Around New England

Catholic Action League of Massachusetts Calls On Pope Francis To Resign

November 30, 2023

Pope Francis’s apparent decision to strip a conservative cardinal’s Vatican salary and apartment is the final straw for the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, which called on the pope to renounce the papacy.

“The most obvious solution to this decade-long reign of scandal, heresy, division, and confusion is for Pope Francis to emulate his illustrious predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, and for the common good of the Church, resign,” said C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, in a written statement Wednesday, November 29.

Multiple sources have reported this week that Pope Francis, 86, plans to cut Vatican support for Cardinal Raymond Burke, 75, a former archbishop of St. Louis and former Vatican official who has criticized the pope frequently – including, most recently, over the pope’s Synod on Synodality, which the pope says is meant to improve the Church’s ability to listen but which critics say has undermined Church teachings.

“The uncharitable and unimaginable decision by the Pope to strip a Prince of the Church of his income and residence is petty, punitive, vindictive, and mean spirited, and is inconsistent with the high dignity of the Petrine office. It speaks to the absence of a Christian personality in Jorge Bergoglio,” Doyle said.

On November 11, Pope Francis removed another frequent critic, Bishop Joseph Strickland, 65, from his post as bishop of the Diocese of Tyler in East Texas, without public explanation. Doyle called the move “scandalous and tyrannical” as well as “unjust, arbitrary, capricious, and of dubious canonical validity.”

“The hypocrisy of this pontificate is astonishing. The Pope speaks of ‘mercy’ and ‘accompaniment,’ but mercilessly eliminates and ruthlessly isolates anyone who disagrees with his novel and heterodox initiatives,” Doyle said.

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