Another Russian Connection: The Pope and Putin
The most powerful man in the Vatican after Pope Francis, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, will make an “historic visit” to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of August “with the aim of improving Holy See relations both with the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church.” The trip “will also pave the way for a potential visit by Pope Francis which some believe could happen as early as next year,” according to Vatican reporter Edward Pentin.
Pope Francis has met Putin twice at the Vatican in November 2013 and June 2015.
In February 2016, the pope made a stop at the José Martí airport in Havana on his way to Mexico for a meeting with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. That meeting would not have happened “without a green light from Putin.”
Pope Francis said that Metropolitan Archbishop Hilarion, foreign minister of the Russian Orthodox Church, “has come many times to speak with me.”
“One of the most skilled and experienced Vatican diplomats," Archbishop Celestino Migliore, was appointed as the pope’s ambassador to Russia in May 2016 after serving as his ambassador to the United Nations, reported Vatican expert Andrea Gagliarducci.
Migliore’s predecessor in Moscow, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, was then assigned as ambassador to the UN in Geneva. The “widespread saying among Vatican diplomats” is that “Geneva is where the UN headquarters’ decisions are prepared” and Jurkovic “knows very well the Russian world and its sensitivities,” Gagliarducci attested.
Before Jurkovic, Archbishop Antonio Mennini was the papal representative to Moscow from 2002 to 2010. (The Vatican and Russia established full diplomatic relations in 2009.) Mennini was made an official in the Vatican Secretariat of State in January 2017.
Within two months of Pope Francis’ election, Putin appointed Alexander Avdeev as his ambassador to the Vatican. Avdeev was Russia's deputy Foreign Affairs minister from 1998 to 2002, special ambassador and plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Paris until 2008 and then the Kremlin Minister of Culture until his appointment to the Vatican.
In view of the above, it would be safe to say that the Vatican is closer to Russia than any other country and the Russian Orthodox Church more than any other religion.
TRADITIONAL VALUES
Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor at Reuters, explained the alliance between Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church. “With strong financial backing from oligarchs, [the Russian Orthodox Church's] global reach amounts to a network of the new Russian presence around the world, parallel to Moscow's embassies and trade missions.”
Under Putin, “the Church has developed into a thriving institution that works closely with the Kremlin to promote common interests.”
The Kremlin has “included the Church in its foreign policy strategy," and Putin “praised the Church as a spiritual bulwark against degenerate foreign influences.”
Nataliya Vasilyeva, reporting for the Associated Press, agrees. “President Vladimir Putin appears eager to harness that resurgent power of faith to promote his own agenda. [He] sees an alliance with Church interests as a way to bolster nationalism with belief [and] to block any inroads by Western liberalism.”
The Russian Orthodox Church’s “proximity to power has not gone unnoticed in Europe, where Moscow has been active encouraging the nationalist far-right, and Germany has already expressed concern about possible Russian cyber meddling in its next general election,” Heneghan wrote.
In November 2016, the European Parliament denounced Moscow in a resolution that read in part: "The Russian Government is employing a wide range of tools and instruments - think tanks and special foundations, special authorities, multilingual TV stations, pseudo-news agencies and multimedia services - as well as cross-border social and religious groups, since the regime wants to present itself as the only defender of traditional Christian values."
In a May 19 address to the Russian parliament's Commission for the Protection of Christian Values, Patriarch Kirill’s representative “is again calling upon the nation's government to make abortion illegal.”
On May 31, Kirill condemned same-sex marriage “at a time when the repression of homosexuals is increasingly severe in Russia, most notably in Chechnya. Chechen authorities have detained hundreds of homosexuals and incited their families to kill them in order to ‘cleanse their honor.’ … The rejection of homosexuality is one of the most recurrent themes in the Russian Orthodox Church’s rhetoric. This is to affirm, in particular, the Orthodox Church’s moral superiority over the West, which it considers ‘decadent.’”
Putin "sides with the Church in opposing gay rights.” In 2013, Putin “signed two bills making so-called ‘gay propaganda’ and actions that ‘insult religious feelings’ both crimes. A crackdown on gay rights protests and online support groups has followed.”
While he was Minister of Culture, Alexander Avdeev “called for the revival of traditional Russian moral values.” “Russian culture will flourish and remain the center of the national idea,” he said, “only if it will be in very close dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church.”
While Pope Francis was cardinal archbishop of Buenos Aires, he "clashed with the progressive Kirchner administration sharply over issues of abortion, contraception and sex education.” Kirchner called Bergoglio the “spiritual head of the political opposition.”
The progressive Pres. Fernandez’ relationship with Bergoglio was “strained due to her support for same-sex marriage and the leftism of her administration.” A week before the vote on legislation approving same-sex marriage, Bergoglio wrote a pastoral letter “harshly criticizing the initiative.” The legislation was a “’move’ by the father of lies [Satan] meant to confuse and deceive the children of God,” he wrote.
In 2012, when the Fernandez administration “pushed for mandatory sex education in schools, free distribution of contraceptives in public hospitals, and the right for transsexuals to change their official identities on demand,” Bergoglio accused the president of “demagoguery, totalitarianism, corruption and efforts to secure unlimited power.”
Putin’s choice of Avdeev as his Vatican ambassador was a good match with the new pope.
