The Vatican has stripped high-profile Catholic leader and antiabortion activist Frank Pavone of the priesthood, spurring further discord within the antiabortion movement in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Pavone was censured for “blasphemous communications on social media, and of persistent disobedience of the lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop,” according to a letter from Pope Francis’s representative to the United States obtained by the New York Times.
Pavone, the national director of the group Priests for Life, has addressed the crowds at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., and sits on the board of directors for the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL). He also is a religious adviser to former president Donald Trump and has publicly questioned the results of the 2020 election.
Within the antiabortion movement, Pavone is known for the incendiary statements he makes online, which often go beyond what many mainstream antiabortion advocates say publicly. For example, he has spoken about his belief that abortion is never necessary to save a mother’s life.
Ahead of the 2023 state legislative sessions, the antiabortion movement is divided on where to go next. Some conservative Republicans are eager to backtrack on abortion restrictions after voters overwhelmingly supported abortion rights in several key states in November. Others are looking to further crack down on the procedure by limiting access to abortion pills.
Pavone’s dismissal from the priesthood has added to the frustrations felt by many of the most fervent antiabortion advocates, with some questioning why church leadership would choose to punish someone so fiercely committed to what they see as a core Catholic value.
“Father Frank Pavone has been nothing but honest, courageous and faithful to the ProLife cause from my perspective,” NACL president Jason Rapert wrote in a message to The Post. “By what legitimate authority does the Vatican attempt to strip this man of his ministry anyway?”
Kristan Hawkins, president of the antiabortion group Students for Life of America, said in a message that Pavone has “counseled and encouraged” her consistently over the years.
“To see the Vatican take this extreme step while there are priests who are in open defiance with the Church’s teachings breaks my heart,” she said, adding that, “it sounds like a few leaders within the church have an ax to grind.”
Pavone, who did not respond to a request for comment, said in a video posted online soon after news broke of his dismissal that he has been “persecuted” by the Catholic Church for decades.
In a 26-page letter posted on the Priests for Life website, Pavone outlines what he calls a “Summary of How Fr. Frank and Priests for Life Have Been Treated by Some in the Hierarchy.”
“Instead of supporting and encouraging the pro-life work of the Church, some of these men try to obstruct and hinder it, and abuse their authority to try to intimidate priests and laity who make ending abortion the top priority of our lives,” Pavone writes. “… Cancel culture is alive and well in the Catholic Church.”
Pavone has been censured by high-ranking leaders, especially Patrick Zurek, the bishop of the Diocese of Amarillo in Texas, which oversaw Pavone.
Among Pavone’s most controversial videos was one in 2016 where he put an aborted fetus on what appeared to be an alter, prompting the Diocese of Amarillo to open an investigation into his actions.
Some within the Catholic Church were glad to see Pavone defrocked, calling him a “radical extremist.”
“He’s spent decades spreading lies about reproductive health,” Jamie Manson, the president of the abortion rights group Catholics for Choice, wrote on Twitter. “I’m grateful to the Vatican for taking his abuses of power, money, & violent anti-choice tactics seriously.”
