A priest, who live-streamed himself on YouTube performing multiple exorcisms of alleged election fraud, has left his post at a Roman Catholic diocese in Wisconsin.
According to The Lincoln Journal, Reverend John Zuhlsdorf believed in claims of electoral fraud alleged by President Donald Trump and his allies in November 3's Presidential election.
The videos have since been removed.
A statement sent to the priests of the Madison Catholic Diocese earlier in January said Fr. John Zuhlsdorf will relocate to "pursue other opportunities" and added it was a mutual decision reached between Zuhlsdorf and Madison's Bishop Donald Hying.
The statement also said that Zuhlsdorf, who has served in the diocese since 2014, remains in "good canonical standing."
On his own website, Fr. Z's Blog, he announced his departure, after reflecting on his 10-year plan.
He spoke of a "present atmosphere of cancel culture" infecting the Church, media and streets:
"There is a Catholic Antifa now. They are feeling their ascendancy and they are applying it. We will see more persecution leveled at any one who strays from their demands. The New Catholic Red Guard. They are bullies. They are easy to spot. They aren't even trying to hide it anymore. In the near future they will be a force of great evil in the Church and we must find ways to resist them without stooping to their thuggery, without giving in to hate. God help them," he wrote.
"My years in my adoptive Diocese of Madison have be fruitful on many levels. However, I've have discerned that I while I still can I need to be closer to family. I'm not getting younger and neither are they. That, in itself, requires me to relocate in the not too distant future, to move, or at least to spend long stretches of time in places other than in Madison. I've discussed this with necessary parties. That's in the works. I thank God and many others who have been so good to me here. I'll be around, however, and I won't be a stranger," he added.
Zuhlsdorf, who is a priest of the Italian Diocese of Velletri-Segni, near Rome had come under fire in the pages of both The Tablet and America magazine for practicing exorcisms without the permission of his bishop, Vincenzo Apicella
Although Zuhlsdorf initially defended himself saying he'd received permission from the bishop, the bishop publicly corrected him, issuing a statement to clarify that his permission for the exorcism rite was "for the intention of alleviation from the scourge of the coronavirus pandemic" and not for "partisan political activity."
In his blog, Zuhlsdorf has written critically about Pope Francis and shown sympathy to much of President Trump's policies.