CONSERVATIVE INTERNATIONAL
“The Kremlin leader's full-throated defense of Russia's ‘traditional values’ and his derision of the West's ‘genderless and infertile’ liberalism [is an example] of Putin attempting to place himself at the vanguard of a new ‘Conservative International,’" wrote Brian Whitmore of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In a report titled “Putin: World Conservatism's New Leader,” a Kremlin-connected think tank wrote “most people yearn for stability and security, favor traditional family values over feminism and gay rights, and prefer nation-based states rather than multicultural melting pots. Putin, the report says, stands for these values…. The world's traditionalists will now line up behind Putin.”
The European Right
In most cases, “the European populist parties share a common set of priorities” with Putin. They view him “as an ally,” wrote Ronald Brownstein of The Atlantic.
“Those close to the Kremlin have been expanding their outreach to members of Europe’s far-right, ranging from directing funding to France’s National Front party to inviting Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party to visit the Crimean peninsula,” according to Casey Michel quoted in Religion Dispatches.
In March, “Putin made his preferences in the French presidential election clear Friday by hosting far-right candidate Marine Le Pen at the Kremlin.” Le Pen’s platform as “defender of conservative national values against Western globalization appeals to the Kremlin.” She has repeatedly visited Russia, reported the Associated Press.
“Especially from the right and far-right,” French politicians “are harking back to a secularized version of France’s traditional Catholic identity as one of several ways to mobilize voters,” Heneghan noted. Marine Le Pen appeared at Mont Saint Michel, the famous medieval monastery off the Normandy coast. “Mont Saint Michel, the eternal symbol of a France that draws strength and grandeur from its Christian roots,” she tweeted.
When asked about the French presidential election, Pope Francis responded, “I don’t know where [Emmanuel Macron] comes from” and “I know there is a candidate from the strong right.” The remarks, which Marine Le Pen “used in a campaign rally to mock her opponent, were nothing short of ‘astonishing,’ as Le Monde pointed out in a front page editorial. “Contrary to the pope’s vague statements, the National Front leader is not from the ‘strong’ right. She is a pure product of the French extreme right, hailing from a political dynasty whose roots stretch all the way back to France’s darkest days of Nazi collaboration,” reported the Washington Post.
Similarly, the French-based, anti-Semitic Society of St. Pius X with whom Pope Francis is seeking to reunite, also has roots stretching back to Vichy Nazi collaborators.
Putin has met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán several times since the Hungarian leader came to power in 2010. Hungary’s 2011 constitution not only claims the country’s Christian roots, but also includes the phrases “the protection of life from the moment of conception” and “the family based on marriage between a man and a woman.”
In May, Orbán hosted the annual conference for the International Organization of the Family (IOF) in Budapest. The Human Rights Campaign describes the group “as a dangerous group of activists spreading anti-LGBT rhetoric and promoting laws and policies that criminalize LGBT people.” The IOF “is also staunchly anti-abortion, and will host a number of international pro-life groups such as the American organization Family Watch International.”
“There are many new groups that have sprouted on the continent in recent years with missions they describe as ‘promoting life,’ ‘traditional family,’ and ‘religious liberty’ in response to the advance of laws to recognize same-sex marriage and abortion rights. Some are technically secular organizations, but their strength, their leaders concede, largely comes from churchgoers.” wrote J. Lester Feder of Buzzfeed.
“As the right-wing parties are on the rise in Europe, one can see a certain turn towards more conservative politics in all spheres of life - including reproductive rights. The rise of conservative politics, complete with traditionalist views on so-called ‘family values,’ means that the anti-abortion movement is having a comeback in Europe. Their zeal is almost religious - and many of them are affiliated with Europe’s Churches. The most influential of them is the Catholic Church,” according to Daria Sukharchuk in Ms. Magazine.
Pope Francis has said that abortion, even to save a woman’s life, is an “horrendous crime,” an “unspeakable crime,” horrific” and “what the Mafia does – throw someone away to save another.” He has stated that abortion is the product of “the egoism of a culture that does not love life,” the “alleged right to one’s own body” and a “widespread mentality of profit.” Pope Francis also denounced international organizations for making economic assistance to developing countries “contingent on certain policies of ‘reproductive health.’”
The Foreign Office of the Moscow Patriarchate held an international seminar at the end of January, during which the Orthodox and Catholic churches jointly addressed the issue of abortion. When Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill met in Havana one year ago, the protection of life … was one of the most important issues mentioned in their joint declaration. The Moscow seminar was thus a direct result of this historic meeting. [T]he Catholic Church has vast international experience on this front and the Orthodox Church can learn from this.
The joint declaration also included a denouncement of same-sex marriage.
Eastern Europe
Some right-wing parties “ran on explicitly anti-LGBT platforms, particularly in Eastern Europe,” according to Feder of Buzzfeed.
“What makes Eastern Europe important” Cardinal Parolin declared, is its “historical role in civilization, culture and Christian faith.” The majority of people in most Eastern European nations identify themselves as Catholic or Orthodox according to the Pew Research Center.
In Romania, “where the Orthodox Church holds considerable sway,” the Coalition for the Family collected 3 million signatures in 2016 “in favor of changing the constitutional definition of marriage as a union strictly between a man and a woman from the existing ‘spouses.’ The Coalition also supports canceling subsidies for contraception and elective abortion."
The ruling Law and Justice Party in Poland "came to power in late 2015 on a ticket of promoting traditional Polish values, family and Catholic traditions.” Poland’s constitution is one of seven in the EU to ban gay marriages and the country has some of the strictest abortion regulations in Europe. "World Politics Review’s editors wrote on July 24 about the ways that the 'climate for LGBT Poles has deteriorated under the Law and Justice Party.' It says, 'Attacks on LGBT individuals and organizations are on the rise' and the government has 'increased funding for right-wing and Catholic organizations.'”
