Pope Francis on Saturday dismissed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of his fiercest critics among U.S. Roman Catholic conservatives, after he refused to step down following a Vatican investigation.
The Pope calling it like it is. Christian conservative leaders in the US are way to focused on politics instead of their faith and the spiritual well being of their parish.
He is the Cardinal of the archdiocese of Cologne in Germany. He made a seriously bad figure with regards to investigations intosexual abuse by priests and is a serious opponent of any change in the church.
There is an old contract between the church and the state in Germany. One provision in this contract is that priests in the archdiocese are only to be trained at Bonn University. He considered this "to worldly" and tried to set up a more conservative seminary from a number of funds designed for totally other purposes and in breach with this old contract that might put the whole role of the catholic church in German society into turmoil.
Many lay people but also members of the church want him gone ASAP. People turn their backs to him in church when he preaches. And thousands of people leave the catholic church primarily because of him.
I think all you need to know about this guy is the Vatican asked him to resign a few days ago and he said no. You do not say to no to that sort of thing! He absolutely knew they would remove him and instead of going quietly he said no to make it a big thing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him running for office, or starting his own break off sect of “true Catholics” soon. Good riddance.
VATICAN CITY, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Pope Francis has dismissed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of his fiercest critics among U.S. Roman Catholic conservatives, a Vatican statement said on Saturday.
Popes make such moves, considered drastic, when a bishop refuses a request to resign.
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 his handling of financial affairs.
Strickland had become one of the most vocal standard bearers of the ultra-conservative wing of the U.S. Church and has a national following far beyond the small diocese of Tyler in eastern Texas.
Last August, the pope lamented what he called a "reactionary" Catholic Church in the United States, where he said political ideology had replaced faith in some cases.
The Vatican said Francis named the bishop of Austin, Texas, Joe Vasquez, as the interim administrator of the Tyler diocese.
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