Bishop Strickland subject to Vatican investigation | CPT PPP Coverage

Cryptopolytech (CPT) Public Press Pass (PPP)
News of the Day COVERAGE

200000048 – World Newser
•| #World |•| #Online |•| #Media |•| #Outlet |

View more Headlines & Breaking News here, as covered by cryptopolytech.com

(RNS) — The Vatican subjected the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas,, to an apostolic visitation last week, a rare disciplinary investigation by the Holy See into the diocese overseen by Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, a controversial firebrand conservative cleric who had publicly criticized Pope Francis.

A representative for the diocese confirmed reports of the visitation to Religion News Service on Monday (June 26), saying that it occurred last week.

“It did happen, yes, and we’re not able to share any information beyond that,” the representative said.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops referred RNS to the Vatican, whose representatives had earlier declined to confirm or deny that the visitation had occurred.

Rumors of the investigation began to circulate over the weekend in various conservative Catholic media outlets, including LifeSite and the Church Militant, but it was first confirmed by the diocese itself to the National Catholic Reporter on Monday.

The visitation, a form of church discipline used to reign in clerics seen by the Vatican to be problematic, comes in the wake of years of controversy surrounding Strickland. An outspoken conservative with an active Twitter presence, Strickland has infuriated critics for supporting priests who defied the official position of the American Catholic bishops by refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as offering a prayer at a “Jericho March” event at the U.S. Capitol building in the days leading to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

Strickland’s defiance had already earned him a personal rebuke in 2021 from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s representative in the United States, or papal nuncio. According to a source familiar with the encounter, Pierre confronted Strickland about his Twitter feed.

But continuing efforts to reign in Strickland through private conversations appeared to fail to reign him in. If anything, the bishop’s comments have grown more strident: In May, Strickland openly challenged Pope Francis, accusing the pontiff on Twitter of “undermining the Deposit of Faith,” a term meaning the divine revelation behind the church’s teaching.

But long before then, in January 2022, and again in July, Strickland’s remarks on COVID-19 and his attack on Francis had prompted National Catholic Reporter columnist Michael Sean Winters had called for the Vatican to intervene.

“It is time for an apostolic visitation to Bishop Strickland,” Winters wrote.

The Vatican has investigated U.S. clerics in the past. In the 1980s, the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith — overseen by the man who would become Pope Benedict XVI — subjected Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, an outspoken liberal cleric, to an apostolic visitation.

This is a breaking news story and may be updated.

Claire Giangravè contributed to this report from Rome.