In December 2015, Slovenians voted to reject a referendum allowing same-sex marriage and adoption - what “the country's Catholic Church saw as a crucial referendum for families.” Four days before the vote, Pope Francis “told a group of Slovenian pilgrims that he encouraged ‘everyone, especially those with public responsibility, to support the family.’” (In February 2017, a Slovenian law was passed allowing same-sex marriage but not adoption.)
Croatia’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage was passed by referendum in December 2013. “About 65% of the voters in this country, where a large majority declare themselves as members of the Roman Catholic Church, supported the amendment.”
Pope Francis supported a Slovakia referendum against equal marriage and gay adoption rights in this predominantly Roman Catholic country.
Pope Francis has referred to same-sex marriage as an “anthropological regression,” “disfiguring God’s plan for creation” that will "destroy the family."
The pope stated, “We must reaffirm the right of children to grow up in a family with a father and a mother capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and emotional maturity.”
Pope Francis wrote, “We reiterate the objective truth … that ‘there is no foundation whatsoever to… establish an even remotely analogous correspondence between homosexual unions and God's plan for marriage and the family.’" (Synod 2015, Relatio Finalis, n.76).
In December, Pope Francis approved another decree that men with “deeply rooted homosexual tendencies" couldn't be priests.
On June 29, the pope gave the highest award possible to lay persons to Alan Sears, head of the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-gay hate group. Sears was one of “America’s most active anti-gay activists” invited by Pope Francis to a Vatican conference on “traditional marriage.”
Conservatives Around the World
“Conservatives Around The World Are Peddling A Conspiracy Theory About Sex and Gender” is the title of an article about “gender ideology” by Ana Campoy. This “has been a very effective communication and persuasion tool. It helps its ‘fighters’ to avoid overtly homophobic language – which is prohibited by law in some countries -and to frame their arguments in secular terms,” Campoy wrote.
Pope Francis explained “gender theory” as that “which seeks to cancel out sexual difference.”
On many occasions, Pope Francis has warned against “ideological colonization” by which he means the imposition of secular Western ideas on developing countries about contraception, and human rights for gays and transgender persons.
Pope Francis has used the terms “ideological colonization” and/or “gender theory” in an October 2014 interview, January 2015 in the Philippines, in a February 2015 speech to bishops from Africa and Madagascar, March 2015 in Naples, in an April 2015 General Audience, a May 2015 address to the bishops from the Central African Republic, a June 2015 address to the bishops of Puerto Rico, a June 2015 speech to an Italian judiciary council, a June 2015 talk to the diocese of Rome, a September 2015 Vatican address, a September 2015 address to the UN General Assembly, March 2016 in Mexico, in a May 2016 address to the presidents of the European Commission, European Parliament and the European Council, October 2016 in Georgia. in-flight from Azerbaijan back to Rome and against the French government.
For the pope, “gender theory” is one reason why “the family is under attack.” “The pontiff’s campaign against gender theory, or gender ideology, may be emboldening Catholic bishops in various parts of the world to speak out themselves," according to Vatican correspondent, Ines San Martin.
Pope Francis compared the threat of transgender people to nuclear weapons. Both “do not recognize the order of creation.” With the acceptance of transgender person “man commits a new sin against God the Creator,” the pope went on to explain.
Last July, Pope Francis spoke about “ideological colonizations. And one of these – I say it clearly with name and surname - is gender! Today children, children are taught this in school that one can choose one’s sex! … God has created man and woman; God created the world thus, and thus, and thus - and we are doing the opposite … It’s the time of the sin against God the Creator!”
Putin “also takes the position held by Pope Francis that ‘tolerance of gender choice results from a Western imperial ideology.'”
POPE AND PUTIN'S POLITICAL ALLIANCE
Pope Francis positioned himself as Putin’s ally early in his pontificate. Although the massacre of civilians had been ongoing since the day he was elected, only after Pres. Obama proposed a limited air strike to deter the further use of chemical weapons against civilians did the pontiff hold a peace rally for Syria. Putin credited Pope Francis “for stopping the military action” and “with being decisive in halting the momentum with the G8 towards supporting the initiative.”
The pope “advanced a resolution that favored the interests of both Assad and Putin …. Putin certainly regarded [Obama’s failure in Syria] as a major victory. He immediately began to flex Moscow’s muscles in Ukraine, directing his ally there to abandon a proposed agreement with the European Union in favor of an alliance with Russia and Belarus," according to Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, Senior Fellow at Cardus, Canada’s leading Christian think tank.
Between Pope Francis’ first and second meetings with Putin, “some 1.2 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced according to the United Nations humanitarian office [while] Pope Francis is working to build diplomatic relations with Russia … especially to advance some of the Vatican’s other diplomatic interests,” according to Elizabeth Dias in TIME.
The meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana would benefit Putin. In view of Putin's alignment with the Russian Orthodox Church, “the private meeting is politically charged, especially when Russia is at odds with the West over Ukraine and Syria. Putin clearly sees the value of his relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church’s relationship with the pope,” Reuters' Philip Pullela and Maria Tsvetkova wrote.
For Putin, “the meeting was important to reduce Russia’s isolation amid western sanctions over Ukraine and criticism for its Syria bombing campaign,” according to Edward Pentin.
The Economist: "Did the Pope just kiss Putin’s ring?"
