(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s episode of The Bishop Strickland Show, Bishop Joseph Strickland addresses the allegations of mismanagement surrounding his dismissal as bishop of Tyler, Texas, discusses the concept of reverence, and offers brief commentary on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meeting in Baltimore that took place earlier this month.
Strickland begins the show by addressing allegations of financial mismanagement of the Diocese of Tyler that led to his removal as bishop. He also reiterates that he was removed from the active episcopate because there are forces within the Vatican that seek to change the depositum fidei.
According to him, the alleged mismanagement happened in the midst of the McCarrick scandal in 2018, when three diocesan officials “were trying to run the dioceses according to their will and using me as a bishop.” All three have since moved on with their lives, and Strickland fired them at the time.
While Strickland acknowledges that he naively trusted in them, he prays for them. He also explains that generous severance packages were built into their contracts “that were beyond anything appropriate,” taking advantage of and putting a financial burden on the diocese.
Even so, the diocese managed to come back “stronger than ever,” raising over $3 million for the annual bishop’s appeal, something that broke records. Even so, the Vatican is attempting to “promote this as the reason I was removed,” Strickland continues. “I can’t allow that. I can’t … allow them to lie.”
Strickland also points to a chilling effect his removal has had on the episcopate. “Sadly, my removal has the bishops scared of Rome,” Strickland laments. “That’s a sad place to be for the Body of Christ … Her leaders are afraid of forces in the Vatican.” While he says that the fear is not an irrational reaction to his removal, Strickland further says that it is a “shame that they’re operating out of fear instead of out of faith.”
Since his removal, however, Strickland has managed to spend more time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, something that gives him more than just peace, but also strength.
Discussing adoration, Strickland says that people should know where to turn for hope and peace amidst frustrations. He also prays for all the bishops in the world, including Pope Francis, to grow in Eucharistic adoration and prayer “because Jesus Christ’s Sacred Heart is there.”
From this Strickland segways into a discussion on reverence, saying that people should have more reverence for the Eucharist, life, and the truths revealed by God.
Turning his attention to the wars that have captivated the world in recent years, Strickland observes that war truly is a glimpse of Hell and mentions the suffering and dying in war. To Strickland, war is caused by a lack of reverence of God, creation, and neighbor.
“Love is reverence; real love is a deep reverence that always holds the truth,” he observes. “I think we need to continually call people back to reverence and every form that we can embrace a more reverent life. First, as the Commandments say, they come from the Old Testament, that Christ quoted, ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself.’”
It is the lack of understanding love that negatively impacts our self-understanding, he explains. For Strickland, if man is no more than an “entity of feelings,” then one does not truly love oneself at all.
“The world is teaching us not to truly love ourselves, not to demand something of ourselves, not to have reverence for our bodies,” he says, maintaining that our present time is one of “foolishness and … diabolical distortion” in which people are told that the truth is malleable, while the opposite is the case. Truth indeed is Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, we live in a world that rejects Christ, and those that do have the duty to bring others to follow Him.
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