According to one Catholic bishop who has experienced persecution both from within and without the Church, woke leaders are “threatened by those who stand for the truth and won’t budge.”
Joseph Strickland, who was recently removed by the pope from his position as bishop of Tyler, Texas, was a speaker at the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). While there, the orthodox prelate spoke to a Breitbart reporter about why the FBI was targeting traditional Catholics and why woke authorities in general are going after law-abiding and religious citizens who disagree with them. While Strickland was allegedly removed for “undermining the faith,” his track record of zealously upholding Catholic teaching, his refusal to condone the current leftist Vatican’s antics, and Pope Francis’s rewards to openly heretical individuals indicate that Strickland’s conservative views were the real culprit.
Breitbart News’s Matthew Perdie asked Strickland about the previous shocking revelations that the FBI was spying on and infiltrating traditional Catholic churches, framing the largely pro-life, conservative Catholics as potentially dangerous extremists or even domestic terrorists. “I really don’t claim to have the answer for why they would do this, but I do see it as a sad symptom of a society that sounds too much more like Nazi Germany or communist Russia than the United States,” Strickland answered.
“Freedom of speech, freedom of religion — all of those freedom issues seem to be bound up in this,” Strickland continued. “I think the FBI has been weaponized to go after people who simply believe deeply in the message of Jesus Christ and believe in the truth that He’s revealed.”
He added, “And sadly, in the nation and really in the world, even in the Catholic Church, we’re having a lot of people not so sure about this truth that God has revealed through his Son Jesus Christ.” The bishop sees the FBI’s campaign to target Catholics as a “symptom” of a “nation that is losing its way.”
While America “can always come back,” Strickland told Perdie, “we’ve got to listen to the truth that God has revealed to us and come back to those foundation stones and not use government agencies to attack people for living the truth.” Because, ultimately, he stated, “If we’re afraid of the truth, then we’ve got more to fear than any individual who may be standing for that truth.” Perdie asked if traditional Catholics were targeted for being pro-family (including opposing radical LGBTQ ideology) and pro-life. “Oh, absolutely,” Strickland agreed.
In his speech, Bishop Strickland praised the court decision in Alabama recognizing the dignity of human life in its embryonic form, while also urging America to reform into 'one nation under God.'
— LifeSiteNews (@LifeSite) February 26, 2024
More about what Bishop Strickland said here: https://t.co/wRaJkmsPF3
Catholic Church leaders should especially oppose a warped ideology that is, in any case, eventually doomed to failure, Strickland explained. “The Catholic Church is, and should be, totally opposed to this woke agenda,” he emphasized. “The Catholic Church should reject [it] because it’s a rejection of God. It’s a rejection of who we are: created in the image and likeness of God.”
But woke authorities perceive truth as a threat. “So their mission is to try to get rid of those who stand for the truth,” Strickland noted. “It won’t be accomplished any more than in Nazi Germany. They tried to eliminate [people] and have one pristine Aryan race. Did it work? No, because it was based on false ideals of a broken humanity.” The same result comes from other popular but false belief systems. “The same thing with [C]ommunism — any of these ideologies that ignore God,” the bishop said.
Related: Bishop Strickland Was Too Faithful for Pope Francis
Strickland concluded with an appeal to Americans to champion the truth, especially in a world committed to lying. “I think it’s natural that those standing for that truth are going to be seen as a threat to this agenda,” the prelate said. He certainly knows that from personal experience. “Just as we look to Nazi Germany or to the communist state of Stalin: how many people died because they said no to those despotic regimes? The same thing is going to happen here, but we have to speak against the false messages — no matter how many hearts and minds the false message captures,” he insisted.
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