Catholic Bishop Joseph Strickland Will Receive National Pro-Life Award
National | Steven Ertelt | Jan 17, 2024 | 1:57PM | Washington, DC
A Catholic bishop who called Joe Biden a “fake Catholic” for supporting abortion and who denied communion to Nancy Pelosi for endorsing abortion will receive an award from a national pro-life group.
Bishop Emeritus Joseph E. Strickland will be presented with a Pro-Life Recognition Award at the 29th Annual National Prayer Service hosted by Priests for Life, the National Pro-Life Religious Council, National Institute for Family and Life Advocates, and Catholics for Catholics prior to the March for Life.
Strickland is the Catholic bishop who lost his diocese when after Pope Francis removed him in a controversial decision. One of the most popular Catholic bishops in America, who is also one of the most outspokenly pro-life bishops, Bishop Joseph Strickland of Texas received considerable praise from pro-life groups for his efforts during his tenure as a Catholic leader.
“We are so grateful for your witness to the sanctity of life,” Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone told the bishop as he announced the award winners.
“I couldn’t be honored more than to be honored for respecting the precious gift of life that God has given us,” the bishop said. “I truly believe the sanctity of life is the issue of our time.”
According to an interview late last year, Strickland said he was sacked because he spoke truth to power.
“I really can’t look to any reason except I’ve threatened some of the powers that be with the truth of the Gospel,” said Strickland. “The only answer I have to that is because forces in the Church right now don’t want the truth of the Gospel. They want it changed. They want it ignored.”
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Still, Strickland did not really give a reason why Pope Francis removed him from being a bishop.
Strickland shared that he had been asked to resign on Nov. 9 but that he “couldn’t, of my will, abandon the flock that I’d been given.”
Strickland did not accuse Pope Francis of being part of this push to undermine Church teaching, but he did say that “many forces are working at him and influencing him to make these kinds of decisions.” For those “forces,” the bishop said, “I’m a problem,” and so they pushed for the “removal of a bishop for standing with the Gospel.”
“I encourage myself and others to go more deeply than ever into prayer, to pray for Pope Francis, to pray for the Church, and to pray for our world.”
It’s possible that the Texas diocese under which he serves and Pope Francis removed him with potentially false claims that he was administering his Catholic community poorly and using that as cover for the real reasons, but Strickland seemingly dismissed those concerns.
“No place is perfect, no family is perfect,” he said. “But the diocese is in good shape.”
Last year, Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas called out Joe Biden, saying he’s a “fake Catholic” for falsely claiming the Catholic Church supports abortion.
Biden lied to a Catholic reporter and falsely claimed the nation’s Catholic bishops do not oppose forcing Americans to fund abortions even though the Catholic Church has a longstanding pro-life position against tax-funded abortions.
Strickland said he was engaging in “fake Catholocism.”
“Mr. Biden can’t be allowed to twist the words of Pope Francis in this way,” Strickland tweeted. “I implore the Vatican press office to emphatically clarify that Pope Francis rightly calls abortion murder. It is time to denounce Biden’s fake Catholicism.”
Before that, Strickland banned pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi from receiving communion in his diocese “until she repents and stops advocating the murder of children.”
“Pray for her heart to be turned to God & away from the power of this world,” the bishop added.
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The then-bishop of Tyler, Texas said Pelosi also is barred from Communion in his diocese.
“The concern for Mrs Pelosi’s eternal salvation extends to the Diocese of Tyler. She is barred from Communion here until she repents & stops advocating the murder of children. Pray for her heart to be turned to God & away from the power of this world,” the bishop said then.
During the award ceremony, Strickland will deliver remarks, along with fellow award recipients Mark Lee Dickson, founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, Sr. Deirdre Byrne, POSC, and pro-life advocate Mark Houck. Pro-Life leader Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, will deliver a powerful pro-life message, and pro-life advocate Dr. Alveda King, niece of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., will also be a special guest.
