vatican often seeks to pressure him to supply to resign for the nice of his diocese and the church.
That was the case when one other U.S. bishop was forced out earlier this yr following a Vatican investigation. Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee, resigned voluntarily, albeit under pressure, following allegations he mishandled sex abuse allegations, and his priests complained about his leadership and behavior.
But with Strickland, the Vatican statement made clear that he had not offered to resign and that Francis had as a substitute “relieved” him from his job.
Francis has not been shy about his concerns concerning the right wing within the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, which has been split between progressives and conservatives who long found support within the doctrinaire papacies of St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI, particularly on problems with abortion and same-sex marriage.
In comments to Portuguese Jesuits in August, Francis blasted the “backwardness” of those conservative bishops, saying they’d replaced faith with ideology and that an accurate understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
Strickland had been related to essentially the most extreme of those bishops, including the previous Vatican ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a fierce Francis critic who in 2018 called for the pope to resign.
Strickland backed Vigano’s conspiracy theories concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, and on Saturday Vigano wrote that Strickland’s ouster showed a “cowardly type of authoritarianism” by Francis. “This affair will reveal who stands with the true Church of Christ and who chooses to face with His declared enemies,” Vigano wrote on X.
Most recently, Strickland had criticized Francis’ monthlong closed-door debate on making the church more welcoming and attentive to the needs of Catholics today. The meeting debated a number of previously taboo issues, including women in governance roles and welcoming LGBTQ+ Catholics, but in the long run, its final document didn’t veer from established doctrine.
Ahead of the meeting, Strickland said it was a “travesty” that such things were even on the table for discussion.
“Regrettably, it could be that some will label as schismatics those that disagree with the changes being proposed,” Strickland wrote in a public letter in August. “Instead, those that would propose changes to that which can’t be modified seek to commandeer Christ’s Church, they usually are indeed the true schismatics.”
In an announcement Saturday, the diocese of Tyler announced Strickland’s removal but said the church’s work would proceed in Tyler.
“Our mission is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to foster an authentic Christian community, and to serve the needs of all individuals with compassion and love,” it said.
In a social media post sent a number of hours before the Vatican’s noon announcement, Strickland wrote a prayer about Christ being the “way, the reality and the life, yesterday, today and ceaselessly.” He had modified the handle from his previous bishopoftyler to BishStrickland.
The incoming temporary administrator for Tyler, Austin Bishop Joe Vásquez, said he can be travelling to the diocese over the approaching weeks to be available for the priests, staff and lay faithful “to evaluate their needs.”
He asked for prayers for his work and the people of Tyler “during this time of transition.”
