The late Pope Francis will be remembered as a great humanitarian, but the papacy is more than that, as nobody is above the church’s laws, former Tyler, Texas, Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed from his post over his criticisms of the Pope’s reform efforts of the church, told Newsmax Sunday. 

“We certainly pray for Pope Francis, and I believe he will go down in history as a great humanitarian, but the papacy is more than being a humanitarian,” Strickland told Newsmax’s “Sunday Report.” “It is guarding the deposit of faith and guiding us in divine law. We hear the phrase, no one is above the law. That includes the Pope in our Catholic faith.”

That law, said Strickland, is “divinely revealed to us,” and the Pope is the supreme lawgiver in the church’s canon law. 

Read more at Newsmax© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.