A Comment on Bishop Strickland Statement on His Firing

I agree with Mr Rôteau completely. There is no excuse for Francis's behaviour no matter what Bp Strickland says.

By Thomas Rôteau, via Facebook.

Let me be perfectly clear that I am wholeheartedly behind the devout Shepherd of Christ, Bishop Joseph Strickland. His stalwart defense of the Faith, as the Church has always proclaimed it throughout the Ages, is laudable. Especially since there are so few with the courage to stick their necks out in this environment of an ongoing purge.
Strickland rightly deflected the request to resign, remaining as the Ordinary of the Diocese of Tyler until he was dismissed. He was protecting his flock there, and those letters of catechesis that he wrote reinforcing Church Doctrine benefitted the entire Body of Believers. He made the point that the Fullness of Holy Orders and subsequent appointment to a jurisdiction is not to be rescinded in the same way that a bishop reassigns priests within his diocese. Priests have only partial Orders and function in the bishop’s stead because he cannot be everywhere at once in his assigned territory. Priests are not the Successors to the Apostles. And the “First among equals” should not act as though his FELLOW BISHOPS function in the way that priests do, to be repositioned on the chessboard according to his agenda. Furthermore, we are at a juncture where the scandal is blatant. The statements surrounding the end of the synod session make it clear that the agenda is toward MORE Modernism (which is AGAINST The Church of the Ages). Bishop Strickland is a vocal “fly in the ointment,” and his dismissal culminates a PATTERN that has been steadily emerging over the past ten years.

However, what I hear the good bishop saying in Part 2 of the John-Henry Westen interview is a bit disturbing to me. Should Bishop Strickland pray for the pope and forgive him for the treatment he received at his hands? Absolutely! But to then go on and make excuses for him as doing the best he can in a complex world under the heavy burden of leadership blah-blah-blah actually becomes a disservice to the Faithful. It is like being gaslighted by friendly fire. This type of apologia does not square with Reality. And it somewhat diffuses all the valid instruction Strickland made leading up to this obvious smackdown in the Battle for Objective Truth raging around us. It aids and abets the prolonged non-clarity-of-confusion that has been postulated for the past decade… i.e. “the pope is just misunderstood.”

Please do not join Bishop Strickland in this particular mug of whatever he’s drinking.