Russia wants its people to believe that Western republics are not as hostile as their leaders. Pope Francis just helped. [The meeting] is a diplomatic victory for Putin [and] helped to underscore Russia’s renewed standing as a global power...
Francis made clear in his interview before the meeting that on certain issues he agrees with Mr. Putin and disagrees with America and its allies...
The joint declaration issued after the meeting hewed close to the Kremlin’s positions on the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine...
The joint declaration deplores “hostility” in Ukraine, but omits any mention of Russia’s role, casting it as an internal struggle...
On April 7, “Pope Francis called the latest attack by chemical weapons on Syrian civilians ‘unacceptable carnage,’ but was careful to avoid anything that might be read as direct criticism of Assad …. Strikingly, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s top diplomat, took part Wednesday in an EU summit in Brussels on Syria, after reports of the chemical attack had already made the rounds, and never mentioned either the attack or Assad."
As regards Eastern Europe, Pope Francis “has always involved Vladimir Putin in trying to negotiate solutions … since the very first days of the pontificate,” noted Vatican reporter, Andrea Tornielli.
On May 26, Pope Francis held a private meeting with Presidents Rumen Radev of Bulgaria and Gjorge Ivanov of Macedonia. “Broadly speaking, both Radev and Ivanov are perceived as ‘pro-Moscow.’ The three leaders, therefore, had the chance to discuss their common interests in keeping lines of communication with Putin and the Kremlin open,” Vatican reporter John L. Allen Jr. wrote.
THE OTHER RUSSIAN CONNECTION
The U.S. Election
In his testimony before a Senate Intelligence hearing, former FBI director James Comey noted there was “strong evidence” that Russian hackers wanted to interfere with the presidential outcome.
Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and the CIA, called Russia’s hack and theft of emails the “most successful covert influence operation in history.”
Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta’s hacked emails were released through Wikileaks. “So what effect did Wikileaks have on the election? The drip, drip, drip of the hacked emails - published weekly during October - makes it all but impossible to measure their effect precisely. But we can say two things: (i) Americans were interested in the Wikileaks releases, and (ii) the timeline of Clinton’s fall in the polls roughly matches the emails’ publishing schedule,” according to Harry Enten, a senior political writer and analyst for FiveThirtyEight, a website focusing on opinion poll analysis.
Podesta’s emails provided the U.S. bishops the opportunity to bash Clinton. Like most Religious Right leaders, Trump had not been their choice in the Republican primaries. Also, like other Christian leaders, they were averse to openly backing the irreligious and vulgar GOP presidential candidate. So Podesta’s correspondence relating to the Catholic Church provided the ammunition they were waiting for, even though the emails were several years old and had nothing to do with Clinton or any political campaign.
In short, the bishops’ attacks against Clinton and Podesta were hyperbolic, dishonest and highly partisan, including those made by the prelate of Wall Street, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, the elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Now there was a tacit approval for the attacks by prelates against Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, which followed.
Trump won the highest percentage of Catholic voters for a Republican candidate since 2004 with whites Catholics casting more ballots for Trump (60%) than for Romney in 2012. Trump carried the South as expected, but it was his win in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan that decided the election.
Four congressional committees - the Senate intelligence committee, Senate judiciary committee, House intelligence committee and House oversight committee - are investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
The New President
Vice President Mike Pence and Trump nominees for Attorney General and Secretaries of Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Education and Labor all played leadership roles in the Republican war against women and LGBTQ persons.
Three days after his inauguration, Trump issued a "Presidential Memorandum Regarding the Mexico City Policy." This reinstated the ban on the use of U.S. foreign aid for abortion-related activities. On May 15, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson approved a plan implementing its expansion to also restrict how organizations can use their own non-U.S. government funds.
In April, Trump signed into law a bill granting states the right to defund Planned Parenthood. Cardinal Dolan cheered the loss of benefits to “abortion providers.”
Trump appointed C-Fam (formerly known as the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute), the “intensely anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ group” headed by Opus Dei’s Austin Ruse, to the U.S. delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. This is “the most important annual meeting on women’s issues at the United Nations.”
An Opus Dei center has operated in Moscow since 2007. Ruse, writing from Moscow, defended Putin’s anti-gay policies.
Ruse also celebrated Trump’s appointment of “anti-transgender activist,” Bethany Kozma as Senior Adviser in the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment division under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Kozma had organized a national women’s campaign against the Obama administration's support of the right of transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identities. The Trump administration has rescinded the protections for transgender students in public schools.
On May 4, before signing his executive order on “religious freedom,” Trump decried the “attacks against the Little Sisters of the Poor,” the same group Pope Francis had visited while in the U.S., encouraging their lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act. Churches and other houses of worship are exempt from having insurance that provides coverage for contraception. Like other religious organizations, the nuns are required to notify the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in writing of their religious objection to having coverage for contraceptive services for their employees. Trump told the nuns who were present, “Your long ordeal will soon be over. … We are ending the attacks on your religious freedom.”
On May 31, an HHS draft rule that would extend the houses-of-worship exemption to all religious organizations was reported.
When Pence addressed the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians in May, Metropolitan Hilarion, the Russian Orthodox Church's foreign minister, was present along with D.C.’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl and the pope’s U.S. ambassador, Archbishop Christopher Pierre.
In anticipation of Trump’s meeting with Pope Francis, veteran Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli wrote that in addition to anti-abortion policies, “There could be other possible agreements with the Holy See in the less exclusionary approach with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.”
