By: Cliff Kincaid
The FBI was caught with a memo authorizing surveillance of traditional Catholics but FBI Director Christopher Wray disavowed the memo. We now understand that the assignment was subcontracted to Pope Francis, who just sacked a conservative Bishop in Texas. This does far more damage to the Catholic Church than anything the FBI could do.
On Sunday, November 12, as Catholics were reading the Gospel message about the need to avoid falling asleep “for you know neither the day nor the hour” of Christ’s return, many were waking up to learn that Texas Bishop Joseph E. Strickland was fired from his post. Strickland, an advocate of traditional Catholic teachings, was removed from his duties in the diocese of Tyler, Texas.
Strickland was NOT caught in a sex scandal, and his Tyler, Texas, diocese did not have to go bankrupt because of sex scandal payouts to victims. Instead, he was accused of criticizing the pope.
“The only answer I have to that,” referring to his removal, “is because forces in the Church right now don’t want the truth of the Gospel,” he said.
If this is the case, then what explains the direction of the Vatican under Francis? What is his agenda if not the Gospel of Christ?
One answer may lie in the report by conservative Bill Donohue of the Catholic League that, on October 17, Francis “welcomed Catholic dissidents who have previously been condemned by U.S. cardinals and bishops. He met for almost an hour with Sister Jeannine Gramick, who, along with Fr. Robert Nugent, founded New Ways Ministry (NWM) in 1977; it is a radical pro-homosexual group.”
What is more, says Donohue, Gramick “was best friends with the most notorious serial child rapist priest in American history, Fr. Paul Shanley.”
While homosexual activism is being embraced by the Vatican, the pope has remained silent about the case of Mark Houck, a Catholic father of seven children who was arrested at gunpoint by dozens of FBI agents in front of his weeping children for allegedly violating a federal law restricting pro-life protests. Houck, who was acquitted, is suing the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) and seeking $4 million in damages for his dramatic arrest.
Strickland had been under attack by the Vatican for protesting providing Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians such as Joe Biden.
Newsmax reported that Bishop Strickland “has been at odds with Francis’ far-left changes and pronouncements, some of which directly contradict the ancient faith’s core Christian beliefs. Recently Francis has suggested priests can bless same-sex unions, even though the church has long held that any sexual relations outside of marriage is sinful. And this week the Vatican indicated transgender individuals could be baptized and serve as godparents.”
Amidst the carnage of two major wars and the United States in moral and economic decline, Pope Francis, leader of 1.3 billion Catholics, has decided that the world must come together because of “climate change” and that Catholics who believe in the right to life and other traditional teachings must be given the boot. On October 4, he issued Laudate Deum, described by his supporters as “a powerful exhortation to all people to address the climate crisis with faith and courage.” It was a follow-up to his environmental encyclical, Laudato si!, citing the mystical work of Teilhard De Chardin, who was nearly excommunicated.
Pope Francis, one of the most liberal popes in history, wants the world to come together in a “Faith for Earth” initiative and has announced he will be attending the upcoming United Nations conference on climate change and rubbing elbows with Muslim leaders.
Francis will travel to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from December 1 to December 3, to participate in COP28, the U.N. Climate Change Conference, and then take part in the inauguration of the Faith Pavilion, the first-ever hub for “interfaith programming and engagement” at COP. He will appear with the grand imam of Al-Azhar and the chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, Ahmed Al-Tayeb.
While he pursues an alliance with Muslims and the environmental movement, Pope Francis has not cleaned up the corruption in his own church. His recent moves seem designed to cause more Americans to leave the church in disgust over the child sexual abuse scandals and left-wing direction of the Vatican.
George Neumayr, author of The Political Pope, examined the left-wing ideology driving Francis and his seeming indifference to the threats posed by radical Islam and Russian communism. Russia continues to be a country with special significance in terms of the Fatima revelations and Bible prophecy.
In that apparition to the children at Fatima, the Virgin Mary requested the consecration of Russia, otherwise the “errors” of Russia would spread around the world.
In the book, The Devil is Afraid of Me, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, confirms that the consecration had never occurred because Russia was not specifically named in a sacred ceremony that took place under the auspices of the Vatican.
If the consecration had taken place, as requested, the world could have been spared 100 million dead from international communism.
Before invading Ukraine under President Biden, Russian President Vladimir Putin had visited the Vatican and acted like a religious believer. Putin made the sign of the cross, gave the pope a Virgin Mary icon, and bent over to kiss it. Pope Francis followed suit.
Last August Francis appeared to justify the invasion of Ukraine by praising the Russian empire.
Before firing Bishop Strickland, Francis had returned Miguel D’Escoto to his duties as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, after a 29-year suspension. D’Escoto, who passed away in 2017, was the former foreign minister of Communist Sandinista Nicaragua and Catholic Priest of the Maryknoll Order who advocated Marxist-oriented liberation theology and won the Lenin Peace Prize from the old Soviet Union. He served as President of the U.N. General Assembly from September 2008 until September 2009.
D’Escoto had been removed from his post on direct orders from John Paul II, the anti-communist pope.
The Washington Post noted that while John Paul II was “extremely public in his fight against communism,” Francis seems dedicated to being known as a “master builder of bridges” between the communist and free worlds. This has worked to the advantage of the communists.
Today, in Sandinista-controlled Nicaragua, Catholic priests in the country are being imprisoned as enemies of the communist state. Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, was sentenced to 26 years in prison.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops reported that five priests, a deacon, two seminarians, and two media professionals employed by the Diocese of Matagalpa were deported from Nicaragua to the United States. Bishop Álvarez was on the list of deportees to be sent to the United States but refused to leave Nicaragua. He decided to stay and fight from a jail cell.
This is what happened because of the olive branch Francis extended to the Sandinista communists. But his sacking of Bishop Strickland demonstrates that Francis has not learned any lessons from this. He is doing the work of the FBI in targeting conservative Catholics for removal from the church and society.
- Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. usasurvival.org
