Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone said Thursday on Newsmax that American Catholics need to embrace the conservative movement instead of liberalism.
Joining "Rob Schmitt Tonight, the longtime anti-abortion activist used his own experience of getting defrocked for his political engagement as an example of why more Catholics need to hold fast to their values.
"Unless we embrace what conservative politics in the United States are saying and doing right now — that we have a tyrannical takeover of America in this Democrat Party [and] we've got to get them out — we're not going to have religious freedom," Pavone said.
"We're not going to have a country anymore," he continued. "Unless we get on the side of what conservative politics are doing, the Catholic Church is going to be really, really sorry that it didn't."
Pavone also responded to Pope Francis' recent comments slamming some conservative Catholics as representing "a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude" that, he believes, is in opposition to true church tradition.
"We respect the office of the pope. We believe in certain things about the pope. But one thing we do not believe is that the pope is always right in everything he says," said Pavone, a former priest in the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas. "He's got a right to his opinion, but so do we."
The church laicized Pavone in November following an investigation into accusations that he engaged in provocative political maneuvers in support of former President Donald Trump in 2016.
He has since said that a future pope might receive him back into the priesthood, according to Catholic News Agency.
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Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.
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