In yesterday’s DM, I shared one of Rudolf Steiner’s last public talks where he challenged Catholic priests that the “main thing” must be to resist sentimentalism and include evil when talking of spirit.
Lo and behold! On completing my article, I saw these truly scary headlines including photos and a video promulgated by Trump’s media team and the head of the “White House faith office,” Paula White-Cain. Called a “Christian nationalist” and “Christian Trumpist,” she has declared that: “Christians that don’t support Trump will have to answer to God.”
The headlines in the National Catholic Reporter read: “Ahead of elections, White House shares video of Catholic bishops praying over Trump.” A follow up headline reads: “White House names 12 bishops who prayed with Trump, defends president’s record.”
If this isn’t the banality of evil redux, I don’t know what is. I have asked my staff to send each of these bishops a copy of my book, Trump & The MAGA Movement as ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time.
The religious media is itself not without blame. Many in the religious press have never bothered to review or even mention my book even as this all-important election looms. Like Steiner warned against, they seem at home leaving evil out of the discussion on spirit.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers told the NCR, “There has never been a greater president for Catholic America than President Trump.” Dismantling Roe v. Wade makes some bishops cheer and forget everything else Trump does. Such as the litany of mortal sins Charlotte Clymer and I recounted in Monday’s DM.
If anyone is wondering why more and more Americans are identifying as “spiritual, but not religious” these days, consider the video of these bishops blessing the MAGA president in the Oval Office 12 days before a most critical election!
Pope John Paul II getting in bed with Reagan in the 1980’s in exchange for cash from the CIA to denounce Liberation Theology and base communities in Latin America; his Vatican denouncing Archbishop Romero who was later martyred (and canonized) for his support of the poor in El Salvador; the rushing into canonization of Josemaría Escrivá, fascist priest and founder of Opus Dei in record time and changing the rules of canonization to do so; green-lighting Opus Dei—see Gareth Gore, Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Tragedy & Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church; the truth of how six current Supreme Court members are connected directly and indirectly to Opus Dei thanks to the behind the scenes work of now billionaire Catholic Leopold Leo; the previous head of the American Bishops Conference being a member of Opus Dei; the denouncing and silencing of 108 Catholic theologians resulting in the fact that “theology is dead in Europe” as one European theologian told me years ago; the papacy being “in schism” as Father Schillebeeckx told me he and many European theologians believed about that religious era when two popes over 34 years turned their back on the spirit and teachings of Vatican II. All this and so much more lays bare the shadow side to the legacy of two fascist popes in our time.
While I am upset by this public display of Episcopal banality of evil, I cannot say I am totally surprised. I have researched the interaction of fascism and the Roman Catholic Church in our time and blown the whistle in my book, The Pope’s War.
Fortunately, we have been blessed with two popes, Francis and Leo, who are trying to turn the ship around. To its credit, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops distanced itself from the White House event saying the meeting was not organized by the conference. But the Heritage foundation, nesting place for Leonard Leo, was behind it. The 12 bishops now claim that they were deceived by the president and Paula White-Cain.
Banner image: Catholic bishops in procession. Photo by Reiley Costa on Unsplash
Queries for Contemplation
Monsignor Arthur Holquin asked, “What were they thinking?” Bishops allowing themselves “to be staged, on camera, in the Oval Office, during an election the president is actively campaigning in?” Cathleen Kaveny, a law and theology professor at Boston College called the act “highly imprudent.” What would you call it?
Related Reading by Matthew Fox
The Pope’s War: How Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Imperiled the Church and What Can Be Saved.
Trump & the MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time.
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society.
“On Desentimentalizing Spirituality,” in Fox, Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life, pp 297-315.
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality.
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth.
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Charles Burack, ed., Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality.
Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox, Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation.
