Vatican Investigation Targets One of the Most Pro-Life Catholic Bishops in America
The Vatican has undertaken an investigation of one of the most popular Catholic bishops in America, who is also one of the most outspokenly pro-life bishops.
The Vatican has launched an apostolic visitation to the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and Bishop Joseph Strickland. The reasons for the investigation of Bishop Strickland are unclear, but appear to resolve around his social media posts — where he actively challenges abortion, takes on leftist woke culture and even questions the Catholic Church when he believes it is going the wrong direction.
As the Catholic News Agency reports:
The Vatican’s Dicastery of Bishops has completed a formal investigation of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland and the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, according to multiple media reports and confirmed by EWTN News.
The inquiry, known as an apostolic visitation, marks a rare though not unprecedented intervention by Rome into a U.S. diocese and points to possible disciplinary action against Strickland, a widely popular though polarizing Texas firebrand viewed as a culture war champion by many U.S. conservatives for his staunch defense of the unborn, marriage, the traditional Latin liturgy, and Catholic orthodoxy.
The leader of the eastern Texas diocese since 2012, Strickland, 64, has faced criticism for what some see as intemperate social media posts unbecoming of a prominent U.S. prelate, including a May 12 tweet that suggested Pope Francis was “undermining the Deposit of Faith.”
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According to the source, the process addressed the bishop’s social media use but also questions related to diocesan management.
The path forward following the apostolic visitation remains uncertain. While one source described as someone close to Strickland told the Pillar that the Tyler bishop “doesn’t want to make too big of a deal” of the visitation, a priest related that interviewers “were already asking questions about who might be a good fit to replace [Strickland].”
CatholicVote described the process in more depth:
According to witnesses who requested anonymity because they are active in the life of the diocese, the vicar general and moderator of the diocese’s curia, the Very Rev. John Gomez, JCL, convened via phone and email several priests, religious, and laypeople of Tyler to meet with the apostolic visitators appointed by the Vatican.
Witnesses confirmed to CatholicVote that the apostolic visitation is being led by Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden, New Jersey, and Gerald Frederick Kicanas, retired bishop of Tucson, Arizona, and former Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, Illinois. Both bishops, accompanied by two priest experts in canon law from out of town, interviewed the witnesses about what they know regarding the personal life and pastoral activities of Bishop Strickland.
Earlier this year, Bishop Strickland called out Joe Biden, saying he’s a “fake Catholic” for falsely claiming the Catholic Church supports abortion.
Biden lied to a Catholic reporter and falsely claimed the nation’s Catholic bishops do not oppose forcing Americans to fund abortions even though the Catholic Church has a longstanding pro-life position against tax-funded abortions.
Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas condemned Biden’s comments and said he was engaging in “fake Catholocism.”
“Mr. Biden can’t be allowed to twist the words of Pope Francis in this way,” Strickland tweeted. “I implore the Vatican press office to emphatically clarify that Pope Francis rightly calls abortion murder. It is time to denounce Biden’s fake Catholicism.”
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