[Updated May 6, 2024]

Bishop Strickland has used his social media once again to promote an anti-Catholic cause. This time, he promoted a schismatic group in his home state.

In my recent article about a rumored Vatican document about discerning apparitions and supernatural phenomena, I briefly mentioned a situation in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, where a group called Mission of Divine Mercy (MDM) was suppressed by Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller. In March, Archbishop García-Siller issued a decree removing the diocese’s approval of the MDM and removing the priestly faculties of the group’s leader, Fr. John Mary Foster.

The decree explains that on February 28, Foster posted an alleged “message” from Mary and Jesus received by one of his community members on the MDM website. On March 5, the Archbishop met with Foster, “praying together and discussing the false teachings contained in the post and Reverend Foster’s oath of fidelity to the Church and duty of obedience” to his archbishop. The next day, Foster posted another “message” and then a third on March 13.

It is in the second message that the purported visionary claims, “And you have allowed the usurper to sit on the chair of My Peter – he who is carrying out the Great Treason that will leave My Church desolate.” In other words, according to this message, Pope Francis is “the usurper,” or a false pope, and they are sedevacantists.

This was made even more clear in a document posted on their website on March 12 entitled “We must obey God,” as well as in a video on YouTube, in which Foster says, “Many will find the conclusion that Bergoglio is a usurper and the enemy of the Church shocking. But is it really? For those who have been paying attention, we don’t think so. Even without prophetic messages, there have been plenty of warning signs of the profound problems in the Church in general and the papacy in particular.”

Archbishop García-Siller’s decree concludes:

Conscious of my duty to exercise governance over the ministries of the archdiocese and prudently lead the Christian faithful of the Archdiocese, I cannot allow any further confusion and grave scandal to descend upon the faithful of God and so I have removed Reverend Foster’s faculties for public ministry in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. I pray that Reverend Foster will work with me to repair the damage that has been caused and find a path forward for his ministry.

This week, the Archdiocese posted an additional canonical warning and decree to their website, dated April 24 and addressed to Foster, in which Archbishop García-Siller ordered the suspended priest to remove all references to the Archdiocese and all pictures of bishops and archbishops from the MDM website. He also asked that donors be informed that the MDM is not a Catholic or archdiocesan entity. The archbishop challenges Foster’s claims directly in the letter, writing, “You state you are not leaving the Church or being schismatic, and yet your words and actions speak otherwise.” The archbishop adds, “Remind your supporters, Father Foster, of your statement that I am ‘enthusiastically following Bergoglio, whom we do believe is trying to subvert the Church.'” He continues, “I am being obedient to Christ’s Vicar on earth and faithful to the promises I made on the day of my ordination and to the Oath of Fidelity and the Profession of Faith I made upon my ordination to the priesthood and the episcopacy. The same promises you made on the day of your ordination, Father Foster. How can you do what you are doing and say what you are saying, while also saying that you have not left the Church?”

Archbishop García-Siller is reminding Foster of the promises he made when he became a priest and promised obedience to the pope and his bishop.

It was troubling, but not surprising that Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed by Pope Francis from governance of the diocese of Tyler in November 23, posted a video Saturday by Foster on X. This video was the eighth message in the series begun on February 28. This installment is titled “For His Faithful Children in China.”

Pray for the faithful Catholics in China and around the world…#8 – For His Faithful Children in China https://t.co/eusYQT91nn via @YouTube

— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) May 4, 2024

Just as with the second message in the series, this message denies the legitimacy of Pope Francis’s papacy, describing him as a “Betrayer”:

I SEE THE BETRAYAL YOU HAVE SUFFERED and that soon all My children will suffer, for the Betrayer sits on another’s throne, and will cast all who do not follow him aside.

In sharing this video, with this statement in it, Strickland raises questions about just how radical his views have become. This is at least the third time that Strickland has publicly flirted with sedevacantism in the last year. Last year, while giving a speech in Rome, Strickland read aloud a letter from a friend of his, in which Pope Francis was described as “this one who has pushed aside the true Pope and has attempted to sit on a chair that is not his.” This month, Strickland is taking part in a European pilgrimage with sedevacantist Patrick Coffin.