According to the Vatican press office, on May 24 Trump and Pope Francis had a “cordial” meeting. “The two men discussed the good bilateral relations that exist between the U.S. and the Holy See. They also spoke of their ‘joint commitment in favor of life, religious liberty and freedom of conscience.'"
“Freedom of conscience” to obstruct and deny human rights for LGBTQ persons is another phrase Pope Francis has popularized. After the pope met with Kim Davis, the Kentucky state clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, he stated that “conscientious objection” by “government employees” is a “human right.” Later, the pope repeated the phrase when commenting on the Italian parliament’s approval of civil unions for same-sex couples. Pope Francis said Catholic public officials should be excused from officiating at those marriages if they have a “conscientious objection” to such relationships. A month earlier, Pope Francis had warned against an “educated persecution” of Christians by those who want to limit their right to “conscientious objection.” According to the pope, there is a "dictatorship" which "takes up stones to stone [the] freedom of conscience" of recipients of financial aid.
The Vatican statement regarding the Trump/Pope meeting “expressed the hope for a ‘serene cooperation between the State and the Catholic Church in the United States,’ which is engaged in service to people ‘in the fields of health care, education and assistance to immigrants,’” meaning continued tax-payer funding of Catholic schools and agencies. The day before the meeting, Trump released his budget that takes tax-payer funds out of public schools and gives it to private schools.
On July 27 Trump announced his ban on transgender people serving in the military and nominated Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Brownback’s conversion to Catholicism under the auspices of Opus Dei had been widely reported. So it’s no surprise Brownback is anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ rights.
In an interview published the same day, when asked about Trump, Cardinal Parolin replied: “You cannot be in a rush. A new administration that is so different and unique, and not only for political reasons, compared to the previous ones, will need time to find its own balance.” He reiterated that “time is needed to judge” Trump, echoing what Pope Francis had said about Trump’s inauguration: "I think that we must wait and see."
A CHRISTIAN EUROPE
In March 2017, commenting on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome that created the European Economic Community, forerunner of the European Union, Cardinal Parolin stated, “The Christian roots of Europe are Europe’s lifeblood” and “Christianity one of its fundamental elements.”
Two days later, Pope Francis addressed the heads of state in Rome marking the anniversary and echoed Parolin: “At the origin of European civilization there is Christianity.” The pope said the EU must respect the “consciences and the ideals” of its population.
After the French election in May, Pope Francis sent a telegram to Emmanuel Macron, “offering his prayers and wishes that in his new role, he will support the rich moral and spiritual traditions of the country, including that of Christianity.”
Although Pope Francis has a fawning U.S. media now, a future and more sober historical analysis might conclude his alliance with Putin and (for now) tolerance of Trump did nothing to advance Christianity.
(Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America.)
Comments
I uprated this essay for its thoroughness.
Multiple messages are presented concurrently. Only some implications are fully explored. It appears to me that there is a conflation between nationalism, right wing politics and repressive religious suppression of certain things many liberal countries have lately developed. Most prominently, according to the author are LGBT acceptance, gay marriage, and reduced state/church coercion of political dogma masquerading as God's Word.
Neoliberalism cannot exist in a framework of strict nationalism (which is not the same as isolationism). For neoliberalism to flourish commerce is the God placed above nation and to which all persons should be subjected.
For sectarian governments, the author implies that there must be persecution of heretical opinion, an idea with which I have great affinity. But is sectarianism a necessary and sufficient condition for "moral" dictatorship, imposed by a government with the willing assistance of organized churches?
The current pope, originally greeted by the Catholic world, as a resurrector of personal liberalism, has clearly shown his true colors of being as repressive as any of his predecessors. The hate speech by Pence and company, aided and abetted with people whom are truly right wing conservatives, is truly disturbing in a supposed secular republic as our own.
But is nationalism always doomed to be sectarian and repressive. Perhaps so. "Godless Communism" as initiated by Lenin and Trotsky was originally nationalistic, though Trotsky wished for internationalism in its spread. Both party founders were sectarian--the state religion being atheism. But what about the initial approach of Communist Russia compared to to groups now considered heretical by evangelicals/fundamentalists, such as homosexuals, LGBT, and many other unpleasing-to-the-state groups? I am not certain, a defect in my knowledge of early communism. Not having a god would certainly nullify any objection to such groups on the basis of "god's word".
Despite citing Putin as a born-again religionist, I don't believe it for a minute. He is maneuvering his way to the apex of the global movement away from borderless neoliberalism. And he is picking allies quite wisely. Although there may be some economic advantages to his maneuvering, most likely these alliances, somewhat based upon religious orthodoxy, serves to promote political rather than theocratic purposes. Do not doubt that if Putin ever says religion (Russian Orthodox or other) as a strong rival to his state which is essentially non-theistic, he will squash such groups like little bugs.
What disturbs me most about this essay is the pernicious, widening subversion of liberal democracy (terms used in the classical sense), not only by the god of commerce (neoliberalism) but by competing organized religions adhering to other gods. In the end, the two gods cannot be reconciled. The divine right of kings is a dead idea. The divine right of the market is dying. But organized theologies have been a latent force awaiting the proper moment to arise.
Now consider everything in this essay, as far as is possible, from the standpoint of fundamentalist Islam, and the argument could just as cogently be made for Islam rather than western right wing religions. All religions are right wing because all religions MUST rely upon official dogma--beliefs which may not be questioned, for their coherence and survival.
So, is it any wonder that nationalist/Christian states must eventually clash with nationalist/Islamic states?
All religions are inherently repressive. They must and do have required dogma to maintain organizational coherence. They must oppose change of even minute magnitude in social structure.
