“Everybody who knows the faith can see the difference between someone who’s proclaiming it and someone who’s trying to change it or silence it,” Fr. Frank Pavone, the head of pro-life organization Priests for Life, explained in exclusive comments to PJ Media about the removal of Bishop Strickland.
Catholics and non-Catholics alike were shocked and dismayed when Pope Francis removed Bishop Joseph Strickland, an outspoken voice in defending the faith and criticizing wokeness, from his position as Bishop of Tyler, Texas. I spoke to Pavone, who was previously laicized from the priesthood abruptly and without warning, about why traditional, pro-life clerics are targeted now even within the Church while leftist priests and bishops are ignored or promoted. Pavone also had words of advice for Catholics unsure how to act and whom to trust in this confusing time.
Pavone argued that the targeting both of himself and Bishop Strickland had to do with abortion — and the Democrats. “The Democrat Party in America has a lot of influence over certain bishops who end up being the troublemakers in all of this.” Pavone believes Francis doesn’t simply sit around deciding whom to target this week; rather he is “hearing complaints from the American bishops. And we know that as a fact in terms of how these processes work.”
Pavone explained how faithful clerics like Strickland and Pavone himself are targeted by political leftists. “On the one hand, we’re just trying to do our work, you know, and then we get told, this bishop is against us, or that complaint has been made.” He calls such antics a “big distraction.”
There are some “bishops who are more Democrat-leaning and offended by abortion being so front and center,” because “it embarrasses their friends, [which] is what it boils down to. They complain to the Vatican.” Nor are bishops the only ones who throw fits over pro-life conservatives. “Laypeople who are connected with the Democrats will complain likewise; they’ll write to the papal nuncio, they’ll write to their own bishops, and they’ll say, ‘Can’t you silence these priests? … They’re causing too much of a problem for us,’” Pavone told me.
“People need to see through that,” he continued. Of course, especially after Strickland’s removal, “a lot of Catholics who are troubled by these things, as they should be, [are] asking, ‘What do I do? How can I help?’ And I always say to them, ‘The best way to help is [to] show your support for the work that’s being done.”
For Our VIPs: Bishop Strickland Was Too Faithful for Pope Francis
Using his own Priests for Life as an example, he noted that people should simply evaluate if the organization is still “advocating for the babies”; if they’re “not saving lives,” don’t support them, but if they’re fulfilling their mission, continue to support that mission. Because when ordinary Catholics continue to support leaders like himself and Bishop Strickland, Pavone said, “people in the hierarchy notice that.”
The truly important thing, Pavone explained, is to refuse to be cowed into abandoning good work. “If they expect my voice to go away, or my activities to stop, they have another thing coming, because we know we have the support of God’s people, and as long as those people don’t get intimidated themselves, for… supporting works like I’m doing, or works like Bishop Strickland is doing, then we’ll be okay.” Lay Catholics have more power than they realize.
Of course, some Catholics — and non-Catholics, too — are wondering how to know what’s true when some clerics are leftist politicians, not faithful shepherds. Pavone told me, “I always say you keep six words in mind at all times…‘what the Church has always taught.’ That’s the guidepost for a Catholic, that’s the guidepost in fact for a bishop and a pope.” God and the truths He gave through Christ are unchangeable for eternity.
“That’s a safety valve built into the Church’s structure, that the Faith is not some secret message… that only the pope has, or only these cardinals have,” Pavone emphasized. “It’s open for everybody to see and understand. And that’s where we find — that’s where we can find our peace of mind because everybody who knows the faith can see the difference between someone who’s proclaiming it, and someone who’s trying to change it or silence it.”
There have been bad bishops and even bad popes before. Judas was one of Christ’s apostles. In the 4th century, church father St. Athanasius was nicknamed “Athanasius contra mundum,” or “against the world,” because such a vast amount of the Christian world — including clerics — had fallen into heresy. Indeed, the pope at the time condemned Athanasius (though it is said he was under pressure from heretics)!
Papal infallibility only applies under certain circumstances and on certain topics, as prescribed by canon law; otherwise, the pope is speaking as a theologian and bishop like any other, and can in fact be wrong. This too shall pass. The clerics like Pavone and Strickland and lay Catholics will keep the teachings of Christ until a renewal of the whole Church.
Stay tuned to PJ Media for more exclusive comments from Fr. Pavone on abortion messaging in an election year!
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