✣ Media storm erupts over Bannon and the Pope
What happened? Donald Trump’s chief of staff Steve Bannon has been accused of “carrying his battles to the Vatican”. Jason Horowitz, Rome correspondent for the New York Times, reported that in 2014, when Bannon was head of Breitbart News, he had met Cardinal Raymond Burke in Rome. The paper suggested that the pair shared opposition to Pope Francis – since Cardinal Burke is one of the four cardinals who have submitted the dubia asking for Amoris Laetitia to be clarified.What the US media said
In the Washington Post, Emma-Kate Symons compared Cardinal Burke’s criticisms of Islam to “the vicious anti-Semitism” of some 1930s clerics. She wrote: “The virulently anti-Islam (‘capitulating to Islam would be the death of Christianity’), migrant-phobic, Donald Trump-defending, Vladimir Putin-excusing Burke is unrepentant and even defiant, continuing to preside over a far-right, neo-fascist-normalising cheer squad out of the Holy See.”
In Esquire, Charles P Pierce wrote that Bannon “wants to establish himself at the head of a new, worldwide authoritarian elite that will reach into every institution and that will demolish any of those institutions that stand in the way of what he wants. The man is a political thug, and Burke is a theological thug.”
What Catholics said
Carl Olson, editor of Catholic World Report, pointed out that Symons’s piece was based on little more than the – already speculative – New York Times article. It adds up to “a combination of echo-chamber thinking, obsession with politics and the cult of personalities, and laziness. Far-right? Neo-fascist? White Christian dominance? I’d say this is hysterical, but hysterical seems mellow compared to this sort of vacuous, shrieking rot.”
At catholicculture.org, Phil Lawler said that the Bannon-Burke story seemed to be an attempt “to discredit Cardinal Burke – in this case exploiting the negative image of Bannon and using guilt-by-association to transfer that image onto the cardinal. And why discredit Cardinal Burke? Because Pope Francis cannot and/or will not answer his questions.”
The most overlooked story of the week
✣ Population control gurus to speak at the Vatican
What happened? Two advocates of population control have been invited by the Pontifical Academy of Science (PAS) and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (PASS) to a conference on the environment. Paul Ehrlich, author of The Population Bomb, and John Bongaarts, an executive of the Population Council, are due to speak at the Vatican.Why was it under-reported?
The vatican is unlikely to want to draw attention to the speakers given their past comments about the Church. In 2015 Ehrlich denounced Laudato Si’ for what he saw as its failure to recognise the importance of contraception and abortion when dealing with climate change. He also suggested that the Church’s stance on abortion and contraception is “just as unethical as any major affront to the environment or terrorist act”. The PAS was criticised earlier this month for inviting China’s former health minister Huang Jiefu to a conference on organ trafficking.
What will happen next?
The conference will start a week on Monday and pressure may mount on the organisers to retract the invitations.
Michael Pakaluk, a philosophy professor at the Catholic University of America, pointed out in a Crux article: “The US bishops have correctly written: ‘Catholic institutions should not honour those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honours or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.’”
✣The week ahead
Cardinal Vincent Nichols will crown a statue of Our Lady of Fatima and consecrate England to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during a Mass at Westminster Cathedral tomorrow. Relics of Blessed Jacinta and Francisco, the children who saw the apparitions, will be present at the cathedral. The relics will be touring the rest of England and Wales between May and October.On Monday University College London will host a talk by Fr Damian Howard with the title: “Are All Religions Really Just the Same?” To register for the talk at the Catholic chaplaincy, email chris@universitycatholic.net.
Next Friday MPs will debate whether gender identity should become a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.
Campaigners say the push for “transgender equality” would undermine parental rights and remove protections of young children who are being encouraged to accept a harmful ideology.
