Pope Francis has dismissed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one among his fiercest critics amongst U.S. Roman Catholic conservatives, a Vatican assertion stated on Saturday.

It is extremely uncommon for a bishop to be relieved of his duties outright. Normally bishops in bother with the Vatican are requested to resign earlier than submitting a resignation, which the pope accepts.

Popes make such strikes, thought-about drastic, when a bishop refuses a request to resign. Strickland is 65, 10 years shy of the same old retirement age for bishops. Strickland had stated earlier this 12 months that he would refuse to resign if requested.

Strickland, a prolific consumer of social media who was named to the diocese by the late Pope Benedict in 2012, tweeted earlier this 12 months that he rejected Pope Francis’ “program undermining the Deposit of Religion”.

He has been notably important of the pope’s try to make the Church extra welcoming to the LGBT neighborhood and makes an attempt by Francis to offer lay individuals extra duty within the Church and opposed a current synod.

The dismissal adopted a Vatican investigation earlier this 12 months into the administration of the Tyler diocese, which Catholic media studies stated included a overview of his dealing with of monetary affairs.

It was introduced concurrently by the Vatican and the U.S. Bishops Convention. Neither assertion gave a cause.

There was no fast response from Strickland. A recording on the diocese’s phone stated they have been closed for the weekend.

Strickland had change into one of the crucial vocal customary bearers of the ultra-conservative wing of the U.S. Church and has a nationwide following far past the small diocese of Tyler in japanese Texas.

Final August, the pope lamented what he known as a “reactionary” Catholic Church in the US, the place he stated political ideology had changed religion in some circumstances.

Strickland is a powerful supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump and is seen as a hero by conservative U.S. Catholic media shops which are aligned with Trump.

Final 12 months, when the Vatican defrocked ultra-conservative U.S. anti-abortion priest Frank Pavone for “blasphemous” social media posts and disobedience to bishops, Strickland was one of many few American bishops to defend him publicly.

“The blasphemy is that this holy priest is canceled whereas an evil president promotes the denial of reality and the homicide of the unborn at each flip, Vatican officers promote immorality and denial of the deposit of religion and clergymen promote gender confusion devastating lives…evil,” Strickland wrote on the platform then generally known as Twitter.

The Vatican stated Francis named the bishop of Austin, Texas, Joe Vasquez, because the interim administrator of the Tyler diocese.