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TYLER, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Kyle Thompson’s reversion to Catholicism took place while he was still in college during the COVID lockdowns in 2020. It was then when he realized that practicing his faith was worth every second of his life. 

“During the lockdown period, when all the churches [shut] down, confessions stopped being offered – that’s when I really decided to orient my life towards this. This can’t just be something I do on Sundays,” Thompson said. 

Today, Thompson is married; his wife is expecting their first baby. Thompson believes God led them to Tyler, Texas.  

Speaking to LifeSiteNews, Thompson noted the frequency with which the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated daily in the Diocese of Tyler – led until recently by the beloved Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed by the Vatican just over a month ago. In Tyler, Confession is readily available and the Catholic community is faithful.

Thompson described Strickland as an “authentic man,” a true shepherd who teaches the truth because cares about the salvation of souls. 

“It didn’t matter if what he was saying was controversial, it didn’t matter if it would possibly offend a few people in the crowd, it didn’t matter if he was in a call out the sins of those in his flock, myself included, he was going to speak the truth no matter what, because that was he cared about. He cared about Christ, and the Church, and the salvation of souls,” Thompson said. 

He also saw Strickland as the spiritual father so many faithful within the Catholic Church long for. 

“One of the greatest strengths of Strickland was that he was a father. He was a father in every sense of the word, and everybody who met him and everybody who was under him knew and understood that,” Thompson said.  

On November 11, Thompson woke up to the news that Pope Francis had taken the rare step of sacking Bishop Strickland. He had been praying and worrying about the possibility of the bishop being taken away from his office, but nonetheless the final decision came as a shock to him. He felt “sadness, shock, and heartbrokenness followed by a mixture of fear, anger, and frustration.”

Thompson nonetheless trusts that everything rests in the hands of God, and that everything is done through His will, either passive or active. 

Thompson hopes for “a Church that is full of men just like Bishop Strickland” and believes that the Catholic community he has fostered “will bear fruits for many years to come.” 

Thompson encouraged his fellow Catholics “to develop a devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and to pray those prayers of reparation daily, to find a place in their homes for the Sacred Heart and the Holy Face of Jesus, and to unite their sufferings, fears and anxieties to our Lord and our Lady at the Cross.”

Pain of losing Strickland is like a child’s pain at losing his father

Nineteen years ago, Adelaide Muench was born a few blocks away from Tyler, Texas’s Immaculate Conception Cathedral, into a Catholic family which eventually would grow to 13. 

Muench and her family have been parishioners of Saint Joseph the Worker, a Fraternity of St. Peter parish, as long as she can remember. Now she is engaged to a young man whom she met at church. 

Right before Strickland was appointed Bishop of Tyler, Muench’s parents were planning to move in search of a faithful Catholic community in which to raise their family. But Bishop Strickland’s leadership brought the community they longed for right to where they were.  

For Muench, Bishop Strickland has always been a shepherd and a father.

“Any time you want to talk to somebody higher up you are always kind of worried, ‘Oh I do not know if will be able to talk to him, he’s going to be busy, he’s going to have other things to do…’ Bishop Strickland always made time,” Muench said. 

During her encounters with Strickland, Muench noticed his faith and his Christ-centered conversation. 

“He always brought the topic around Christ. He showed you how even with all the chaos going on around in the world you can always depend on Christ and that with Him we didn’t need to worry about anything else,” Muench said. 

Muench compared her reaction to waking up to the news of Pope Francis removing Strickland from the diocese to that of a child who had lost his father.

“I hope that we have more bishops and more priests like Bishop Strickland, who aren’t afraid to lead their flock towards Christ and aren’t afraid to do what they believe is right. In a world like we have today, you have to live fearlessly and with courage and with faith. You cannot depend on the world; you have to depend on your faith,” Muench reflected. 

Our Lord ‘will not forsake His bride’

Passionate about apologetics, Jordon Hodges, a Southern Baptist from Crockett, Texas, started to look at other denominations in order to learn how to better convince people to join his church. But when he started to dig into Catholicism, the Church’s historical background was inescapable evidence that submerged him into the claims of the Catholic faith. 

Hodges’ Catholic journey has been under Strickland’s direction. Hodges admires how much the bishop cares about people, his constant focus on God, and how he directs any conversation to Him. 

“I wished he was more under the radar so we could still keep him with us,” Hodges said. “That is kind of selfish, but that was my first reaction because I just love seeing him, every interaction I had with him has just blessed me so much spiritually.” 

Even after Strickland’s removal, Hodges feels optimistic about the future of the diocese and of the Church because they are both in God’s hands. 

“We don’t know why God is allowing certain leaders of the Church to do what they are doing, but we do know it’s for good. It might not make sense to us, it might seem counterintuitive that this would cause good, but we can rest absolutely assured that He will not forsake His bride,” Hodges said. 

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