Here is the full note from the Vatican website:

Removal of bishop of Tyler, U.S.A., and appointment of apostolic administrator

The Holy Father has removed Bishop Joseph E. Strickland from the pastoral care of the diocese of Tyler, United States of America, and has appointed Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin as apostolic administrator of the same diocese, rendering it sede vacante.

Bishop Vasquez is not the local ordinary of the Tyler diocese, but only the administrator. So the See is vacant. Two days earlier, Bishop Strickland was asked by the Pope to resign, and he refused. However, he has accepted his removal from the diocese.

The Roman Pontiff has the authority to remove a Bishop from his diocese.

Commentary

The comments posted online by those who support Strickland and who oppose Pope Francis prove that his removal was just. The vast majority of supporters of Strickland have expressed outrage at his removal, their judgment that he is a holy and faithful Bishop, and vehement opposition to the Roman Pontiff Pope Francis.

I’ll be quoting these comments without attribution to the person tweeting. However, the links allow you to look up the tweets in full.

Comments after the tweet by Raymond Arroyo:

“Pope Francis is a disgrace, he needs to resign. This is why people are considering switching to orthodox.”

“I guess if our cardinals will not stand for our faith against a heretic pope then followers are the only hope. My bishop wouldn’t even acknowledge my letter seeking clarification. Now our great bishops are removed.”

“Pathetic. Disgraceful. Tyrannical. Absolutely abhorrent.
Tyrants gotta tyrant.”

“Is Pope Francis really a Pope? It seems that he acts like a dictator leader . Praying for the Church and Pope Francis. May he be converted to Catholic faith.”

“We want Pope Francis to resign
#PopeFrancisresign”

“Disgraceful that a good, holy Bishop is treated this way because he is speaking Truth.”

I’ve looked at many other comments, including ones after the tweets of other persons. They are much the same. There is a pattern of conservative or traditionalist Catholics supporting Bishop Strickland, and maligning Pope Francis. They speak as if Strickland were holy and faithful, and as if Pope Francis were misguided, a bad pope, or even wicked. And they speak as if their favorite leaders, who rebel against the Pope and his decisions on doctrine and discipline, were remaining heroically faithful to Christ in the fact of persecution and grave error.

But the perennial teaching of the Church is that the Roman Pontiff cannot err gravely on doctrine or discipline, and cannot fail in faith. Those Catholics who oppose the Roman Pontiff and accuse him of undermining the true Faith are the ones who are in error, necessarily. He has the papal charisms, and they do not.

Their attitude is not new. For many years now, certain conservative or traditionalist Catholics have opposed Pope Francis at every turn, no matter what he says or does. And they treat every conservative or traditionalist leader, especially those who oppose the Pope, as if they were holy and faithful.

Conservatism is not Catholicism. The most conservative persons are not the holiest. The most traditionalist persons are not the most faithful. The Catholic Christian Faith is not a political party. Those who follow conservatism instead of Catholicism are heretics and schismatics. They have transferred their allegiance from Christ and His Church to a pseudo-religious political party. That is idolatry, not faithfulness.

The correct answer to every theological question is not the conservative answer in every case, nor the liberal answer, nor the moderate answer. Truth is not conservative or liberal. Some of what Jesus taught might be categorized, in secular human terms, as conservative, or liberal, or moderate. And so we cannot only adhere to a conservative or liberal or moderate version of the Faith. We must follow what the Church teaches regardless of whether one teaching is conservative and another liberal or something else.

Secular politics today is highly polarized. Political conservatives oppose political liberals, and oppose all of their leaders and policies. And vice versa. Leaders and supporters of one party malign and denigrate leaders of the other party. Their own leaders can do no wrong, and the other party’s leaders can do no right. This behavior is wrong even in secular matters, and it is gravely wrong and harmful to the Faith and the Church in religious matters.

It is morally reprehensible to take the side of every conservative or traditionalist leader, and to openly oppose and malign the Pope, because he is liberal. It is contrary to truth to assume that every conservative Bishop is holy, faithful, and teaches truth, while every liberal Bishop and Pope Francis are assumed to teach error. It is the grave sin of formal schism to oppose Pope Francis at every turn, contradict his every teaching, reject his every ruling, and openly treat him with malice and contempt. Such persons are automatically excommunicated before the eyes of God.

Bishop Strickland

This particular Bishop gained a large following on the internet by opposing Pope Francis, opposing liberal Catholic leaders, and taking the side of the conservative leaders. That is not holiness or faithfulness. He undermined the teaching and authority of the Roman Pontiff. He spoke as if he were not obligated to believe the teachings of the Roman Pontiff and accept his decisions on discipline. He spoke as if he, as a Bishop of a diocese, could be the judge over what is and is not truth, and what is and is not Tradition, apart from the Roman Pontiff. This attitude is harmful to the faithful, as it encourages them to reject the teaching of Christ, who formed His Church with Peter and his successors as His Vicar, and who gave each Roman Pontiff the charism of truth and never-failing faith, and the authority of Christ himself. An individual Bishop cannot declare that he himself is teaching Truth, while the Pope has gone astray. For the Roman Pontiff is the principle of unity in the Church, and exercises full authority over the whole Church.

The two great commandments are Love God above all else, and love your neighbor as yourself. Treating anyone with hatred, malice, contempt, malicious ridicule, or constant opposition no matter what they say or do is a mortal sin. Anyone. And to treat the Vicar of Christ in such a manner, in regard to his exercise of the Keys of Peter over doctrine and discipline, is indirect blasphemy, as the Roman Pontiff represents Christ, is the visible head of the Church, is the Rock on which the Church is founded.

