The Pope who sulphured Bannon, Milei, Salvini and Ayuso | Spain
Francisco, whose papacy started in 2013 and ended this Monday with His deathhe has had to see from the top of the church the Ascent of the extreme nationalist and xenophobic right throughout the West. Given this period phenomenon, what position has you adopted? Crisp, unequivocally against. And not only of the Immigrant discriminationalso of the excesses of neoliberalism, which has led to the conservative field from being frequently considered a sympathizer Pope on the left. Although detractor of abortion and contrary to the equalization in heterosexual and homosexual rights – which cannot form what the Church considers « natural family » -, the Argentine pontiff also resisted the pressures to use the Holy See as a battering ram in the « cultural battle » against the « lobby LGTBI » and the « gender ideology. » All this has earned him the open antipathy of prominent struts of the Ultra Political Family, although he has also sulphured right -wing leaders.
The Pope received more than criticism in his native country. He received insults. During his stage as an ultraliberal polemicist that started his political career, Javier Milei, today president of the Republic, made Francisco a preferential object of his inventive ones. In his X account, then Twitter, attacked the Pope in 2017, sending him « to shit » and calling him « disgusting left » to defend « social justice », of which he abomits. « It would be good for starting to distributing to the poor the riches of the Vatican. Piece of ball, » he said, expressly addressing the Pope. The following year, he called him « left -handed son of a bitch » and said he was « the representative of the evil one » in the church.
Matteo Salvini, Chief of the League, is the Italian political leader with whom Francisco has lived more lit controversies. In 2019, with Salvini in its political apogee as Interior Minister, a Polish cardinal very close to Francisco He slipped into the counters room of an busy building where 400 people lived without light and connected it again. For irritation of the Liguista leader, that cardinal was elevated to the category of hero on the left. « We will pass to the Vatican the invoice of 300,000 euros that that building owed, » said Salvini, who had to read from the Pope a phrase that sounded to him: « A politician should not sow hatred and fear. » That same 2019, after Francisco took a picture with a sheet that said « we opened the ports », Salvini replied: « He deals with souls, I of the 5 million poor Italians. I open the ports to whom he has permission. »
The César and God
It has been usual for the leaders of the extreme right to use the famous phrase of biblical origin « give César what is from Caesar and God what is of God is », or the like, to criticize the Pope when they were bothering themselves by their messages. In 2021, he used this expression on César and God the leader of the National Group, Marine Le Pen, in which he was his most popular clash with the Pontiff. He did it after Le Nouvel Observateur Published that the Pope was « worried » about the rise of the extreme right. « I am convinced that many believers would be delighted that the Pope took care of what happens in the churches and not at the polls, » added Le Pen, who usually covers his Islamophobic discourse by appealing to the defense of the Christian essence of France, a task in which he has never found the complicity of the pontiff.
Even more explicit than Le Pen in his criticisms of the Pope was the writer Éric Zemmour, his rival in the ultra -right field Galo: « But what does the Pope want? Do you want Christian Europe and cradle of Christianity to become Islamic land? I would like it to be explained about this, ”he got angry in 2023.
In Spain, Francisco has been in Vox’s point. When in 2020, in full debate in Spain about the minimum wagethe Pope pronounced in favor of a universal income, Santiago Abascal diverted him from papal authority. « The opinion of the citizen Bergoglio, » he said, seemed « respectable, like that of any other citizen. » « But I do not share it, » added Abascal, who said that he does not think about « if communion should be given or should not be given, » and symmetrically, the Bishop of Rome should not get into political matters. « To God what God is and to César what is from Caesar, » he added.
The one who was a spokesman for Vox, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros, thus replied in 2019 to one of the papal messages against rejection abroad: « I think very well that the Pope welcomes in the Vatican how many illegal immigrants who arrive without papers want. » But it should not, he added, to tell other sovereign states what to do. Two years later, in 2021, he criticized that « a head of state of the Vatican, of Argentine nationality, » apologized for the « sins » committed during the conquest of America. This request for forgiveness caused irritation beyond Vox. Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, of the PP, seemed « surprising » that « a Catholic who speaks Spanish » thus pronounces on « a legacy that was to bring Spanish » and « Catholicism » to the American continent. Jose María Aznar, at the head of Faes, also third in the controversy: « I will not swell the ranks of those who apologize. »
Of immigration to the Amazon
The last words with public repercussion of the Pope were Sunday, when he spoke against him « I despise immigrants ». By juxtaposing them to their reception to vice president JD Vance, his reading was almost unanimous as a reproach to the Trump administration. One of many. Because immigration was the issue that caused more collisions between the Bishop of Rome and the leaders of the extreme right. But not the only one.
The fan was varied. In 2020, he raised the wrath of Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, to tweet: « I dream of a Amazon who fights for the rights of the poorest, of the original peoples, of the last, where her voice is heard and her dignity is promoted. » « The Amazon is ours, » Bolsonaro replied, which denied that the jungle is, as the Pope sustains, of all humanity.
A detail illustrates the obstacle condition for the ultra -right that Francisco constituted. Steve Bannon, who was an ideologist of Trumpism, already identified him during Trump’s first mandate as an enemy to beat. In 2017, The New York Times He published that Bannon, being Trump advisor, was narrowing alliances with some Enemies of the Pope inside the curia, such as the American cardinal Raymond Burke, to maneuver against the head of the church in the Vatican. Two years later, Bannon protested NBC News For the attitude of a Pope who « constantly throws all populist nationalist movement all the world. »
