TYLER, Texas (LifeSiteNews) – It’s 11:00 a.m. Sunday in Tyler, Texas. A line of young men and women ascend the narrow stairs to the upper level of the church. The bell rings, the faithful kneel, and almost angelic voices sing while the priest and the altar servers follow the crucifix in procession.
Gwen McDowell is one of those voices. She is 18 and has been singing in church since she was seven. In 2021, McDowell and her grandparents moved to Tyler, Texas from San Diego, California looking for a better place to live and, as McDowell said, to “build her own future.”
The first time she heard about Bishop Joseph Strickland, McDowell was still living in San Diego. Around the time when her grandparents were considering moving to Tyler, Strickland’s outspokenness regarding the teachings of the Catholic Church was often part of the conversation.
During the times her parish choir met with Strickland, McDowell noticed “his encouragement” and “genuine care for the diocese.”
“He really cared about what we were doing and wanted to support us in any way that he could. He was willing to hear what it was that we needed,” she said.
McDowell thinks his recent removal by the Vatican was strategic.
“Bishop Strickland was doing a lot of good in this diocese and it is almost as if his removal was to stop the growth of the Catholic Church, specifically of the Latin Mass.”
Even despite the corruption and crisis in the Church, McDowell remains hopeful, particularly about the role “very involved” laity can play, and believes the key is prayer.
Strickland ‘kneeling in the rain outside Planned Parenthood praying for an end to abortion’ left deep impression
Skylar Burt was born in Houston, Texas, to a family with Catholic and Baptist roots. Throughout high school he was interested in learning about the Catholic faith, but he didn’t understand what was required of him to fully live it.
During college, Burt began to prepare for the consecration to Jesus through Mary according to the method of Saint Louis de Monfort.
“After a month of prayers, meditating on her [Mary], and praying the Rosary, it was very clear the ways that she was abrading many habitual sins in my life,” Burt said.
Right out of college, Burt began working at an oil refinery in Kansas but always had in the back of his mind returning to Texas. During his time in Kansas, a young family introduced him to the Traditional Latin Mass and even though it took him some time, eventually, he fell in love with it.
Burt had heard about an oil refinery within the Tyler city limits. When he learned that there was also a Latin Mass nearby, he knew that was where he wanted to live. He applied for the job and was hired.
He has now been living within the Diocese of Tyler for a year and is a parishioner of Saint Joseph the Worker. Strickland “is one of the friendliest persons I’ve ever met,” Burt said. “He is one of those people [who] strikes you as holy.”
Burt learned about Strickland’s removal the same day the announcement came out through the Holy See’s daily bulletin on November 11.
“There was the visitation going on, nobody knew what it was for or what the results would be. So, it was something we were all hoping wasn’t going to happen, but it was not a huge shock at that point,” Burt said. “I felt pretty disheartened. It is probably the most I have ever interacted with a bishop, and I have been here only for a year.”
One of the memories that Burt keeps with him is that of Bishop Strickland praying in front of Planned Parenthood.
“You see him kneeling in the rain outside Planned Parenthood praying for an end to abortion…I think that humility is what struck me in that moment,” Burt said.
‘I felt I could trust not just him, but I could trust the Catholic faith through his example’
Raised Southern Baptist, Austin Luce was received by Strickland into the Catholic Church during the Easter vigil of this year.
Luce had loved his Christian faith from an early age but felt that in his Protestant background “certain pieces of the faith were missing.” Digging into the history of the early Church led him to find those pieces.
“Bishop Strickland was a piece of that as well. Just within this community here in Tyler, in the non-Catholic community he also has a reputation for his orthodoxy and his authenticity, and so I felt I could trust not just him, but I could trust the Catholic faith through his example,” he said.
When Luce went through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program in the Diocese of Tyler, he realized the strength of the leadership structure crafted by Bishop Strickland.
“We had priests who taught, we had deacons who taught, we had seminarians, we had laity who had graduate-level degrees in Theology, so it was a really well put together program, which really speaks to Bishop Strickland’s leadership of the diocese,” Luce said.
One of the memories that sticks to Luce’s mind is the response of Bishop Strickland to “unbaptisms” performed by satanists during the pagan-pride festival celebrated in downtown Tyler.
“There were many people upset making noise about it, but Bishop Strickland was somebody that as a successor of the apostles really took action on it. He led a prayer rally beforehand all around [the] downtown square praying the Rosary. It was just pouring rain, it was cold outside, end of October, it really impressed me that he took bold action like that,” Luce recalled.
He thinks that the response of the faithful to the removal of Bishop Strickland should be prayer. Luce would like to see Strickland restored. If that doesn’t happen, he hopes for a bishop who “leads in a very similar manner, very welcoming to new people without compromising the truth.”