#a lot of his followers are also referencing padre pio and how he was treated similarly by his superiors and

[cheerfullycatholic]

Did you hear about the priest the Pope fired over his pro-life political tweets

Yes oh my gosh the whole thing bothers me. The priest who was dismissed is Frank Pavone, the director of the pro life organization Priests for Life. But he actually wasn't dismissed for his pro life work, at least officially. The official reasons given on the Vatican document was for blasphemous comments online and disobedience to his Bishop (which broke canon law). The whole thing is a mess, because the blasphemous comments was taking the Lord's name in vain (which he regretted right afterwards and confessed), and the disobedience was due to him getting involved in a political campaign (Trump's, to be specific) without his Bishop's permission. Both of which are bad things, but I don't actually think they're worthy of defrocking (unless there's a lot of disobedience over the years that we don't know about), especially since he went to confession for his comments. His pro life work with Priests for Life, aside from the Trump campaign, was never an issue. That's where Frank Pavone is making so many mistakes. That's what he's saying, not Pope Francis or the Bishops. And after his dismissal, instead of accepting his superiors decision or seeking a way to figure something out that involved talking to the Vatican respectfully, he became very vocal about continuing to be disobedient, disrespecting the Vatican's decision (calling it "just a piece of paper") more or less attacking some US Bishops, claiming that "the next Pope with reinstate me", and calling everyone who doesn't 100% support him an abortion supporting democrat. He was, even, in the beginning, still referring to himself as "Father" and having Mass, but I believe he has since stopped that. I do not believe that his dismissal from the priesthood was right for the reasons given, especially when apparently he didn't hear anything at all from anyone before the letter was written, but he is going about this the wrong way, and actually is causing some schism within his followers. The comments under his tweets are horrendous. So many Catholics are asking him to leave the Church and start his own, and Frank, as far as I've seen, hasn't said anything regarding them either way. I no longer keep up on the story too much, so I may not have all the information, but I've definitely heard enough to know it's a dumpster fire, people are being sketchy on both sides, and my mental health will benefit from ignoring it. There was also something, and I'm not sure if this has anything to do with his dismissal, but I guess back in 2016 he used the body of an aborted baby in a Trump ad, and as far as I've seen, he hasn't said where or how he got it. That's pretty much when I stopped following the story. Human beings deserve better than being used for political gain.