Every church has its "princes", whether they be Imams, Cardinals, Bishops or whatever appropriated title is used to denote churchly authority. And don't forget the financial side to religion. Jesus was poor and did not preach of attaining wealth simply by reason of his followers observing his teachings. Now compare that with the current opulence of the Vatican. The Vatican is by far the most ostentatious example of wealth accumulated by or in the name of organized religions, but it is certainly not the only such example.
So, in conclusion, regarding this essay, some organizational theory is necessary rather than only exhaustive recitations of fact, devoid of explanation.
@Alligator Ed Thanks very much,
Thanks very much, Alligator Ed, for your astute and cogent observations. I totally agree with your comments except for "all religions are inherently repressive" and "all have princes." The first that come to mind not bearing these characteristics are Buddhism and Taoism. Neither do the Christian churches like Amish, Mennonite and Quakers. Then you can add most nativist religions as well. Probably more that I can't remember right now.
As far as "organizational theory" there is none other than that there is an alliance between Putin and the pope based on "traditional values" and that these are the same values connecting most right-wing movements, parties and governments. There are many facts only because, based on my past blogging experience, that's what is needed to convince Americans that this pope is not "liberal."
Betty Clermont
repressive princes
There are also religions in the Pagan House whose "Prime Directive" is "Question Everything", including the religion's own teachings. These have inherited this tradition from modern Judaism, which makes honest disputation the right and obligation of everyone. These religions also lack "princes", usually not having anyone ranking above the leader of a single community. These factors, along with the common prohibition among modern Pagans against practicing the religion itself for money, tend to cut way down on the repression.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
So true!
Is that you Hillary?
The Roman Catholic Church's position on sexuality has not changed in decades. That along with its ingrained efforts to impose second class status on women caused me to leave decades ago. The present emphasis on sexuality and gender seems to be much more of a a broad debate within society to which the Roman Church is responding than an initiative of the church itself.
Francis is without doubt the most liberal pope since Pope John XXIII. He is Pope Francis I. There is a reason no other pope chose the name of St. Francis. Francis lived in a time when the church was accumulating huge amounts of wealth even by today's standards. People living near Rome began to contrast the lifestyle of the Bishops of Rome with that of Francis, who seemed to live much more like Jesus. There were grumblings. Francis' life was in danger. Selection of the name Francis was as strong a signal to the hierarchy the Pope could have made that the church hierarchy's mission was among the least of us, not at the seat of honor at banquet tables of the 1%.
He didn't link Assad to the gas attacks in Syria? Neither did two UN investigations nor, in the 2nd case, two MIT professors. That's probably a sign of good judgement. There is no evidence in the second case that Sarin was used by anyone. It's possible that a lethal combination of chemicals was released when Assad's forces bombed a warehouse containing a soup of chemicals. Many people on the scene claimed to have smelled chlorine and seen a chemical cloud. Sarin is odorless and invisible.
Please explain how the Pope's statement, during the campaign, that it was the mission of Christians to build bridges, not walls, fits into the effort to elect Trump. Do you think the invitation from a Vatican office to Bernie Sanders during the primary was a sign of conservatism? Comedians had hours of material simply showing the expression on the Pope's face every time he looked at Trump.
The Pope is pressuring bishops to stop censoring nuns and limiting their activities.
The Pope has stated that the church should devote more of its teaching to the areas emphasized by Jesus such as greed and exploitation of the poor and less on sexuality, a subject about which Jesus said very little. In a recent document he warned conservative American Catholics about forming alliances with fundamentalists over abortion and issues of sexuality that were evolving into political alliances going much further. The especially conservative American hierarchy and conservative American Catholics remain furious.
So, now that Hillary has courageously accepted responsibility for her loss while emphasizing that it wasn't her fault, where does Pope Francis fit in. We have:
Russia (Putin)
Comey
Bernie--who spent the campaign working on her behalf.
Berniebros
Misogynists
Racists--especially the ones who voted for Obama.
And others far to numerous to list.
How much of an effect did the Pope have?
It's with her.
papal powers
Essentially, ever. The Church's position on sexuality is the same as it was in Constantine's time: for procreation only, between a man and the wife he owns.
But he is no John XXIII. I doubt that Angelo, Cardinal Roncalli, would even be papabile in the Conclave that elected Francis.
This brings up an important point, and one I've made to Fishtroller before: Although theoretically empowered to "loose" the various restrictions in name, Pope Francis has almost no such power in fact. Between centuries of accumulation of people who actually believe that female submission and traditional gender and gender role conformance are really the will of God for all humankind, to the grave mistake made by Pope Pius IX and the First Vatican Council in promulgating Pastor Aeturnus (Papal infallibility), the range of action of any modern Pope is tiny indeed. Even if he wanted to, Francis couldn't re-rail the Church onto a reason-based view of sex, sexuality and gender; were he to attempt to do so, he would merely end up destroying himself. At best, he'd end up like Benedict XVI is today, an ex-Pope kept locked up in a closet somewhere.
I have stated repeatedly that if the Catholic Church ever ends up destroyed, three things wiull be to blame: mandatory clerical celibacy, Pastor Aeturnus (papal infallibility, which locks all future Popes into the decisions of their predecessors forever), and Humanae Vitae (abortion/contraception forbidden).
