Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, has been defrocked by the Vatican for what it stated had been “blasphemous communications on social media” in addition to “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

Greg Kahn/AP

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Greg Kahn/AP

Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, has been defrocked by the Vatican for what it stated had been “blasphemous communications on social media” in addition to “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

Greg Kahn/AP

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has defrocked an anti-abortion U.S. priest, Frank Pavone, for what it stated had been “blasphemous communications on social media” in addition to “persistent disobedience” of his bishop.

A letter to U.S. bishops from the Vatican ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Christophe Pierre, obtained Sunday, stated the choice in opposition to Pavone, who heads the anti-abortion group Priests for Life, had been taken Nov. 9, and that there was no probability for an enchantment.

Pavone had been investigated by his then-diocese of Amarillo, Texas, for having positioned an aborted fetus on an altar and posting a video of it on two social media websites in 2016. He posts continuously about U.S. politics and abortion, and the video of the aborted fetus was accompanied by a put up saying that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic platform would enable abortion to proceed and that Donald Trump and the Republican platform wish to shield unborn youngsters.

Pavone stays a agency supporter of Trump: His Twitter deal with options him sporting a “MAGA” hat with a background picture that includes the previous U.S. president, whom many conservatives reward for his Supreme Court nominees who overturned the landmark choice guaranteeing a constitutional proper to abortion within the United States.

In a tweet Sunday, Pavone sounded defiant, evaluating his destiny to that of the unborn.

“So in every profession, including the priesthood, if you defend the #unborn, you will be treated like them! The only difference is that when we are “aborted,” we continue to speak, loud and clear.”

His supporters instantly denounced the measure, together with the bishop of Tyler, Texas, Joseph Strickland, who referred to U.S. President Joe Biden’s help for abortion rights as “evil.”

“The blasphemy is that this holy priest is canceled while an evil president promotes the denial of truth & the murder of the unborn at every turn, Vatican officials promote immorality & denial of the deposit of faith & priests promote gender confusion devastating lives…evil,” Strickland tweeted.

Pavone had appealed to the Vatican over restrictions positioned on his ministry in 2011 by the Amarillo bishop, succeeded in getting the restrictions eased, and relocated away from Texas whereas remaining energetic with Priests for Life.

In his letter, Pierre cited info from the Congregation for Clergy that Pavone had been laicized — he can not current himself as a priest — after being discovered responsible in a canonical continuing “of blasphemous communications on social media and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.” The letter was first reported by Catholic News Agency.

The assertion stated Pavone was given “ample opportunity to defend himself” in addition to to undergo his bishop. “It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.”

The assertion concluded that since Priests for Life isn’t a Catholic group, it might be as much as the group to find out whether or not he may proceed his position “as a lay person.”

Laicization, or being decreased to the lay state, is without doubt one of the harshest sanctions within the church’s canon regulation.