No, Bishop Strickland Has Not Been Forbidden to Celebrate Mass in Tyler

CV NEWS FEED // Bishop Joseph Strickland, who is currently on a personal spiritual retreat, confirmed via a text message to CatholicVote that stories claiming he has been barred from celebrating Mass in the territory of the Diocese of Tyler are not true. Early on December 7, LifeSiteNews published a story titled “Bishop Strickland barred from saying Mass in Diocese of Tyler, Texas.” “LifeSiteNews has learned that Bishop Joseph Strickland has been barred from saying Mass in the Diocese of Tyler, Texas,” the story stated. The article claimed that “at a recent staff meeting, employees were reportedly informed that while Strickland cannot offer Mass in the diocese, he may do so elsewhere.” The story also claimed that “the source is known to LifeSiteNews.” Although Strickland is on a two-week personal retreat at a Benedictine Abbey in Oklahoma until December 16, he reached out to CatholicVote with a brief but unequivocal text message: “tell them I have received no such instruction.” Strickland was appointed bishop of Tyler, a small diocese in East Texas, in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Following a secretive apostolic visitation in June of this year, he was dismissed as bishop of Tyler on November 11 after refusing Apostolic Nuncio Christoph Pierre’s request that he resign. Strickland continues to be a bishop in good standing in the Catholic Church with all his canonical rights, including the right to celebrate Mass. Source