ISTANBUL
An American bishop of the Catholic Church has described civilian deaths in Gaza as “a holocaust of our time" while defending Carrie Prejean Boller following her removal from US President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission.
“As you said, I think Carrie was removed because they didn’t like the truth she was speaking. The truth about Gaza, which is verboten by many. The innocents that have devastatingly died there is just horrible,” Bishop Joseph Strickland said during an interview published on Monday.
“It truly is a holocaust of our time,” he added.
Boller, a former member of the US Religious Liberty Commission, was removed earlier this month after she criticized Zionism and challenged panelists to condemn Israel’s conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Strickland said her dismissal stemmed from the substance of her remarks rather than her tone.
Bishop added that he contacted Boller to offer support after her removal and later decided to publicly back her position.
“I knew that if I was going to be the man I wanted to be, if I was going to be the Christian that I want to be, I had to speak up … basically say Carrie was removed from that committee because she was speaking truth,” he said.
The interview also addressed Israel’s police-enforced closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Carlson questioned the authority to shut religious sites and said clergy were barred from entering to livestream Mass.
Strickland described the closures as “basically totalitarian” and argued authorities were threatened by religious truth.
“What it tells me is that truth is threatening,” he said, adding that “closure of holy sites and the attack of innocent people” reflected fear of that truth.