Father Frank Pavone, a well-known anti-abortion rights priest in the United States, has been stripped of his priesthood by the Vatican for persistent disobedience of his diocesan bishop and his blasphemous communications on social media.
According to a newly released letter to the US bishops cited by the AP, Pavone was also repeatedly warned by his bishop to stop his partisan activism for Donald Trump.
The letter sent by the Vatican ambassador to the US, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, said that the decision laicizing Pavone from the clergy had been taken on Nov. 9 and that there was no chance for an appeal by Pavone, who heads the anti-abortion advocacy organization Priests for Life.
Per AP, Archbishop Pierre states in his letter that this decision was taken after Father Pavone was found guilty in canonical proceedings during which he was given a chance to defend himself.
US bishops, however, determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.
For over a decade, Father Pavone has been in conflict with the bishop of Amarillo, Texas, Patrick Zurek, over his pro-life and partisan political activities that culminated in 2016, when Pavone put an aborted fetus on an altar, sharing later on two social media sites the video he made of the act.
That prompted the Texas diocese he was serving at the time to investigate him, especially due to the post that was accompanying the video, saying that Trump and the Republican platform wanted to protect unborn children while Hillary Clinton and the Democratic platform would allow abortion to continue.
Remaining firm supporter of Trump, Father Pavone disputed the outcome of the election won by Joe Biden in 2020 and his Twitter account, where he frequently posts about abortion and politics, which features a profile photo of him wearing a MAGA hat.
The Amarillo diocese denounced Pavone’s use of social media for political ends ahead of the election, distancing from him and stressing that his positions weren’t consistent with Catholic teaching.
Father Pavone wrote in a tweet Sunday that even in the priesthood, just like in every profession, if one defends the unborn, he will be treated like them with the only difference being that he, even ‘aborted’, will continue to speak, loud and clear.
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