In his decade heading the Catholic Church, Pope Francis has focused on bringing a gentle, welcoming spirit to the church. He has expressed love toward (if not full acceptance of) LGBTQ Catholics and emphasized the importance of tolerance over rigidity. To Francis’ supporters, it seemed that his grace extended even to his enemies, who have solidified into a strong, well-funded conservative opposition over the years. Some of Francis’ supporters have even grown frustrated at the pope for allowing his critics to grow so emboldened, begging him to do something about the revolt brewing in the church. Francis has remained stubbornly quiet.

Until this year. The 86-year-old pope has flashed signs of irritation before, calling a conservative Catholic TV network “the work of the devil” and talking about his American critics’ “backwardness.” But the comments were rare, recent, and vague; he had, for the most part, been trying to ignore his challengers. Now, it seems like Francis has finally lost some patience.

The first big surprise came on Nov. 11, when the Vatican announced that Bishop Joseph Strickland had been fired from his job of leading the diocese of Tyler, Texas. Strickland—an energetic and, at 65, relatively youthful face of the church’s radical traditionalists—had spent years escalating his dissident commentary, going so far as to accuse Francis of “undermining” sacred truths. Strickland’s list of anti-Francis provocations is long: He also called some of Francis’ comments “confusing and very dangerous”; challenged Francis to “fire” him for not being “politically correct”; railed against the “evil” in the Vatican and the dangers of its “deep state” (Strickland has previously flirted with QAnon); shared a video that called Francis a “diabolically disoriented clown”; called Pope Francis’ signature reform project “garbage as far as I’m concerned”; and shared a letter that declared Francis to be a false pope and “usurper.” He also encouraged priests to defy their bishops’ COVID vaccine mandates, endorsed a claim that “you cannot be Catholic and be a Democrat,” and led a prayer at the pro-Trump “Jericho March” that preceded the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Still, firing a bishop is extraordinarily rare. Typically, when a bishop runs into serious trouble—usually for mishandling sexual abuse, but sometimes for sexual or financial impropriety of his own—he is privately asked to resign. Bishops are otherwise generally allowed independence as leaders of their regions in order to encourage free speech and intellectual diversity within the church. Those familiar with church laws and bureaucracy would find it extreme to crack down on a bishop for his theological........

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