Pro-Life Priest Frank Pavone ‘Dismissed from Clerical State’ with ‘No Possibility of Appeal’

'They've been creating one excuse after the other to try to sideline my work, to discredit Priests for Life and to get me out of leadership.'

Father Frank Pavone is National Director of Priests for Life. Courtesy of Priests for Life

Father Frank Pavone, leader of the pro-life organization Priests for Life, has been dismissed from the clergy with no possibility of appealing his case.

According to a Dec. 13 letter (pdf), Archbishop Christophe Pierre announced that Pavone had been “dismissed from the clerical state” on Nov. 9, with “no possibility of appeal.” According to an attached statement, Pavone was “found guilty in canonical proceedings of blasphemous communications on social media and of persistent disobedience of lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.” Despite Pavone’s dismissal being in November, as announced in the Dec. 13 letter, news of his removal was not widely known until it was revealed in a Dec. 17 report by the Catholic News Agency.

While Pierre did not cite the specific “blasphemous communications,” or disclose the precise acts of “persistent disobedience,” the dismissal appears to be retribution for a video Pavone posted on social media.

The video shows Pavone standing behind the altar in the Priests for Life chapel. On the altar lies the body of an aborted fetus. “Today, we are going to pray with this baby, and we are going to let this baby’s body bear witness to our nation.” Pavone then appeals to Americans to vote for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, saying they “have an opportunity here to make a real difference for children just like this.”

In a Nov. 8, 2016, statement, Bishop Patrick J. Zurek said “Priests for Life, Inc., is not a Catholic institution, but a civil organization, and it is not under the control or supervision of the Diocese of Amarillo.”

Zurek also cited the video, saying the Diocese was “opening an investigation.”

Pavone’s History of Pro-Life Advocacy

Pavone, one of the most famous pro-life advocates in the world, was ordained in 1988 by Cardinal John O’Connor. He became the National Director of Priests for Life in 1993. He is also the President of the National Pro-life Religious Council and the National Pastoral Director of both the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and Rachel’s Vineyard Ministries. In June 1994, Pavone visited Mother Teresa at her Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, where she expressed support for priests like Pavone, who advocate for the sanctity of life. The Vatican appointed Pavone to the Pontifical Academy for Life and to the Pontifical Council for the Family to help facilitate pro-life activities of the Catholic Church.

While Pavone had served as National Co-Chair of Pro-life Voices for Trump and Trump’s National Faith Advisory Board, The Catholic Telegraph reported in 2020 that he resigned from both positions. While he did not mention Zurek by name, he said he resigned by the request of “the competent ecclesiastical authority not to have an official title/position on the advisory boards.”

History of Zurek and Pavone

According to Pavone, Zurek was one of the “ringleaders” in a prior effort to have him removed from the clergy, recalling how Zurek sent a letter to all of the bishops expressing “a vague expression of concern over the finances.” Upon being challenged, Zurek admitted there was no specific instance of questionable finances, yet he pursued the investigation for years. Ultimately, Pavone said, the Vatican found no wrongdoing.

“For the last two decades they’ve been creating one excuse after the other to try to sideline my work, to discredit Priests for Life, and to get me out of leadership,” Pavone told The Epoch Times. “When none of that worked they figured their only other option was to remove me from the priesthood altogether.”

Pavone is not the only one to note Zurek’s acrimony toward the pro-life priest.

According to a March 5, 2016, letter (pdf) from Rev. Msgr. Harold Waldow, obtained by The Epoch Times, Zurek demonstrated animosity toward Pavone from the beginning.

As Waldow described, Pavone was incardinated as a priest of the Diocese of Amarillo under Bishop John Yanta for the purpose of facilitating two projects—to create a Society of the Apostolic Life dedicated to the “protection of the unborn” and to develop an international center for pro-life causes.

Waldow, Zurek’s own Vicar for the Clergy, then described how neither of the projects came to fruition because Yanta had retired and was replaced by Zurek.

While Pavone was “generally well received by clergy, laity and religious alike” and observed as being obedient, Waldow said the relationship between Zurek and Pavone “was strained” from the beginning.

He then recalled being present during a meeting between Zurek and Pavone on April 20, 2010, during Holy Week. Pavone had relayed frustration with his failure to achieve the same success through the ministerial structure of the church as he had through his pro-life ministry.

“It was an open, respectful revelation on Father Pavone’s part,” Waldow conveyed. However, he said “Zurek responded with an expression of anger” and withdrew from the meeting. It was then that Waldow encouraged Pavone to “seek another bishop/diocese” away from “Zurek’s reach” because the relationship between him and Zurek “had long since become toxic.”

The Video

While some say the video was a political stunt, Pavone said he’s “been showing aborted babies online for years,” adding that pro-life advocates had been bringing these babies to him because they know he performed funerals for them after they “were discarded like trash.” He noted the incident in April where the bodies of 110 babies—stuffed into a box marked “special medical waste”—had been intercepted by a pro-life group. Doctors told Live Action News that five of the babies had been viable, suggesting they had been victims of the illegal procedure of partial-birth abortion. The baby in the noted video was given to him by a pastor who had confidentially received the body from a pathologist, who had received the baby after an abortion.

His support for Trump in the video was because of his own pro-life stance.

“Let’s get the slogans out of the way and get to the reality of it,” Pavone said.

Despite his dismissal from the clergy, Pavone vowed to continue his work to protect the life of the unborn.