Bishop Strickland on the Chopping Block? #StandwithStrickland

Pope Francis meets to discuss Strickland resignation

Is this why so many of our bishops fail to confront the crisis in the Church? Fear of retaliation from the Vatican?

I don't know what the canonical rights of a bishop are, but I pray Bishop Strickland will fight any attempt to remove him from office. We need real leadership at a time when many of our shepherds have opened the sheepfold to the wolves. Bishop Strickland cares for the sheep. His recent pastoral letter to his flock gives a sense of the concern this dear bishop has for the sheep. 

I saw that love and concern at the bishops' meeting in Baltimore a number of years ago -- the lone bishop praying the rosary outside the rally on the waterfront. Jack Ames of Defend Life and I spoke with him and invited him to the hospitality meeting we were hosting with a number of representatives from pro-life groups that evening. Not only did he come the first night, but returned to be with us the second. Read Bishop Strickland's letter. Here's just a bit that shows his spirit which is being tested now. He wrote the letter two months after the Vatican visitation:

In order to follow Jesus Christ, we must willingly choose to take up our cross instead of attempting to avoid the cross and suffering that Our Lord offers to each of us individually in our daily lives. The mystery of redemptive suffering—i.e. suffering that Our Lord allows us to experience and accept in this world and then offer back to Him in union with His suffering—humbles us, purifies us, and draws us deeper into the joy of a life lived in Christ. That is not to say that we must enjoy or seek out suffering, but if we are united to Christ, as we experience our daily sufferings we can find the hope and joy that exist amidst the suffering and persevere to the end in all our suffering. (cf. 2 Tim 4:6-8)

In the weeks and months ahead, many of these truths will be examined as part of the Synod on Synodality. We must hold fast to these truths and be wary of any attempts to present an alternative to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or to push for a faith that speaks of dialogue and brotherhood, while attempting to remove the fatherhood of God. When we seek to innovate upon what God in His great mercy has given us, we find ourselves upon treacherous ground. The surest footing we can find is to remain firmly upon the perennial teachings of the faith.

Bishop Strickland is facing the modern Sanhedrin who want to shut 
up this plain speaking truth teller. Will he get the St. John the Baptist treatment? That's the portrayal given last July in an article by Kevin Wells on the Crisis website who did, in fact, compare Bishop Strickland to the Baptist:

I’m going to take a stab at the exact day the headsman began his sharpening. It fell on a cold and gray day in Baltimore, on November 12, 2018. It was then, outside of the annual meeting of bishops, that Bishop Strickland knelt on a cobblestone street to pray the Rosary. Some of his East Texas flock urged him to pray, so the shepherd went. He either didn’t know or care that American Catholics stood outside of the posh downtown hotel, seething over the McCarrick scandal and the virtual silence of bishops in its aftermath.

Bishop Strickland was the lone bishop to pray with the Catholic laity that day. Hours earlier, he had stood among his brethren in a large room and spoke candidly about the Church’s teaching in regard to homosexual activity. He humbly questioned whether bishops actually believed the doctrine of the Church in regard to what the catechism calls an “intrinsically disordered” act and way of living. 

Before that day, Bishop Strickland was merely a countrified Marian bishop from a speck of a diocese, a holy hick meant to be ignored. After that autumn day, though, headsmen began to gather.

Bishop Strickland needs our prayers and support. Will you call or write today? Have Masses said for him? Pray novenas for his protection? 

"All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and serve according to his purpose." 

More from Wells:

Bishop Kicanas and Sullivan visited Tyler, Texas to interview Bishop Strickland on the Vigil of the Nativity of John the Baptist. With corruption heavy in today’s Church, do not be surprised if you hear the news that the bishop has lost his head; that he’s been removed from his position as bishop of Tyler. He vowed, though, to Mary that he would accept pain, even his own death, in order to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Gospel—even when many in today’s Church seem intent to change it.

If Bishop Strickland does, in fact, lose his head—I’ll fight. I am not really a Twitter or hashtag user, but I will begin in two ways:

No. 1. #DefundTheUSCCB.

No. 2. I will call out faithful bishops who remained silent while our Catholic Church imploded, and kept quiet while their brother lost his head.

Let us pray it doesn't come to that. Let us pray and fast for this good bishop. We need men like him defending the flock!

You can contact Bishop Joseph Strickland at:

1015 E. Southeast Loop 323
Tyler, Texas 75701

(903) 534-1077