Bishop Joseph Strickland gets apostolic visitation from the Vatican

 The subject of the visit is unknown, but it’s speculated to concern various public statements that some Vatican officials consider 'imprudent.'

Bishop Joseph Strickland

TYLER, Texas (LifeSiteNews) – “America’s Bishop” Joseph Strickland has received an “apostolic visitation” from the Vatican which is speculated to be a response to his outspoken criticism of Church leadership’s more controversial stances and actions, according to a new report.

Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, who is well known among LifeSite readers for his outspoken defense of Catholic teaching, is currently receiving an “apostolic visitation” from the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops conducted by two retired bishops, possibly Bp. Gerald Frederick Kicanus and auxiliary Bp. Dennis Joseph Sullivan, according to a report from Church Militant. Sources say they have been questioning diocese employees for a week.

The subject of the visit is unknown, as is the subsequent fallout, but it’s speculated to concern various public statements that some Vatican officials consider “imprudent.”

“It is unclear whether the visitation is a warning to the 63-year-old bishop or a prelude to his removal,” Church Militant adds. “What appears to be clear is that, whatever the official reason, it is most likely a pretext to silence Strickland’s comments, according to Church Militant sources.”

Among the bishop’s stances have been urging Pope Francis to deny Holy Communion to former U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi over her support of legal abortion, accusing the Pope of a “program of undermining the Deposit of Faith,” and condemning pro-homosexuality “blasphemy” from Jesuit Father James Martin.

He has also been forcefully outspoken on moral controversies in U.S. politics and culture, including the Biden administration spying on Catholics, public displays by self-described “Satanic” groups, and most recently speaking at a protest of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team for hosting an anti-Catholic drag queen troupe called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which styles themselves as grotesque nuns.

“I often say, we need to be first century Christians in the twenty-first century,” Strickland declared at that event. “Probably most of us will not be called on to shed our blood, but if we are, we need to be ready, like the martyrs. But more importantly, we need to live our martyrdom. We need to live as those ready to die and ready to live for the blood that was shed for us all.”

Bp. Strickland “ran to LA right from the bishops’ conference. He’s the bishop from Tyler, who went to LA; the bishop from LA would not do a procession,” says LifeSiteNews co-founder and editor-in-chief John-Henry Westen. “Other bishops probably didn’t want him to go. You can imagine what they might have said to him at the bishops’ conference yet he went anyway. He went to defend the faith from utter, utter sacrilege, from the most disgusting anti-Catholic hate group in America.”

“We need to pray tonight for Bishop Strickland,” Westen continues. “And for sanity in the church because they are attacking the number-one bishop in America. In fact, there’s few bishops in the entire world that are more courageous, more faithful, and more in love with Jesus Christ than Bishop Strickland.”