Oh look, a new Catholic disgrace

From Slate:

Last weekend, the leading voices of the QAnon camp gathered in Las Vegas to discuss the state of the world and the future of their movement. The prominent names in attendance at the convention included Jim and Ron Watkins, a father-and-son pair accused of inventing the conspiracy theory.

But the speech that ultimately garnered the most attention was by the actor Jim Caviezel, who is best known—at least among the conservative Christian crowd—for playing Jesus in Mel Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ. Caviezel’s speech, which amounted to a literal call to arms against the liberal worldview, concluded with the proclamation that “the Storm is upon us”—a direct invocation of QAnon’s central conspiracy theory.

On Monday, Caviezel’s speech was quoted approvingly by a Catholic bishop. “All need to listen to this speech,” wrote Joseph Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas.

While Strickland didn’t directly reference QAnon in his tweet, his critics weren’t surprised that he agreed with the sentiment. Strickland, who is 62, rose to prominence in the Texas Church while blogging about his daily jogs, priestly duties, parish goings-on, and his eventual elevation from priest to bishop under Pope Benedict in 2012. He has maintained his online presence since then, and while he is just one of some 250 bishops in the U.S., he has leveraged his platform to become one of the leading voices of the Catholic right....

Strickland has supported a nutty right wing reactionary priest:

As the Bishop of Tyler I endorse Fr Altman’s statement in this video,” Strickland wrote on Twitter in response. “My shame is that it has taken me so long. Thank you Fr Altman for your COURAGE. If you love Jesus & His Church & this nation…pleases HEED THIS MESSAGE.”

In subsequent videos, Altman said both climate change and COVID were hoaxes, made homophobic, misogynistic, and antisemitic comments, blasted Black Lives Matter and “cancel culture,” blamed Breanna Taylor’s death on her choice of boyfriends, urged Catholics to avoid the COVID vaccine, called the Jan. 6 insurrection a “false flag operation,” and accused Pope Francis of “betray[ing God] like Judas.” Strickland has only doubled down on his support for Altman, tweeting that the priest was only “in trouble for speaking the truth.” For a while, onlookers speculated that Altman would try to transfer to Strickland’s diocese for shelter.