The late Pope Francis will be remembered as a great humanitarian, but the papacy is more than that, as nobody is above the church's laws, former Tyler, Texas, Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed from his post over his criticisms of the Pope's reform efforts of the church, told Newsmax Sunday.
"We certainly pray for Pope Francis, and I believe he will go down in history as a great humanitarian, but the papacy is more than being a humanitarian," Strickland told Newsmax's "Sunday Report." "It is guarding the deposit of faith and guiding us in divine law. We hear the phrase, no one is above the law. That includes the Pope in our Catholic faith."
That law, said Strickland, is "divinely revealed to us," and the Pope is the supreme lawgiver in the church's canon law.
Francis, he added, never "absolutely and clearly" broke from issues of doctrine.
"We hear the phrase 'personnel is policy,'" Strickland said. "The personnel that he welcomed around him definitely have very clearly spoken in ways that contradict the faith that we believe is for the ages and to reveal."
Strickland was removed after he was openly critical of the Pope's efforts to reform the Catholic Church to be more inclusive about LGBTQ+ people and women in governance.
He also had spoken out against several of the Pope's decisions, including his handling of late Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who the Pope removed after sexual abuse allegations came forth about him.
"I still am very troubled with that whole McCarrick episode, the tragedy of the abuse that the church has been caught up in, like so many institutions," said Strickland. "The Vatican really hasn't paid attention to that tragedy the way that it claims to have, and we still need to remember that no one is above the divine law that divides the church."
He also called it "very troubling" that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, is a frontrunner to replace Pope Francis, as he has talked about renewing the Holy See's agreement with the Chinese Communist Party.
"The real issue with the Catholic Church in China is that it's under the thumb of the Communist government, and for the church to be told, you can't teach this, but yeah, you can teach that, that's not how the church operates," said Strickland. "To prolong this agreement is detrimental to the Catholic Church in China."
Strickland on Sunday also discussed Attorney General Pam Bondi's announcement about ending anti-Christian bias in government, and that the Trump administration has engaged in "remarkable" treatment of the Catholic Church.
"President [Joe] Biden claimed to be a faithful Catholic," he said. "There were many actions that contradicted that. But one of the main actions was that he didn't do what Trump, who is not Catholic, but in justice, is defending Catholics and Christians against the clear bias that has been there … I applaud what [Trump's] doing to really look at any bias against Christians and Catholics that has crept into the government."
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