Catholic Bishop Tweets Video of Priest Saying Pope Francis ‘Using His Platform to Embolden Sinners’

(CNSNews.com) – Bishop Joseph Strickland of the Catholic diocese of Tyler, Texas tweeted out a video on Friday that featured Father Jason Charron delivering a video message that criticized Pope Francis for his recent remarks on homosexuals and said that the pope was “using his platform to embolden sinners.”

“This priest speaks truth that needs to be shared,” said Bishop Strickland in his tweet.

On the video, Father Charron says: “I am sure you heard today, as many people have, that Pope Francis again has called for the decriminalizing of homosexual acts among other things no his return flight from his African visit home to the Vatican.”

“And it struck me that a lot of the Holy Father’s public comments, you know, revolve around this issue of homosexuality as though that were the center piece of his ministry,” said Father Charron. “You don’t hear a whole lot of comments from him calling for the defense of persecuted Christians in place like, oh, I don’t know, China.”

“This is the great shame–that he has abandoned his first love and instead of preaching the Gospel, emboldening the saints and calling sinners to repentance, he’s using his platform to embolden sinners and to shame the saints into silence in conformity with the world,” Father Charron says in the video.

Here is a full transcript of Father Charron’s video message:

Father Jason Charron: “Glory to Jesus Christ, Father Jason Charron here. I’m sure you heard today, as many people have, that Pope Francis again has called for the decriminalizing of homosexual acts among other things on his return flight from the African visit home to the Vatican. And it struck me that a lot of the Holy Father’s public comments, you know, revolve around this issue of homosexuality as though that were the center piece of his ministry. You don’t hear a whole lot of comments from him calling for the defense of persecuted Christians in place like, oh, I don’t know, China. Or the situation of the Christians in places like, oh, I don’t know, Saudi Arabia. Or the situation faced by Christian families in the formerly Catholic countries of Europe and North America—places where his faithful flock face persecution for believing in the official teaching of the church that he leads. So, on the one hand, his flock are persecuted for believing the faith that he is embodying as the visible head of the church. But on the other hand, he uses that position as bishop of Rome and successor of St. Peter to advocate for things that don’t pertain to this calling as bishop and as pope.

“Jesus Christ did not give us the papacy in order to decriminalize sodomy laws. It’s a shame because he has a great platform, and that platform can be used for two things: to search out and find the saints and embolden them, and to search out and find the sinners and call them to repentance. The beauty of this is that we all are in both of those categories. We all have sinned, and we all have at one point or another encountered someone in our life who loved us so much that they were bold enough to dare to challenge us to raise our game, to follow in the footsteps of He who is the great lover of mankind, Jesus Christ.

“You know, there is a passage in Scripture, and it is in First Corinthians, Chapter 6, Verse 9. And it says this: ‘Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Do not be deceived. Do not be deceived,’ St. Paul says. ‘Neither the immoral, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves,   nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were watched, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Jesus Christ and the spirit of our God.

“That is the beauty of our Christian faith is that it’s not elitist and it’s not snobbery. Such were some of you—adulterers, idolaters, revilers, homosexuals, thieves, what have you. But not anymore. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were called to something better: holiness, joy, a life of courage and conviction, being set apart from the ordinary and the compromised and become free and brave.

“And this is the pity of Pope Francis. This is the great shame—that he has abandoned his first love and instead of preaching the Gospel, emboldening the saints and calling sinners to repentance, he’s using his platform to embolden sinners and to shame the saints into silence in conformity with the world. This reminds me of what our Lord said in the Book of Revelation: ‘Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you thee, because you have left your first love.’ This is Revelation, Chapter 2, speaking to the church in Ephesus.

“‘Remember, remember, therefore, from the heights that you have fallen and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to thee quickly and I will remove your candlestick unless you repent.’ And, so, I say this to my father in Christ, my naked father in Christ, maybe like a drunken Noah: For the sake of your own dignity, the dignity of your office, is to repent from this insanity, Pope Francis, and preach the Gospel, calling all people to repentance. And, if, you know, nations decide that they want to enact laws that reflect the moral and spiritual tradition that built up that nation, then it is not for the head of secular state—for that’s what the Vatican City is, it’s a secular state—it is not for the head of another state to come into those countries and start lecturing them on how they need to change their laws.

“I would be interested in knowing what the Vatican City state has on its books regarding sodomy or abortion. Hopefully, those laws reflect the spiritual patrimony of the Catholic faith. Yet, what we have here is the Holy Father, Pope Francis, going into these nations and speaking not about the Gospel so much as but about urging these people to change their code of civil law to reflect the zeitgeist.

“Who do you belong to Francis? Do you belong to Christ or do you belong to Sodom?

“We are called to repentance and there is no one, no one who receives an exception to the call to repentance. If we make exceptions for homosexuals, then we need to make exceptions for adulterers, for people who are kleptomaniacs, for people who like to set fire to their neighbors houses. It is all or nothing. Repent and return to your first love.”

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