Frank Pavone, an anti-abortion priest from the United States, has been excommunicated by the Vatican for what it called “blasphemous messages on social media” and “continuous disobedience” of his bishop, who had repeatedly ordered him to cease his political campaigning for Donald Trump.
In a letter to American bishops that was made public on Sunday, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the ambassador of the Vatican to the United States, stated that Pavone, the leader of the pro-life organization Priests for Life, had been found guilty as of November 9 and that there was no chance for an appeal.
The pro-life and partisan political actions of Pavone, who has been at odds with the bishop of Amarillo, Texas, for more than ten years, reached a boiling point in 2016 when he placed an aborted fetus on an altar and shared a video of it on two social media platforms.
Pavone said in the Facebook Live video: “I’m displaying him to you because the outcome of this election will determine whether or not America will continue to murder children. Donald Trump and the Republican platform say no, the kid should be protected; Hillary Clinton and the Democratic platform say yes, let the child murdering continue (and you pay for it).”
Prior to that, Pavone was able to challenge the limitations Bishop Patrick Zurek of Amarillo imposed on his ministry in 2011.
Pavone remained a steadfast supporter of Trump and challenged Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Prior to the election, the Amarillo diocese condemned Pavone’s use of social media for political purposes, severed ties with him, and declared that his views were incompatible with Catholic doctrine.
Pavone migrated from Amarillo and was given permission to settle in Colorado Springs. His Twitter profile still has a picture of the former president Trump, who is celebrated by many conservatives for his Supreme Court selections who helped repeal the American constitution’s ban on abortion, sporting a “MAGA” hat in the backdrop.
Pavone sounded belligerent in a post on Sunday, equating his fate with that of the unborn.
“Therefore, if you support the unborn in whatever profession—including the priesthood—you will be regarded the same as they are! The only distinction is that when we are “aborted,” we still talk clearly and loudly.”
He then made an appearance in a social media video promising to continue the anti-abortion “battle” and decrying the “cancel culture” of the church, which he said had harassed him for decades. He was wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket over his priestly collar.
He claimed that his laicization was “the product of an oppressive procedure” in a statement on his Priest For Life website and that he was thinking about taking unspecified legal action against unidentified U.S. bishops.
His supporters instantly condemned the defrocking, including Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, who called Vice President Joe Biden’s advocacy of abortion rights “evil.”
The cancellation of this holy priest is blasphemous, according to Strickland, who tweeted, “while an evil president promotes the denial of truth & the murder of unborn children at every turn, Vatican officials promote immorality & the denial of the deposit of faith & priests promote gender confusion devastating lives…evil.”
Pierre’s letter included information from the Congregation for Clergy that Pavone had been laicized—he is no longer allowed to pose as a priest—after being convicted in a canonical trial of “blasphemous communications on social media and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.” Catholic News Agency was the first to report on the letter.
According to the statement, Pavone had “ample chance to defend himself” in addition to being allowed to submit to his bishop. It was found that Father Pavone’s conduct lacked any plausible basis.
Since Priests for Life is not a Catholic institution, the group would have to decide if he could remain in his position “as a lay person,” according to the statement’s conclusion.
One of the most severe penalties in the church’s canon law for priests is laicization, or being relegated to the lay condition.
Despite his own public opposition to abortion, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan severed connections with the Pavone in 2014, according to the Washington Post.
As a citizen of the United States, Pavone is entitled to upload such films, but Ed Mechmann argues that doing so was improper in a post on the website of Dolan’s old home diocese, the New York Archdiocese.
It was “absolutely horrible” and needed to be condemned by everyone who considers themselves to be pro-life in the truest sense of the term, according to Mechmann.
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