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Pope Francis has dismissed a bishop in Texas, Joseph Strickland, one in every of his fiercest critics amongst US Roman Catholic conservatives, the Vatican has mentioned.
It is rather uncommon for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Normally bishops in hassle with the Vatican are requested to resign earlier than submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.
A pope solely makes such a transfer when a bishop refuses a request to resign and is taken into account drastic. Strickland is 65, 10 years shy of the same old retirement age for bishops. Strickland had mentioned earlier this 12 months that he would refuse to resign if requested.
Strickland, a prolific consumer of social media who was named to the diocese by the late pope, Benedict XVI in 2012, tweeted earlier this 12 months that he rejected Francis’ “program undermining the Deposit of Religion”.
He has been notably vital of the pontiff’s try to make the Catholic church extra welcoming to the LGBTQ+ group and makes an attempt by Francis to present lay individuals extra duty within the church and opposed a latest synod.
Saturday’s dismissal adopted a Vatican investigation earlier this 12 months into the administration of the Tyler diocese, which Catholic media reviews mentioned included a evaluation of his dealing with of monetary affairs.
It was introduced concurrently by the Vatican and the US Bishops Convention. Neither assertion gave a motive.
There was no fast response from Strickland. A recording on the diocese’s phone mentioned they have been closed for the weekend.
Strickland had turn into one of the vocal commonplace bearers of the ultra-conservative wing of the US Catholic church and has a nationwide following far past the small diocese of Tyler in jap Texas.
Final August, Francis lamented what he referred to as a “reactionary” Catholic church in the USA, the place he mentioned political ideology had changed religion in some circumstances.
Strickland is a powerful supporter of former US president Donald Trump and is seen as a hero by conservative US Catholic media shops which might be aligned with Trump.
Final 12 months, when the Vatican defrocked ultra-conservative US anti-abortion priest Frank Pavone for “blasphemous” social media posts and disobedience to bishops, Strickland was one of many few American bishops to defend him publicly.
“The blasphemy is that this holy priest is cancelled whereas an evil president promotes the denial of fact and the homicide of the unborn at each flip, Vatican officers promote immorality and denial of the deposit of religion and monks promote gender confusion devastating lives … evil,” Strickland wrote on the platform then referred to as Twitter.
The Vatican mentioned Francis named the bishop of Austin, Texas, Joe Vasquez, because the interim administrator of the Tyler diocese.
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