[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland to lead Rosary rally outside US Catholic bishops’ meeting this Wednesday

BALTIMORE (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland, whom Pope Francis removed from his diocese over the weekend, will lead a Rosary rally this week in Baltimore as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) conducts its meetings for its biannual plenary session.

At noon on Wednesday, November 15, Bishop Strickland will recite the Rosary publicly at the plaza on the waterfront side of the Marriott Waterfront Hotel Inner Harbor East, where the bishops are gathered for their meetings.

Bishop Joseph Coffey, Auxiliary Bishop for the Military Services, will also recite the Rosary at the plaza on Tuesday, November 14. The faithful are asked to join and to invite their own bishop to join Bishops Strickland and Coffey. For more information, Catholics may contact Jack Ames at (410) 961-2008 or JackAmesPE@Aol.com.

Bishop Strickland has regularly led the Rosary outside the bishops’ conference meetings in Baltimore in the past over such issues as protesting the giving of Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians, a subject that the bishops have wavered on for decades. In 2021, he was the only bishop to join Catholics outside the bishops’ assembly. At the time, he stated, “When it comes to the Eucharist and the sanctity of life, I must speak. The most important thing I must speak about is the presence of the Lord and fighting the atrocity of abortion.”

Given Bishop Strickland’s removal from the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, over the weekend by Pope Francis, he will not have voting rights at the bishops’ conference but will still be able to attend.

Only active bishops are allowed to vote in the bishops’ meetings, so with his removal from the Diocese of Tyler, Bishop Strickland is now an emeritus bishop without voting rights at the bishops’ conference. However, an emeritus bishop can still attend the meetings.

The USCCB website states that at plenary assemblies, “Decisions ranging from election of Committee Chairmen and Conference Officers to subject matter of pastoral statements and revisions to liturgical books, require either a simple majority, or a vote of two-thirds of the member bishops in order to be approved. Active bishops, ordinary and auxiliary, both Latin and Eastern Rite are eligible to vote on particular items. Emeritus bishops are welcome to attend the Assemblies and participate in discussion and other activities, but they are not eligible to vote.”

Commenting on the silencing of his voice as an active voting member of the bishops’ conference, Bishop Strickland expressed his hope that other bishops would have the courage to take up the message he raised five years ago when confronting the McCarrick scandal and the promotion of homosexuality within the Church.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Texas prelate said, “I stand by these words from 5 years ago. My voice has been removed from these gatherings but I hope someone, anyone will take up the message. The world needs the Truth of Jesus Christ, His Good News, now more than ever.”

In 2018, in the wake of the McCarrick scandal, Bishop Strickland called out those bishops who were openly or effectively questioning Catholic teaching on the grave sinfulness of homosexual activity. Without naming pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin, he questioned why bishops were allowing the priest to publicly contradict Church teaching on homosexuality.

Calling for a clear reiteration of and adherence to Catholic teaching on the matter, the courageous bishop received a round of applause from the assembled bishops. His 2018 address to the bishops’ conference can be viewed below.

In an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen on November 11, just hours after his removal, Bishop Strickland said that he believes he was removed because he “threatened some of the powers that be with the truth of the gospel.”  

When Bishop Strickland was asked by Westen why he was removed from his position, he said, “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. They want to be rid of the truth that is gloriously not going to go away. The truth that is Jesus Christ, His Mystical Body, which is the Church, all the wonders that the martyrs died for and the saints lived for through almost 2,000 years since Christ died and rose.” 

But I doubt he ever envisioned a pope removing a bishop for objecting to the pope himself promoting heresy

It's not unprecedented:

St. Athanasius: Stumbling Block for Neo-Catholics

Today (May 2nd) is the Traditional Feast Day of St. Athanasius, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church. Although he lived nearly 1700 years ago, St. Athanasius’ example is very relevant for Catholics in our day. St. Athanasius lived in a time of severe crisis for the Church; a time when the vast majority of Churchmen and faithful followed the novel teaching of Arius, against the teaching of Tradition.

It was a time where bishops and priests “in full Communion” with the Catholic Church, not suspended or censured in any way, ran Catholic dioceses and parishes. They taught and preached Arianism from their sees and their pulpits. Catholics faithful to Tradition, led by St. Athanasius, were repeatedly banished and exiled from the “official” churches by these men and rebuked as disobedient schismatics.

The pope at the time, Liberius, failed to take any effective action to rid the Church of this doctrinal novelty or its adherents. The secular world at the time favored Arianism, including the temporal authority, and so condemning it would have been unpopular. Under pressure from the Emperor, Pope Liberius not only excommunicated St. Athanasius but also signed an ambiguous “creed” allowing the novel teaching to gain an air of credibility by not specifically excluding or condemning it.

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Bishop of Alexandria, St. Athanasius opposed Arius with admirable zeal. He has left us several works in defense of the divinity of Christ. He suffered frequent persecution. He died in 373. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

ATHANASIUS was born in Egypt towards the end of the 3rd century, and was from his youth pious, learned, and deeply versed in the sacred writings, as befitted one whom God had chosen to be the champion and defender of His Church against the Arian heresy. Though only a deacon he was chosen by his bishop to go with him to the Council of Nicaea, in 325, and attracted the attention of all by the learning and ability with which he defended the faith. A few months later, he became Patriarch of Alexandria, and for 46 years he bore, often well-nigh alone, the whole brunt of the Arian assault. On the refusal of the Saint to restore Arius to Catholic communion, the emperor ordered the Patriarch of Constantinople to do so. The wretched heresiarch took an oath that he had always believed as the Church believes; and the patriarch, after vainly using every effort to move the emperor, had recourse to fasting and prayer, that God Would avert from the Church the frightful sacrilege. The day came for the solemn entrance of Arius into the great church of Sancta Sophia. The heresiarch and his party set out glad and in triumph. But before he reached the church, death smote him swiftly and awfully, and the dreaded sacrilege was averted. St. Athanasius stood unmoved against four Roman emperors; was banished five times; was the butt of every insult, calumny, and wrong the Arians could devise, and lived in constant peril of death. Though firm as adamant in defense of the Faith, he was meek and humble, pleasant and winning in converse, beloved by his flock, unwearied in labors, in prayer, in mortifications, and in zeal for souls.

In the year 373, his stormy life closed in peace, rather that his people would have it so than that his enemies were weary of persecuting him. He left to the Church the whole and ancient Faith, defended and explained in writings rich in thought and learning, clear, keen, and stately in expression. He is honored as one of the greatest of the Doctors of the Church.

Reflection—The Catholic Faith, says St. Augustine, is more precious far than all the riches and treasures of earth; more glorious and greater than all its honors, all its possessions. This it is which saves sinners, gives light to the blind, restores penitents, perfects the just, and is the crown of martyrs.

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