In very rare move, Pope dismisses conservative US bishop Joseph Strickland

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has dismissed Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of his fiercest critics among US Roman Catholic conservatives, a Vatican statement said on Saturday.

It is very rare for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Usually, bishops in trouble with the Vatican are asked to resign before submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.

Popes make such moves, considered drastic, when a bishop refuses a request to resign.

Mr Strickland is 65 years old, 10 years shy of the usual retirement age for bishops. Mr Strickland had said earlier in 2023 that he would refuse to resign if asked.

Mr Strickland, a prolific user of social media who was named to the diocese by the late Pope Benedict in 2012, tweeted earlier in 2023 that he rejected Pope Francis’ “programme undermining the Deposit of Faith”.

He has been particularly critical of Pope Francis’ attempt to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to the (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) LGBT community and attempts by the Pope to give lay people more responsibility in the Church and opposed a recent synod.

The dismissal followed a Vatican investigation earlier this year into the administration of the Tyler diocese, which Catholic media reports said included a review of Mr Strickland’s handling of financial affairs.

It was announced simultaneously by the Vatican and the United States Bishops Conference. Neither statement gave a reason.

There was no immediate response from Mr Strickland. A recording on the diocese’s telephone said it was closed for the weekend.

The former bishop had become one of the most vocal standard-bearers of the ultra-conservative wing of the US Catholic Church and has a national following far beyond the small diocese of Tyler in eastern Texas.

In August 2022, the Pope lamented what he called a “reactionary” Catholic Church in the US, where he said political ideology had replaced faith in some cases.

Mr Strickland is a strong supporter of former US president Donald Trump and is seen as a hero by conservative US Catholic media outlets that are aligned with Trump.

In 2022, when the Vatican defrocked ultra-conservative US anti-abortion priest Frank Pavone for “blasphemous” social media posts and disobedience to bishops, Mr Strickland was one of the few American bishops to defend him publicly.

“The blasphemy is that this holy priest is cancelled while an evil president promotes the denial of truth and the murder of the unborn at every turn, Vatican officials promote immorality and denial of the deposit of faith, and priests promote gender confusion devastating lives... evil,” Mr Strickland wrote on the platform then known as Twitter.

The Vatican said Pope Francis named Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, as the interim administrator of the Tyler diocese. REUTERS