Bishop Joseph E. Strickland has denounced the radically pro-abortion platform of the Democratic Party, asserting that killing the unborn is “diabolical.”
A known conservative ousted by Pope Francis in 2023 from his post as head of the diocese of Tyler, Texas, Strickland responded this week to a post on X noting that every democrat in Congress voted in favor of killing an unborn child up to the age of 34 weeks for any reason.
The post included a video of a 34-week-old baby outside the womb along with the caption: “They call it ‘reproductive rights’ because they refuse to call it what it is: murder.”
In response, the bishop said, “Yes, murder plain, simple and diabolical. We must continue to speak against so called ‘public servants’ who adamantly promote the murder of the weakest members of the public.”
“If you vote for them you are complicit in murder,” he added.
Bishop Strickland has been adamant in his pro-life position and in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential vote, said that the election is primarily about moral truths, with the sanctity of life as the first among them.
“GET OVER IT….this election is about the Sanctity of Life, true marriage between a man & a woman, supporting the nuclear family and sexual morality based on biblical truth,” Strickland said.
All other issues “depend on this moral foundation,” he added, urging his followers to “choose the party that supports these MORAL TRUTHS.”
A year earlier, Bishop Strickland had praised a brother bishop for refusing to give Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who support pro-abortion legislation.
Responding to an article titled: “Catholic Bishop Will Deny Pro-Abortion Politicians Communion Until They Repent of ‘Evil,’” Strickland thanked Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane, WA, for his courage and moral witness.
“Thank you bishop Daly for standing strong,” Strickland wrote. “Our society needs to wake up to the reality that when unborn & completely innocent children are not safe from their own mothers, life has no value and the tragic violence we see is simply a consequence of our disregard for life.”
Strickland later explained his defense of Bishop Daly, underscoring the importance of non-negotiable life issues.
“What I really tried to say as I intervened and talked about the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death — those are the grave issues, as far as I’m concerned. That’s what we need to focus on,” he said.
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For their part, the U.S. Catholic bishops have reiterated that the abortion question is the “preeminent” political issue of our time.
In a teaching document outlining the political responsibility of Catholics titled Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the bishops named abortion as a “prime example” of an “intrinsically evil” action, the sort of things “we must never do, as individuals or as a society, because they are always incompatible with love of God and neighbor.”
In our nation, “abortion and euthanasia have become preeminent threats to human dignity because they directly attack life itself, the most fundamental human good and the condition for all others,” the bishops said.
After Pope Francis deposed Bishop Strickland from his diocese last year, the conservative Catholic site Silere non possum (I cannot be silent) contended that the bishop’s ouster was “the price he paid for telling the truth.”
Strickland became the pope’s target “because of his clear and unblemished opposition to the ‘Synodal system,’” the article said, in reference to Francis’ efforts to overhaul Church structures in favor of consultative bodies, which critics claim are murky and easily manipulated.
While Francis has said he welcomes criticism and defends freedom of speech, this is patently untrue, the article argued, since “those who live under this dictatorial system are very clear that ‘freedom of speech’ is something completely different.”
Bishop Strickland’s case is just the latest in a long line of similar punishments Francis has meted out to conservative prelates who dare question his governance, the article declared.