This past week, Strickland posted a “pastoral letter” on his Substack page “On the Issue of Authority and Obedience.” In it, he (or his ghostwriter) mimics the rhetoric of known dissidents such as Peter Kwasniewski and Cardinal Raymond Burke on papal authority:

Other statements made by the Pope, the bishops, or other authorities—though they may be true—do not fall under the very narrow charism of papal infallibility. As such, prudence dictates that we may and must evaluate all statements in light of the divinely revealed truths contained in the Sacred Deposit of Faith. If a statement from anyone appears to contradict these unchanging truths, we must first seek clarification. If clarification is not given, or worse, if error is confirmed, we must refute the error and look to the Deposit of Faith as our sure guide to truth.

When addressing the issues of authority and obedience in today’s Church, we must remember that the ultimate source of authority and truth is God. The dilemmas we face will always find their answer in the truth that God has revealed to us. We must constantly ask, “Is this authentic to Christ?” and “Does it correspond to what He and His Church have always taught?” When we answer these questions affirmatively, then we arrive at the truth we must obey.

There is nothing in the Church’s Magisterium that supports the above passage from Strickland’s blog. He is in plain contradiction with Lumen Gentium 25, which says that the faithful are to grant religious submission of intellect and will, even to the pope’s non-definitive teachings. Those who cannot bring themselves to grant assent would benefit from reading the instructions in Donum Veritatis on how one should handle difficulties with the Magisterium.

In the very next statement, Strickland skirts very close to sedevacantism. Catholics believe that the authority of the pope, the Successor of Peter, “obtains by the institution of Christ himself, the primacy of Peter over the whole Church” (Pastor Aeternus 2.3):

However, if one in “authority” has not received his authority from Christ, then no obedience is required. We should remember that authority is given by Christ to those in the hierarchy of the Church for the sake of the souls entrusted to their care.  It is never given for the sake of the person himself who is in authority.

Is Strickland suggesting that Pope Francis has not been given authority by Christ? He certainly seems to hint in that direction.

Later in the essay, he writes:

Pope St. John Paul II said in 1976: “We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel.”

For those who might think this could occur in regard to the hierarchy of the Church but surely never in regard to a Pope, history reminds us of Pope Honorius I, who was pope from 625 to 638.  The Council of Constantinople condemned him posthumously, and Pope Leo II condemned him by stating that Honorius “did not attempt to sanctify this Apostolic Church with the teaching of Apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery permitted its purity to be polluted.”

Therefore it is important to realize that it is possible that members of the Church’s hierarchy—which does not exclude even Popes—can indeed cause harm to the Church and the faithful, even if unintentionally. Furthermore, as we look to the words of saints, scholars, and in particular the words of our Blessed Mother in numerous Church-approved apparitions, we must also recognize the possibility that a member of the Church’s hierarchy could intentionally seek to destroy the Faith and the Church. For this reason, we MUST NOT become lazy or complacent in regard to authority and obedience, even when it involves the Holy Father.

Bishop Strickland mentions “Church-approved” apparitions here, but his social media posts indicate he’s relying on unapproved private revelations as well — such as those being spread by the Mission of Divine Mercy.

In yet another passage, Strickland explicitly flirts with sedevacantism:

Just as we should be aware of the warnings we have been given about a counter church that will have been emptied of its divine content and over which the Anti-Christ will preside, we must also be aware of the possibility that at some point God may permit that an imposter might sit upon the chair of Peter. We must be on watch always that, should this occur, we obey Jesus Christ alone who is Truth Incarnate and who has revealed His Truth to us in the Sacred Deposit of Faith which is unchangeable.

It is disheartening to watch a man once chosen by the pope as a Successor of the Apostles lose his grip on reality and — under the influence of malicious and delusional people — walk along a course that will lead him outside the Church if he continues. Pray for Bishop Strickland to stop his slide into schism and to return to the Catholic faith.

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Image: Adapted from YouTube screenshot.