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
To both you and Future Passed,
I am thankful for the religious education on Roman Catholicism. Not being Catholic, nor any other organized--or disorganized--religion I lack the insights both of you clearly presented. Indeed, I admit to be too focussed on two issues: gender equality and sexual non-repression.
education on Roman Catholicism
punctuation adjusted for format change (one comma inserted)
I grew up Catholic and have been a student of the Papacy and Papal History most of my life. (And as a direct result, am now thoroughly addicted to The Borgias on Ovation cable channel!)
I am now a practicing Pagan, of a school which demands the questioning and disputation I spoke of above.
And I am gratified that my little hacks are helpful to you, my friend Alligator Ed!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Reply to FuturePassed "Is that you Hillary"
1. Bergoglio chose the name "Francis" but has never asked anyone in the Vatican, dioceses or religious orders to divest of their assets. In his first year as pope he formed groups to assess the effectiveness of the current Vatican in maintaining and prospering his investment portfolios. commercial real estate and bank accounts, estimated by the Italian financial newspaper at 16-18 billion). Then he appointed vulture capitalists to do the job. His first "reform" of the curia was to create a Secretariat of (his) Economy for the same purpose.
2. From his bully pulpit, the pope has made scores of statements around the world to deny women's access to reproductive health care and against gay and transgender human rights. A strange definition of "liberal."
3. I did not write (did you actually read my post?) that the pope supported Trump. What I wrote and what is true is that he tolerates the current administration. I inferred, and what is true, is that this is because Trump, like Putin and the pope, wants to deny women's access to reproductive health care and deny human rights to gay and transgender persons.
Betty Clermont
Time will tell
whether the pope's changes in managing the Vatican's fortune result in an even more rapacious group or are a strongly needed effort to reduce corruption.
You clearly demonstrated that the pope could not change the church's position on abortion if he wanted to. Re birth control Andrew Greeley demonstrated decades ago that their was no statistically significant difference in the use of contraceptives between Catholics and Protestants in the US. I expect that we agree entirely on the effect in third world countries.
He has made environmental stewardship an important part of his ministry, another policy that infuriates conservative Catholics. It's hard to think of a head of state around the world the pope doesn't tolerate. I have it on good authority that he did not get the pope's vote.
@FuturePassed
This mention of concerns over over what struck me at the time as essentially an undercover con-man enlisted to dupe people into joining/re-joining (edit: to financially support and submit to the dictates of) a then-shriveling and destructively tyrannical, abusive and self-serving child-abusing group is best read in full at source.
https://www.glaad.org/blog/lgbt-argentinian-and-catholic-reactions-pope-...
Edit: In my unchanged opinion, the adopted PR persona of Pope Francis was clearly intended to make the rule of the oligarchs of the Catholic Church appear relevant in a modern age, in order to shore up and increase their regressive, repressive religious global control and financial sources from their 'herds of sheep', as well as to distract from even their habitual child abuse complete with Clinton-like cover-up, with protection of abusers permitted to continue creating harm to the vulnerable, victim blaming and denial in the face of a continuous flood of evidence.
These power-grabbing and money-hungry religious oligarchs seem to me to be no different than The Psychopaths That Be, merely using a different form of propaganda for perception and mind control on the population they milk for that power and wealth.
The good among us will use whatever they have toward the promotion of what they perceive as a good, while those who are greedy and self-serving will twist any tool that comes to hand to be used against their intended victims. Religion has long been a favoured tool of con-men and abusers precisely because they claim to speak for their infallible god, who cannot be questioned. Just send money and obey what I tell you god wants.
'Absolute power corrupts absolutely' has always proven to be an axiom we ignore to our peril. Let's stop ignoring it in any circumstance, thereby making some 'exceptional' enough to get away with murder - and worse.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Hmm. Sounds familiar.
"Are you now or have your ever been a member of the Putin Party?"
What's the purpose of this essay? Tarring Pope Francis with the Putin brush as a way to discredit the good things he has done, things done despite entrenched conservative dogmatists in the church?
And what's with this odd statement: "Although Pope Francis has a fawning U.S. media now, a future and more sober historical analysis might conclude his alliance with Putin and (for now) tolerance of Trump did nothing to advance Christianity."
What alliance with Putin? What tolerance of Trump? And as head of the Catholic Church, his mission first and foremost is advancing Catholicism, not generic Christianity.
A list please..
of the "good" things done by this Pope and/or the RCC? Two things you can leave off this list... the Pope's TALK about social equality and the Pope's TALK about the environment. Social equality is not possible when women and gays and children are second class citizens in terms of rights. One of the major issues with global pollution is the growth of populations who have no access to birth control, but plenty of access to poverty. A woman who can not control her fertility is more likely to be poor and in bad health, and all of this lends to actions that harm the environment.
So leaving those two items of that list, what do you propose that Pope Francis is doing or has done that you would consider "good"?
The Pope's mission of "advancing Catholicism" shows up every day in US Catholic owned hospitals when patients are forced to bend to catholic religious tenets in order to get medical care. I would say that there is nothing benign in the act of "advancing Catholicism".
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
What's your problem?
Where in my comment did I claim advancing Catholicism was benign?
Why would I agree to YOUR definitions? You came up with wild-eyed statements about gays and fertility that are not in my comment.
I'm an atheist. I have no interest in engaging in a straw man argument using your flawed framing.
You wrote...
"What's the purpose of this essay? Tarring Pope Francis with the Putin brush as a way to discredit the good things he has done, things done despite entrenched conservative dogmatists in the church?"
I simply asked for the list of good things you think this Pope has done and let you know up front that I would not accept the inclusion of the typical liberal tomes about social justice and the invironment which are used to whitewash what this Pope and the RCC have really done.
