BENEDICT XVI appointed some of the worst bishops in modern history, he had a gift for choosing or allowing to be chosen some real loonies and liars, crooks and fascists. Now one of his appointees, Joseph Strickland of the diocese of Tyler Texas has endorsed the Q-Anon linked, actor in Mel Gibson's the passion as torture and snuff porn movie, the gospel as lurid Chick Publications spectacle (ironies are never far in that perverted hall of mirrors, the trad-catholic fascist-right) Jim Caviezel
Bishop Joseph Strickland, who heads the Diocese of Tyler and is known for his controversial brand of conservatism, tweeted out a link to a website praising Caviezel’s speech on Monday (Oct. 25), with the prelate insisting “all need to listen” to its message. By then a clip of the speech had already been widely shared on social media in which the actor recites a line from Mel Gibson’s 1995 movie “Braveheart.”
“You can take our lives, but you can never take our freedom,” shouted Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus in Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ.”
I'll throw in here that "Braveheart" was so historically inaccurate that one historically informed critic said if they'd put a Plasticine dog in it and called it William Wallace And Gromit it couldn't have been more inaccurate than it was. Since such movie crap enters into the public imagination, triggering the susceptible in ways that come out in fascist, generally white supremacist violence, all such movie "poetic license" should be called what it is, dangerous lies.
Caviezel then added a faith-fueled addendum that appeared to be at least partly of his own design.
“Every man dies. Not every many truly lives,” he said. “We must fight for that authentic freedom and live, my friends. By God we must live. And with the Holy Spirit as your shield and Christ as your sword, may you join St. Michael and all the angels in defending God and sending Lucifer and his henchman straight right back to hell where they belong.”
The boy would seem to have a worse case of it than the movie Moses and Voice of God, Charlton Heston got from over-identifying himself with those roles. I never could figure out which one Heston thought he was but apparently Caviezel thinks he's some kind of macho-white-supremacist-anti-vaxxer Jesus.
The speech took place at the “For God & Country: Patriot Double Down” conference convened in Las Vegas over the weekend. According to the Las Vegas Sun, the gathering featured an array of controversial conservative speakers, including those who have spread misinformation about COVID-19 and conspiracy theories associated with the QAnon movement.
Strickland has a history of anti-vaxx, Republican-fascist and similar activity, he joined in with the disgraced and dodgey bishop Carlo Maria Viganò (One of JPII's atrocious appointments) in his false witness against Pope Francis, lots of that stuff seems to me to be right in line with Jack Chick's loony anti-Catholic propaganda, only now on behalf of the soon to be schizmatic billionaire-fianced trad-Catholic fascists. I doubt that he will do it and probably has better reasons for not doing so than I'm aware of but if I were Pope Francis, I'd ask him for his resignation or I'd reassign him somewhere they don't have TV, the guy needs to unplug from the fascist web for a year. Short of that he needs to be condemned as a Q-Anon friendly liar and Republican-fascist goon. There have been some really bad bishops in the past, an appalling number of them, but some of those in the US Catholic Conference of Bishops right now are among the worst in modern history.
I don't for a single second believe that the trad-Catholics have the slightest interest in the Gospel of Jesus, they're a gang bent on using the resources of the Catholic Church, suckering a cult from among those who are lulled into stupidity from attending the Latin Mass and being wowed by what they imagine was the mass that St. Francis experienced (I had that thrown at me by one who, like almost all Catholics, has no knowledge of the history of the liturgy) or who want to play make believe with fake lives of the saints. Lots of them just like the decor and the pretty colors. But it all has a real political effect which is why this is important. The billionaires wouldn't be funding the trad-Catholic cult if they didn't think there were bundles of cash in it for them, either to make or to retain. I think a lot of the bishops are in it on a more penny-ante basis, lots of them get money from those gangsters and thugs. The Catholic Church has always been vulnerable over its worldly holdings, and I don't mean just the buildings in the Vatican and their contents. The scandals of the JPII and Benedict XVI years often centered around money when they didn't the consequences of an all-ummarried-male clergy. One of the things they hate the most about Pope Francis is that he is, if too slowly for my liking, trying to clean up the corruption in that regard. I'm convinced that's what motivates most of the hatred of him.
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