Conservative Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was ousted from his Texas diocese by Pope Francis last year, has denounced a “corrupt Vatican.”
“I urge all faithful Catholics to speak up, enough is enough,” Bishop Strickland wrote on X (former Twitter) early Tuesday, posted together with an image of Jesus throwing money-changers out of the temple.
“Enough with silent shepherds, enough with a corrupt Vatican, enough with blasphemies & desecration of Jesus Christ,” the bishop continued. “Let us denounce so called bishops who bless sin & hide wolves among the sheep. ENOUGH!”
The latter accusation almost assuredly refers to the Vatican’s flip-flop on the matter of blessings for same-sex couples, the work of Argentinean Cardinal Víctor “Tucho” Fernández, who oversees the Vatican’s doctrinal office (DDF).
Cardinal Fernández reversed the Vatican’s position banning the blessing of homosexual couples, despite a prior statement by his office that the Church has no authority to bless same-sex unions since God Himself “does not and cannot bless sin.”
Last November, Pope Francis took the unusual step of removing Bishop Strickland — a known conservative who has been critical of the pope — from his post at the diocese of Tyler, Texas.
Vatican News said the pontiff’s decision to remove 65-year-old Strickland 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 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.
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.”
The Canada-based Catholic news outlet LifeSiteNews reported that Strickland had been a vocal critic of former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her support of legal abortion and had 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 had 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.’”