It was a bit like something out of a bad film about the Cold War. In a La Stampa article last week. Andrea Tornielli, dubbed by the Financial Times and others as the Pope’s “favourite journalist”, linked opposition to Francis to Vladimir Putin.
Under the headline: “Catholics who are anti-Francis but love Putin”, Tornielli and his co-author Giacomo Galeazzi adopted a conspiratorial tone: “The glue that holds them together is their aversion towards Francis. The world of Francis dissenters ranges from Lefebvrians who have decided to ‘wait for a traditional Pope’ before renewing their communion with Rome, to Catholic regionalists who compare Francis to his predecessor Ratzinger and promote the campaign ‘Benedict is my Pope’.”
