The MAGA-loving, anti-abortion priest was laicized last year. Women are now speaking out about his inappropriate behavior.

Frank Pavone, the former Catholic priest who was kicked out of the priesthood late last year, has now been accused by multiple women of sexual misconduct. This comes after spending years building his reputation as the ultimate moralist—a man with a take-no-prisoners approach to abortion who became far better known for his anti-choice extremism and MAGA cultism than anything Jesus-related.

He was so toxic that Vatican laicized him—revoking his priestly credentials, so to speak—on November 9 with “no possibility of appeal,” according to the Catholic News Agency.

Before discussing the allegations, it’s important to know who this guy is and why he became too extreme for the Church given that his anti-abortion views seemed perfectly in line with the Vatican.

Pavone, a former leader with the group “Priests for Life,” got a lot of attention in 2016 when he urged Catholics to vote for Donald Trump in a (now-deleted) video in which he used an actual dead fetus as a political prop.

He became emblematic of the problem with the anti-abortion movement. People like Pavone claim to be “pro-life,” but they rarely talk about the life of the women or how to care for the babies they want to “save.” They oppose contraception, even though that could prevent a lot of unwanted pregnancies. They oppose the sort of public policies that would make it easier to raise a child in a safe environment.

Frank Pavone never urged women to use birth control. He never put condoms on his altar. He never fought for health care for babies whose parents couldn’t afford it. He never showed empathy for victims of sexual assault.

The biggest concern for the Church may have been the explicit political endorsement, which, of course, the Church is not supposed to make. (Pavone was also the chair of a group called Catholics for Trump.) But Pavone remained a priest.

He also remained in his job despite the fact that no one seemed to know where Pavone actually worked:

It is not clear in what diocese Pavone, 63, is incardinated as a priest. On the Priests for Life website, it says he received permission from the Vatican in 2019 to transfer from the Diocese of Amarillo, Texas, where he was incardinated in 2005, to another, unnamed diocese.

Pavone hosted the show “Defending Life” on EWTN for many years until the Bishop of Amarillo, Texas, revoked Pavone’s permission to appear on the Network. EWTN is the parent organization of CNA.

The Vatican didn’t cite any of those things in their letter revoking his credentials.

What they did mention were his childish tweets from 2020:

In tweets that were subsequently deleted, Pavone reportedly called then Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden a “[expletive] loser” and said the Democratic party was “God-hating” and “America-hating” and that Biden’s supporters “can’t say a [expletive] thing in support of their loser candidate without using the word Trump.”

“What the hell do you have to say for yourselves, losers?” Pavone asked.

(“Goddamn.” He said “Goddamn.&rdquo

The Church’s letter dismissing him referenced “blasphemous communications on social media,” suggesting the use of a profanity was more of a problem than his publicity stunt and political endorsements. More than anything, it seemed, Pavone’s biggest problem was not obeying orders from someone above him in the Catholic hierarchy:

“Father Pavone was given ample opportunity to defend himself in the canonical proceedings, and he was also given multiple opportunities to submit himself to the authority of his diocesan bishop,” explains a separate statement attached to [Apostolic Nuncio to the United States Archbishop Christophe] Pierre’s letter. “It was determined that Father Pavone had no reasonable justification for his actions.”

He disobeyed a bishop, repeatedly, for some unnamed reason.

That’s what turned him from Father Pavone into Frank the Creepy Fetus Dude who participates in Catholic cosplay to convince people God wants them to support the MAGA Republican agenda.

Shortly after his dismissal became public news, Pavone complained on Twitter about being persecuted: