Pope Sends Bishops to Investigate +Strickland (Clip From Full Show)

Witnesses confirmed to CatholicVote that the apostolic visitation is being led by Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan of Camden, New Jersey, and Gerald Frederick Kicanas, retired bishop of Tucson, Arizona, and former Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, Illinois. Both bishops, accompanied by two priest experts in canon law from out of town, interviewed the witnesses about what they know regarding the personal life and pastoral activities of Bishop Strickland.

The interviews took place “under confidentiality” at a Holiday Inn in downtown Tyler, and according to the witnesses, they were requested to sign non-disclosure agreements; something unusual in a canonical process.

The apostolic visitation was requested by the new prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, Archbishop Robert Francis Prevost.

Prevost, a Chicago native and member of the order of St. Augustine, served as a missionary in Peru. On September 26, 2015, Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Chiclayo (Northern Peru.)

On November 21, 2020, Francis appointed Prevost as a member of the Congregation for the Bishops upon the recommendation of Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago.

On January 30, 2023, Francis appointed Prevost as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, effective April 12.

Prevost is slated to become the next U.S. cardinal in the upcoming consistory.

Please allow me to clarify regarding, “Patrick Coffin has challenged the authenticity of the Pope Francis.” If this is accurate I disagree, I believe Pope Francis is the Pope but it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith. Follow Jesus. -Strickland Tweet

the “questions focused on Strickland’s administrative leadership in the diocese, rather than on his outsized social media personality.” The priest told them, “It was not even primarily about his ‘rants’ about Pope Francis,” saying that it focused mainly on governance issues.

Acknowledging the bishop’s penchant for controversy, one source close to Strickland told The Pillar that the bishop is confident about the visitation.

“The bishop doesn’t want to make too big of a deal of it,” the source said. “He’s got vocations, the diocese is doing well financially, so by all the numbers, he’s doing very well.”

“He’s not trying to make too big a deal of it,” the source added.

But a priest who was questioned during the visitation said that interviewers “were already asking questions about who might be a good fit to replace [Strickland].”

“The questions really focused on years of governance issues, which have had us priests concerned. We had two finance officers removed before their five year terms were expired, and that’s not typical at all.”

Currently, 21 men are in priestly formation for the territory of only 55,000 Catholics, a rate of seminarians-per-Catholic considerably higher than most other U.S. dioceses. The diocese is also reportedly in good financial shape, exemplified in part by the its ability to raise 99% of its $2.3 million goal for the 2021 bishop’s appeal six months ahead of schedule.

Strickland has been critical of Pope Francis, and was during the coronavirus pandemic outspoken in his criticism of the Holy See’s approach to vaccines, urging a more stringent position than the Vatican’s on ethical questions surrounding vaccine testing and embryonic cell lines.

Strickland has been providing refuge to an exclaustrated French nun, the former Mother Marie Ferréol, who was expelled from religious life by Pope Francis in 2021 after thirty-four years with the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit in Pontcallec in Brittany.

Among the bishop’s stances have been urging Pope Francis to deny Holy Communion to former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her support of legal abortion, accusing the Pope of a “program of undermining the Deposit of Faith,” and condemning pro-homosexuality “blasphemy” from Jesuit Father James Martin.

Bp. Strickland “ran to LA right from the bishops’ conference. He’s the bishop from Tyler, who went to LA; the bishop from LA would not do a procession,” says LifeSiteNews co-founder and editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen. “Other bishops probably didn’t want him to go. You can imagine what they might have said to him at the bishops’ conference yet he went anyway. He went to defend the faith from utter, utter sacrilege, from the most disgusting anti-Catholic hate group in America.”

"To be persecuted for speaking truth is an honor every Christian should be willing to embrace. It is walking with Jesus Christ who is Truth Incarnate. If we know Jesus it is easier to speak His Truth no matter what forces oppose us. The opposition is temporary, Jesus is forever." - +Strickland 24 hours ago via twitter

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