Betty is pointing out that in an age of contacting Putin or even meeting with him being big no-nos, no one seems to have a problem with the Pope doing so. And if you read the vast history of Betty's diaries over on DKos, you would know that cynical alliances with perceived power players across the world is a favorite pastime of this Pope, and this included right wingers from the US that he meets with privately. In an age of decline, the RCC is desperate to hook its wagon to the sources of power and wealth. Right now Putin looks more like he's in the driver's seat internationally. Hence Francis's penchant for meeting with him.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
I haven't read this entire dissertation,
but there seems to be an effort here to link Putin, the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and various European right-wing or nativist movements together, as if there were a common causual connection among them. It seems more likely to me that they are all reactions against an encroaching neoliberal "world order" that threatens the political and cultural autonomy of any number of previously distinct Nation States.
native
A most eloquent summary of a long essay and my long comment:
Thank you, Alligator.
But without the benefit of your long comment and the even longer essay that inspired it, I would not have been able to summarize the issue at all neatly.
native
I'm w/ the late, great Christopher Hitchens: Putin's a theocrat.
Am not conversant in the subject enough, so I thank you for your scholarly research into the underbelly of the Catholic Church's current dealings, and the revelations you come upon of, if you'll forgive me, an unholy alliance between them and Putin's Russia.
Theocracy has been brewing here for a long time too, and in some ways has won out. In that it has become the subtext to the rolling back of so many progressive social programs, under the cruel and punitive auspices of puritanical and racist and bigoted American Christian malarkey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFFnS9sPBCQ
Putin-ism is very reminiscent of pre-1917 Czarism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZMdQKcg3l8
Thanks for your excellent, provocative essays.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Where do you get the idea
that "we" have "allowed" anything to happen? Do you propose that the USA should somehow assume the right to determine, or to censor the policies of the Russian Federation? Why is it necessary that Americans approve of Russia's internal policies, in order for them to be considered legitimate?
This bit of vituperative hyperbole particularly stands out as an example of the mischaracterization of Russia that is so prevalent in the msm today:
What utter hogwash. Contemporary Russia is nothing like a theocracy, it doesn't even resemble a theocracy. The fact that the Orthodox Church now plays a larger and more official role in Russian affairs than it was ever allowed to do in the Soviet system, has more to do with Russia's history than with any kind of imaginary "theocracy".
native
I've said or implied no such thing. America has no right
to meddle in Russian affairs, whatsoever.
I think the whole Russian Red Herring Mania is catastrophically absurd, and should well go down as one of the most embarrassing and dangerous epochs of American fear-mongering. It only exists as a concoction by the DNC and Hillary sycophants to run interference from both the criminal fact that they stole the primary from Bernie, and, the pathetic fact that they couldn't beat the most loathed, ridiculous, imbecilic buffoon presidential candidate of all-time, with every conceivable advantage.
First of all, and I've heard so little mention of it here, isn't it at least a bit disconcerting that former KGB agent Putin was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, then President from 2000 to 2008, and then Prime Minister again from 2008 to 2012, then President, again?
This guy has been running the country since Bill Clinton was president - and still is. That's like former head of the CIA George Bush reigning as ruler for 18 years.
Listen, the face of that alone is pretty fucking creepy. I don't claim to know or be that versed in Russian affairs, and frankly don't care that much. This whole Russia-stole-the-election garbage is a farce. But the Putin-loving around here at times is bullshit too.
I'll take my cues about Russian theocracy from Christopher Hitchens. And this essay makes some good points about the implications of this whole Vatican/Catholic Church/Russian Orthodoxy potential alliance.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Russia's not the only place with "wannabe-dictator" problems
How about the way Stephen Harper kept getting himself re-elected as Prime Minister of Canada? I seem to recall some fairly dirty shenanigans involved with him keeping his seat against the will of the Canadian public.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
Russian history
Howbeit, that's where things get really sticky, as Russia has been an Orthodox theocracy for most of its history, including all of its history as a united nation.
(Another clusterfuck caused by the lack of Church-State separation!)
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
It seems to me that the degree
to which Church and State are separate is a matter for each particular State to decide. -- for itself. I don't believe that any formula for this relationship is universally valid for all societies at all times. IOW, laws that work well in one place might not work at all in another. Ideally, different cultures would be tolerant of one another's religions -- or tolerant of the absence of religion, as the case may be. To my knowledge, Putin has never attempted to impose the Orthodox faith on his countrymen. Nor do I believe he has any intention of doing so.
native
hard-core secularist
You and I disagree, then, as I am a hard-core secularist. Church-State separation is a necessity for civilized governance. And I have track record on my side, too: nations which allow mingling end up with religious persecution and violence, a seriously State-compromised Church, and myriads of other societal problems. (Examples: Israel, medieval Spain)
Note: I am talking about real nation states, not legal fictions like the Vatican which is a "sovereign nation" solely to settle ancient Church-State disputes.
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
The US Psychopaths That Be
The US Psychopaths That Be are good with association with Nazi's and the elimination of personal choice in/control over any and all areas of The Non-Billionaire Poor's lives but this:
indicates that their oligarchs are buying the Pope, something The Right Oligarchs evidently never even considered in time to do so themselves...
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
So he ain't all that and a bag of chips
This Pope dude is willing to put one little toe outside the hard and fast lines drawn around the Catholic Church by its Orthodoxy, and certain people are screaming because he doesn't want to put a whole foot over the line. Oh well.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.