Pope Francis on Saturday forcibly removed the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a firebrand conservative prelate active on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and has come to symbolize the polarization within 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 as the temporary administrator.
Strickland, 65, has emerged as a leading critic of Francis, accusing him in a tweet earlier this year of “undermining the deposit of faith.” He has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the future of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including ways to better welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics.
Earlier this year, 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.
He’s gonna go start his own church with blackjack and children.
Under
agedrated comment right there!He will 100% use this to start a new church to siphon funds from his snowflake congregation
Wouldn’t doing that literally be considered heresy? That doesn’t really mean much in the modern day I suppose, but if he actually believes all the Catholic stuff (which I imagine he might, to have gotten that high a rank in it in the first place?), then potentially getting excommunicated is probably not something he would want.
I’d be curious if there are actual numbers out there, but a number of ex-Catholics I know have deemed Francis the antipope and have latched onto some random local evangelical church that aligns with their political values. I could definitely see this guy jumping on board with that.
That chuckle fuck would probably get off on it because it would make the liberals react in any way.
And by that, he’ll call it his own “Las Nevadas”, but way, way more insidious and manipulative.