A defrocked priest

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, January 17th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Priest dismissed.

Just before Christmas, news broke that the Vatican had defrocked a high-profile Catholic priest. The priest’s name is Frank Pavone, and he’s well-known in pro-life circles. WORLD Senior Writer Kim Henderson has our story.

INGRAHAM: A well-known priest who also served as a co-chair of Pro-Life Voices for Trump has been kicked out of the priesthood by Pope Francis . . .

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR WRITER: Fox News and lots of other outlets were quick to cover the defrocking of Catholic priest Frank Pavone.

But if you’re not Catholic, you may be wondering what defrocked really means. Literally, it’s the removal of vestments, ceremonial clothes. A stripping of priestly privileges and functions.

Church leaders meted out this most severe punishment in part over Pavone’s social media use. Pavone disputes the way those posts were characterized.

PAVONE: Blasphemous communications on social media? Well, I can tell you it's blasphemous to the abortionists, because I condemn abortion. It's blasphemous to the Democrats, yeah, because I condemn the Democrats. Not to condemn them in the theological sense, but I condemn them.

That wasn’t all. The Vatican also accused Pavone of persistently disobeying his bishop. But Pavone says he was targeted for his pro-life work.

PAVONE: You see a pattern, and it's a disturbing pattern of they just want to push us out. I think what's going on here is they want to push us out of the influence we have over the Catholic pro-life people.

Some say Pavone’s influence isn’t the problem. It’s his pull-no-punches style. It’s combative. And Pavone does hold a lot of influence in his role as director of Priests for Life. Priests for Life is a large international organization—separate from the Catholic Church. It encompasses a variety of pro-life ministries.

Alveda King serves on the board of Priests for Life. She’s Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, and she’s a longtime friend of Pavone’s. She sees their work together as a continuation of the fight for civil rights.

KING: Life begins in the womb. It goes to the tomb and beyond. And so civil rights should be for human beings, whether they're in the womb or in the arms or walking around themselves.

King is concerned for Pavone, especially since his father died just days after the defrocking announcement.

KING: All of that is happening, and yet he's trusting the Lord. He prays, he loves the Lord. He has good friends, not just me, but many of us, and we fully support him.

Bradley Mattes is one of those good friends. He’s president of Life Issues Institute. He and Pavone have been in the thick of the pro-life work together since the ’90s. So what’s the temperature right now?

MATTES: Well, it's red hot . . . the just amazing breakthrough that we've worked and prayed for for almost 50 years.

The breakthrough, of course, is the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But Mattes says there’s been fallout from that victory, and he believes Pavone is part of it. He believes the Vatican favors liberal politicians like President Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi.

MATTES: . . . aggressively do all they could to keep the wanton killing of unborn babies throughout pregnancy the status quo. And yet it's a direct violation of Catholic doctrine. But there is silence from the Vatican.

Mattes believes church leaders made a mistake.

MATTES: I think they've overplayed their hand, which is evidenced by all of the people coming to support Father Frank. The priests, the lay people, Catholics and non Catholics alike, pro-life organizations.

Even so, Mattes thinks the defrocking has a silver lining. It’s enabled Pavone to speak more freely.

MATTES: In the past, he would not condemn or speak against the hierarchy . . . he was a loyal priest, he would not turn on the Vatican . . .

Not everyone agrees with that assessment. Sam Lee is a deacon in the Catholic Church, and he makes it clear that he admires Pavone’s zeal. But for Lee, Pavone’s 2016 video involving the body of an aborted baby crossed a line.

LEE: Some of his behavior has been highly inappropriate . . . we are always public persons, we are always out there representing the Church.

Lee also disapproves of Pavone’s political activities.

LEE: To endorse or promote or to denigrate . . . in the sense of, to lambaste consistently a party or a person in that way—as opposed to just pointing out the error of what they're doing or proposing—is highly inappropriate . . .

But the now-defrocked Pavone stresses he’s not political.

PAVONE: Our platform is clear. It's the platform of Jesus Christ. It’s not Republican, not Democrat. We're on the platform of Jesus Christ . . .

He says other platforms are circumstantial. They can change at any time. Pavone wants to stay focused.

PAVONE: ​​I want to give my life for the unborn.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson.

EICHER: To read the full print feature story on Frank Pavone, look for the January 28th issue of WORLD Magazine and we’ll post a link to the digital version of the story in the transcript of this episode.

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