Fr. Father Frank Pavone

Father Frank Pavone Promises to Defend His Priesthood: “I Want to Continue Serving”

The national director of Priests for Life, Frank Pavone, canceled a scheduled livestreamed Mass today, one day after CNA published a report that he was continuing to celebrate Mass after the Vatican had removed him from the priesthood.

READ MORE ON FR. FRANK’S DEFENSE OF PRIESTHOOD

CANON LAWYER: ONLY POPE COULD HAVE LAICIZED PAVONE

After the Vatican dismissed pro-life leader Fr. Frank Pavone from the priesthood with “no possibility of appeal,” canon lawyer Fr. Gerald E. Murray pointed out that the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law “does not state that the possible penalties” for the offenses the Vatican accused Pavone of committing “include dismissal from the clerical state.”

“Only the Pope, who enjoys ‘full and supreme power in the Church’ (canon 332, 1), can issue such a decision against which there is no possible appeal,” Murray added.