(LifeSiteNews) After the Vatican undertook an investigation of one of the most popular Catholic bishops in America, who is also one of the most outspokenly pro-life bishops, Pope Francis abruptly removed him from his duties today.

Pope Francis sacked Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland in a rare move announced Saturday by the Vatican. Both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the decision, but neither’s statement listed a reason for the dismissal.

In June, the Vatican launched an apostolic visitation to the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and Bishop Joseph Strickland. The reasons for the investigation of Bishop Strickland were unclear, but appear to resolve around his social media posts — where he actively challenges abortion, takes on leftist woke culture and even questions the Catholic Church when he believes it is going the wrong direction.

After the Vatican undertook an investigation of one of the most popular Catholic bishops in America, who is also one of the most outspokenly pro-life bishops, Pope Francis abruptly removed him from his duties today.

Pope Francis sacked Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland in a rare move announced Saturday by the Vatican. Both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops announced the decision, but neither’s statement listed a reason for the dismissal.

In June, the Vatican launched an apostolic visitation to the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, and Bishop Joseph Strickland. The reasons for the investigation of Bishop Strickland were unclear, but appear to resolve around his social media posts — where he actively challenges abortion, takes on leftist woke culture and even questions the Catholic Church when he believes it is going the wrong direction.

He was asked to resign, refused to do so, now the Pope has formally removed him. An Auxiliary Bishop of Austin has been named administrator.

In September, there were reports that Pope Francis would pparently ask Bishop Strickland to resign.

According to The Pillar, the pope met with Archbishop Robert Prevost, OSA, head of the Dicastery for Bishops, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States on September 9, with sources close to the Dicastery telling the outlet ahead of the meeting that prelates would present to the pope the results of an apostolic visitation of Stickland’s diocese that was conducted earlier this year, as well as additional public actions taken by Strickland.

“The situation of Bishop Strickland is the agenda,” one senior official close to the dicastery told the outlet, “and the expectation is that the Holy Father will be requesting his resignation — that will certainly be the recommendation put to him.”

While the meeting wasn’t exclusively about Strickland, who has accused the pope of having a “program [for] undermining the Deposit of Faith, the official said that Strickland’s case was set to be the “primary point of discussion” among the church officials.

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“There are two aspects,” the official said, “there is the matter of the public scandal from all these comments about the pope and the synod, but there are also real problems in the diocese. Those were the focus of the visitation; there are concerns in the diocese about governance, about financial matters, about basic prudence.”

The report indicates it is unlikely that Pope Francis will remove Strickland as a bishop but that he would urge Strickland to hand in his resignation.

“The consensus in the dicastery is that he will be asked to consider resigning. That has been the substance of discussion among the members.”

“Depending on how the bishop responds, the strength of that encouragement could be increased.”

Responding to the news, Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone supported Strickland.

“Hopefully, this will not happen, because it would be the last straw for many Catholics in the United States and elsewhere who are seeing within the church the same ideological weaponization of otherwise legitimate processes that we are seeing in the U.S. government against conservatives, pro-life people, and the MAGA movement,” he told LifeNews in a statement.

“What has now become a pattern in the Catholic community ends up weakening the authority of the Church, and the trust that people have in their earthly shepherds. There is no transparency to these processes, which result in clear punishment for no clear crimes,” Pavone added. “Whatever happens, the faithful need to unite in their homes, and in various movements and associations that pursue the goal of preserving the authentic Catholic faith, the pro-life, agenda, and conservative politics. In the end, these movements will do more to preserve the Church and her freedom than many of the left-leaning shepherds are doing.”

Earlier this year, Bishop Strickland called out Joe Biden, saying he’s a “fake Catholic” for falsely claiming the Catholic Church supports abortion.

Biden lied to a Catholic reporter and falsely claimed the nation’s Catholic bishops do not oppose forcing Americans to fund abortions even though the Catholic Church has a longstanding pro-life position against tax-funded abortions.

Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas condemned Biden’s comments and said he was engaging in “fake Catholicism.”

“Mr. Biden can’t be allowed to twist the words of Pope Francis in this way,” Strickland tweeted. “I implore the Vatican press office to emphatically clarify that Pope Francis rightly calls abortion murder. It is time to denounce Biden’s fake Catholicism.”