Vatican strips pro-Trump, anti-abortion priest over blasphemous posts
Father Frank Pavone, chief of the American abortion motion and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, has been expelled from the Catholic priesthood for “blasphemous” social media posts and disobeying bishops.
The Vatican revoked Pavone’s membership in November, in response to a letter despatched to US bishops by its ambassador in Washington. The letter, seen by Reuters, says Pavone won’t be allowed to enchantment.
The letter stated Pavone had been defrocked for “blasphemous communications on social media and continued disobedience to the authorized directions of his diocesan bishop”.
On the 2016 presidential marketing campaign, he launched a video of an aborted fetus on an altar and urged Catholics to not vote for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who later misplaced to Trump.
The conservative Catholic Information Company (CNA) had reported on his de-icing.
Pavone, a 63-year-old New Yorker, had strained relations with a number of of his Episcopal superiors throughout his clerical profession, typically over actions they thought of too political.
After Trump misplaced to Joe Biden in 2020, Pavone was amongst Trump supporters who questioned the validity of the election.
In an hour and 40-minute video on Sunday, Pavone, nonetheless carrying a grave collar, stated he had been “persecuted within the church for many years” and mocked his critics as “the dumbest on the planet.”
In a tweet in 2020, he spoke of “supporters of this fucking loser Biden and his morally corrupt, America hating, God hating Democratic Social gathering”.
He referred to that episode in his video on Sunday, saying “I used the phrase GD to answer somebody in a tweet and they also wish to excommunicate me from the priesthood.”
In the course of the 2020 presidential marketing campaign, he was reprimanded for implying that Catholics who voted Democrat shouldn’t be absolved of their sins within the Confessions.
Within the video he posted on Sunday, he accused his critics of “diverting speaking factors in regards to the Democrats.”
He stated he had not but acquired any official communication from the Vatican about his removing and criticized the Vatican for “speaking to the media earlier than talking to the priest”.
He added, “I cannot go away the priesthood.”
(Reuters)
