Anti-abortion priest Pavone defrocked for blasphemous posts

VATICAN CITY —  The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it said were “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience” of his bishop, who repeatedly told him to stop his partisan activism for Donald Trump.

A letter to U.S. bishops from the Vatican ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, obtained Sunday, said that the decision against Pavone, who heads the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, was made Nov. 9, and there is no opportunity for an appeal.

Pavone has been in conflict with the bishop of Amarillo, Texas, for more than a decade over his pro-life and political activities, which came to a head in 2016, when he put an aborted fetus on an altar and posted a video of it on two social media sites. The video was accompanied by a post saying Hillary Clinton and the Democratic platform would allow abortion to continue, and Trump and other Republicans wanted to protect the unborn.

Before that, Pavone successfully appealed 2011 restrictions on his ministry that had been instated by Amarillo Bishop Patrick Zurek.

Pavone in 2020 disputed the outcome of the presidential election won by Joe Biden. Ahead of the election, the Amarillo diocese denounced Pavone’s use of social media for political ends, distanced the diocese from him and said his positions weren’t consistent with Catholic teaching.

Pavone was allowed to move to Colorado Springs, Colo. His Twitter handle features him wearing a “MAGA” hat with a background photo of Trump, who is praised by many conservatives for his Supreme Court nominees who helped overturn the constitutional right to abortion.

In a tweet Sunday, Pavone sounded defiant.

“So in every profession, including the priesthood, if you defend the #unborn, you will be treated like them! The only difference is that when we are ‘aborted,’ we continue to speak, loud and clear.”

He later appeared in a video wearing a black leather biker jacket over his priestly collar, against a faux backdrop of St. Peter’s Basilica, vowing that the anti-abortion “war” would continue and denouncing the “cancel culture” of the church that had persecuted him for decades.

In a statement on his Priest For Life website, he said that his laicization was “the result of an abusive process” and that he was considering unspecified legal action against unnamed U.S. bishops.

His supporters denounced the defrocking; among them was Joseph Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, who described President Biden’s support for abortion rights as “evil.”

“The blasphemy is that this holy priest is canceled while an evil president promotes the denial of truth & the murder of the unborn at every turn, Vatican officials promote immorality & denial of the deposit of faith & priests promote gender confusion devastating lives,” Strickland tweeted.

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In his letter, Pierre cited information from the Congregation for Clergy that Pavone had been laicized — meaning he can no longer present himself as a priest — after being found guilty in a canonical proceeding “of blasphemous communications on social media and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.” The letter was first reported by Catholic News Agency.

The statement said Pavone was given “ample opportunity to defend himself” and submit to his bishop. “It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions,” it said.

The statement concluded that since Priests for Life is not a Catholic organization, it would be up to the group to determine whether he can continue his role “as a lay person.”

Laicization is one of the harshest sanctions in the church’s canon law.