ROME, Italy — Pope Francis has taken the unusual step of removing the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a known conservative who has been critical of the pope.
According to Vatican News, the pontiff’s decision to remove 65-year-old Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral governance of the diocese of Tyler came after an “exhaustive” apostolic visitation of the diocese by two retired U.S. bishops who determined that “the continuation in office of Bishop Strickland was not feasible.”
Italy’s state-owned RAI News reported that the investigation into the bishop’s governance was launched as a response to “his traditional positions, irreconcilable with the new course started by Pope Francis.”
As examples, RAI noted that Bishop Strickland is “a vigorous defender of the Catholic Church’s doctrinal and dogmatic positions on marriage, human life, and religious freedom.”
Among Strickland’s critical positions, was opposition to the pope’s “innovations in matters of marriage, the Eucharist, and sexuality,” RAI reported.
The conservative Catholic site Silere non possum (I cannot be silent) asserted that Bishop Strickland’s ouster was “the price he paid for telling the truth,” and for his support of the traditional Latin Mass.
Strickland became the pope’s target “because of his clear and unblemished opposition to the ‘Synodal system,’” the article states, 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 asserts, 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 declares.
The Canada-based Catholic news outlet LifeSiteNews reported that Strickland has been a vocal critic of former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her support of legal abortion and has accused the prominent pro-LGBT activist Jesuit Father James Martin of “blasphemy.”
Father Martin has been a protégé of Pope Francis, who has sent him several handwritten letters encouraging him in his ministry to gays and has welcomed him in private audiences in the Vatican.
LifeSiteNews also noted that in contrast to his harsh treatment of conservatives, “Pope Francis has not disciplined numerous bishops who have publicly contradicted Catholic doctrine on homosexual activity, gender, same-sex ‘blessings,’ the ordination of women, and the reception of the Eucharist.”
Another Catholic news outlet, Our Sunday Visitor, noted that although no reason has been given for Bishop Strickland’s removal, “speculation about his future in the diocese has swirled for months following the bishop’s May 12 post on Twitter (now known as X), accusing the pontiff of ‘undermining the deposit of faith.’”