Pope Francis on Saturday forcibly removed the bishop of Tyler, Texas, a firebrand conservative prelate active on social media who has been a fierce critic of the pontiff and has come to symbolize the polarization within the U.S. Catholic hierarchy.
A one-line statement from the Vatican said Francis had “relieved” Bishop Joseph Strickland of the pastoral governance of Tyler and appointed the bishop of Austin as the temporary administrator.
Strickland, 65, has emerged as a leading critic of Francis, accusing him in a tweet earlier this year of “undermining the deposit of faith.” He has been particularly critical of Francis’ recent meeting on the future of the Catholic Church during which hot-button issues were discussed, including ways to better welcome LGBTQ+ Catholics.
Earlier this year, the Vatican sent in investigators to look into his governance of the diocese, amid reports that priests and laypeople in Tyler had complained and that he was making unorthodox claims.
The Vatican is only all-powerful in theory. The internal politics of the Catholic Church unfortunately are still a big consideration. They can only send out so many inquisitors and upend so many clergymen before internal unrest starts spreading. The worst-case scenario for the Vatican is for there to be another schism in the Church.
Many of the Church’s institutions are thousands of years old and the Church is the oldest surviving Western cultural and political institution. It has a lot of baggage. I am not Catholic, but I still respect that Pope Francis has at least acknowledged the Church’s wrongs and is trying to nudge it in the right direction. There is so much inertia that even the Pope can only nudge, not steer. That’s why the doctrine of papal infallibility is only used in the way it is.
I’m super curious how the various governments would handle a schism. If the churches of west america decide to break away, and the churches of the east decide to break away, but neither wants to stick with the other side, and obviously all three parties want to keep the land and buildings and everything else, how would the ownership of the various properties/organizations and all the bank accounts/employer statuses be decided?