U.S. Bishop Condemns Gaza Civilian Deaths as "Holocaust of Our Time"

(MENAFN) An American Catholic bishop has condemned civilian casualties in Gaza as “a holocaust of our time,” simultaneously rallying behind ousted Religious Liberty Commission member Carrie Prejean Boller following her removal by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

“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 stated in an interview released Monday.

“It truly is a holocaust of our time,” he added.

Boller, a former commissioner on the US Religious Liberty Commission, was expelled earlier this month after publicly criticizing Zionism and pressing fellow panelists to denounce Israel’s military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Strickland maintained that her removal was driven by the content of her message, not the manner in which she delivered it.

The bishop said he reached out privately to Boller to express solidarity before ultimately choosing to voice his support on the public record.

“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 further touched on Israel’s police-enforced shuttering of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Carlson questioned what authority could justify closing sacred religious sites, noting that clergy had been barred from entering to conduct livestreamed Masses.

Strickland characterized the closures as “basically totalitarian,” contending that officials felt threatened by religious conviction.

“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.

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