OPEN LETTER TO BISHOP STRICKLAND
Bishop Strickland: Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary
In a recent podcast at LifeSite, Bishop Strickland takes the lyrics, "Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary" as the point of departure for his reflections. The meditation he offers, however, must be measured against his own decision to glorify tyranny when he was uncanonically removed from Tyler, Texas. While countless saints have endured mistreatment by injustice, their witness serves the Church by offering an unflinching counter-example. These martyrs (in the literal or etymological sense of the term) may not have been able to avert an ungodly outcome, but they--like Our Lord Himself--did not submit in the sense of offering the abuse their personal stamp of approval.
For all his devout words, the fact remains that Bishop Strickland has done exactly that. While many orthodox clerics (and more by the day, it would seem) have been outrageously ousted, this one stands out for having drained his sacrifice …