So we cannot treat any Roman Pontiff as if he were merely the head of an opposing political or religious party, to be resisted, rejected, and maligned in everything he does. Such an approach to any Pope is a mortal sin and expresses the grave sin of formal schism. The faithful can disagree, charitably and mildly, with some few decisions of the Pope on doctrine or discipline — non-infallible points of doctrine or rulings on matters of discipline or liturgical form. But to hate the Roman Pontiff is to hate Christ. God forbid.

And if you think that any Roman Pontiff can teach heresy, commit apostasy, heresy, or idolatry, lead the Church or the faithful astray, then you need to read the perennial teaching of the Church on the charisms of the Roman Pontiff here.

Bishop Strickland publicly accused Pope Francis, in May 12 tweet, of “undermining the Deposit of Faith.” Here is the full text of the tweet:

Please allow me to clarify regarding, “Patrick Coffin has challenged the authenticity of the Pope Francis.” If this is accurate I disagree, I believe Pope Francis is the Pope but it is time for me to say that I reject his program of undermining the Deposit of Faith. Follow Jesus.

This type of opposition to any Roman Pontiff is contrary to the relationship between the successor of Peter and the successors of the other Apostles, established by Christ, found in Luke 22:32, in which the Pope confirms the faith of his brethren, the other Bishops. Accusing the Roman Pontiff of failing in faith contradicts that verse, in which Christ promises to every Pope the charism of never-failing faith. Yet Strickland is clearly saying that Catholics should follow Jesus instead of the Roman Pontiff, who is the Vicar of Christ.

When Fr. James Altman was removed from ministry by his bishop, Strickland wrote: “Fr James Altman is in trouble for speaking the truth.” Later, when Fr. Altman declared that Pope Francis is not a valid Pope (“Jorge Bergoglio is not the Pope” 09-14-23), Strickland was silent.

NCRonline notes that Bishop Strickland “in recent years questioned the safety of the coronavirus vaccines, called synodality ‘garbage,’ and endorsed a video that attacked Francis himself as a ‘diabolically disoriented clown.’ ” That video was by Fr. Altman,

The same NCR article presents this view by Massimo Faggioli:
“The shocking part for me was not that [Strickland] was going against Pope Francis, but seeing a Catholic bishop behaving like a fundamentalist Protestant in being so dismissive of the idea that there is a church authority that he has to obey,” said Massimo Faggioli, a theologian and church historian at Villanova University.

So many of the opponents of Pope Francis have declared that they follow Tradition, not the Roman Pontiff. This is like the fundamentalist Protestants who only follow their own interpretation of the Bible; but they consider that this interpretation is not subject to any error as they are just believing what the Bible plainly says. They don’t distinguish between Scripture and their possibly erroneous interpretation of Scripture. Similarly, many opponents of Pope Francis do not distinguish between Tradition and their possibly erroneous interpretation of Tradition. And they don’t accept the role of Popes and Ecumenical Councils to teach from Tradition and Scripture definitively.

Some supporters of Bishop Strickland have cited the statistics of the diocese, that they have many men preparing to be ordained as priests, that they easily meet their fundraising goals, that the Latin Mass community thrives there. This is not proof of faithfulness. When the Protestant Reformers rose up against the Catholic Church, and formed their own churches, they had many supporters and much success in numbers. But this success was the result of appealing to popular biases, errors, and outright heresies. The appeal of someone like Bishop Strickland to Catholics on the far right does not indicate faithfulness to Christ. And this is especially true since Strickland obtains a large following by openly opposing the Roman Pontiff and by speaking as if he need only follow Jesus, not the Roman Pontiff and the body of Bishops (who support him).

Strickland claims that the Apostolic Visitation was something that happened to him because “I’ve been bold enough and love the Lord enough and His Church to simply keep preaching the truth.” (Source ) This is false. It is not love of the Lord to support Fr. Altman, who maliciously ridiculed the Pope and eventually fell into sede vacantism. It is not love of the Lord to refuse to accuse the successor of Peter of failing in faith, contrary to the teaching and promise of the Lord in Luke 22:32. The interpretation of that verse is taught definitively in Vatican I, and is also the ancient and constant teaching of the Church. Strickland is speaking like a Protestant, who does not believe in the authority or charisms of the Roman Pontiff and the body of Bishops who support and follow him.

LifeSiteNews says: “Bishop Strickland, 65, is well known among LifeSite readers for his unequivocal defense of Catholic teaching, teaching that is often cast in confusion by papal statements or messages.” (Source )

However, LifeSiteNews “is well known among” for promoting schism and heresy, for publicizing the sede vacantist, heretical and schismatic views of archbishop Carlo Vigano — as well as his bizarre conspiracy theories — and for manifestly persevering in open rebellion against Pope Francis. It is not true that everyone who opposes Pope Francis is a faithful defender of Catholic teaching, while everyone who supports the Pope has gone astray. Such a view is schismatic and incompatible with perennial Catholic teaching on the Roman Pontiff and the obligation of submission to his authority and his decisions on doctrine and discipline.

Saint Newman, 1801-1890: “I have said that, like St. Peter, he is the Vicar of his Lord. He can judge, and he can acquit; he can pardon, and he can condemn; he can command and he can permit; he can forbid, and he can punish. He has a Supreme jurisdiction over the people of God. He can stop the ordinary course of sacramental mercies; he can excommunicate from the ordinary grace of redemption; and he can remove again the ban which he has inflicted. It is the rule of Christ’s providence, that what His Vicar does in severity or in mercy upon earth, He Himself confirms in heaven.”

Ronald L Conte Jr