It seems MAGA, or some well known folks MAGAs pay attention to has had it with Pope Leo, American Catholic Bishops and even Catholics in general because… Immigration! Or more specifically the cruelty of the Trump administration’s deportations. I can’t say I’m surprised there was a reaction to the Bishops having released a statement and video. I expected something sooner. I also didn’t expect so many MAGA politicians and influencers to speak out and in a bunch.
However a collection of them have now done so. More importantly it’s gotten noticed. The Hill article headline says MAGA has ‘declared war’ on the Catholic Church. That might be a bit much, at least at this point. However enough MAGAs with clout have shot off their mouths to call it a ‘broadside.’ Will it be enough to incite the masses in MAGA? That remains to be seen. If the proverbial guns fall silent which might happen this won’t amount to much. However if they keep it up and other prominent GOPers attack the Pope, the Bishops and the Catholic Church in general this will have consequences.
Catholics are a large voting bloc and while they went for Biden big in 2020 they broke for Trump a year ago. Their own leaders are a reflection of their feelings about Trump’s thuggery with immigrants and anger over how priests and other non-Catholic clergy have been treated at ICE facilities trying to provide aid to detainees. If one wants to get pointed to the point of ‘in your face’ the way I see it is Catholics are following what Jesus himself taught about helping those in need, and welcoming the stranger. Meanwhile Evangelicals and good ole boy/gal Southern Baptists are all-in on ignoring what their Jeebus actually preached. Compassion is for them and their ilk. Other’s? Nope.
I don’t see Trump changing between now and the midterms and if Vance takes over for one reason or another I don’t see him changing current policy either. That means Catholics are likely to shift back to voting for Democrats by margins we saw in 2020 and that’s bad news for the GOP. Worse, we are seeing signs that in those bright red swaths of rural/small-town America even some MAGAs have grown uncomfortable with Trump’s immigration policy. Most are afraid to speak up but there’s polling suggesting the MAGA dam is leaking on certain issues including this one.
There actually are some level headed strategists left in the GOP and it’s hard to imagine them being ok with MAGA picking a fight with the Catholic Church. So, when people from Border Czar Tom Homan (who played the ‘as a Catholic I say” card) to crazies like Looney Laura Loomer some big names are taking the Catholic Church to task. You can check out the linked article for specifics on who said what.
What concerns me is if this continues it could get very ugly. MAGAs hotly deny it but in places they sometimes don’t want to admit even to themselves there’s an undercurrent of racism. I sometimes feel like MAGA is the modern version of the Klan. MAGA hats instead of robes. Here’s what a lot of people don’t know about the Klan – it’s all about W.A.S.P. White Anglo Saxon Protestant. I can still recall my P.O.S. grandfather railing about JFK, saying he was against any and all change, and anyone or anything that wasn’t White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant. And when their terror was flourishing in post WWII America black people weren’t their only targets.
As a quite young kid I recall going to see the movie The Cardinal with some school buddies one Saturday afternoon. There was a brutal scene where the main character, a priest was brutalized, beaten and whipped at a Klan rally. My friends didn’t understand why a white guy was being treated like that. One even made a comment about him not being a ‘n-word’ (that word was used a lot where I grew up) and I whispered “it’s because he’s Catholic and worse a priest.” It wasn’t until after the movie that I could explain to them what my grandfather was trying to instill in me – that if someone wasn’t White, Anglo Saxon Protestant they weren’t so much as a human being to true Klan types. THAT was an eye opener for them.
The thing is, that mentality has never gone away and among the more fervent of self-professed “Christian” protestants Catholics are bad people who aren’t really Christians. As we learned Obama’s election and re-election didn’t signal a turning of American’s attitudes on race. No, tens of millions out there were seething. They just needed a leader to give them permission to express what was inside them. The linked article notes that Trump is still talking nice about Catholics in general even as he takes on Pope Leo. There’s still sometimes some political savvy left in him.
The question is will he tamp down this fledgling war between MAGA and the Catholic Church. We’ll have to wait and see. As I noted Trump’s polling is underwater even on his immigration policies now. I don’t see the Pope or the Bishops backing down. Not when with the position the Bishops (at the Pope’s urging and with his blessing) said:
By a nearly unanimous vote, they wrote that they were “saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants,” and “concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”
The letter also addressed “threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools.”
“We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones.”
Following the meeting, the bishops issued a video denouncing the “dehumanizing rhetoric and violence” against those confronted by ICE. More than 1.4 million have watched.
Trump as we know doesn’t forget or forgive criticism or slights. It sure won’t improve his mood if someone tells him this is the first such ‘special message’ issued by the Bishops in TWELVE YEARS. I don’t see the Pope or the Bishops letting up. This is a pitch in the dirt Trump shouldn’t swing at but if he does (and he might) Catholics, Jews, Muslims (of course) will all find themselves in an uglier than you can imagine battle. One that will manifest in attacks on houses of worship. And it will be MAGAs doing the attacking because Trump gave them permission. Permission to return to Klan type ‘If you ain’t WASP you aren’t even a human being, or at least a real American so get out. Or else’ environment.
As I said, this might blow over IF Trump let’s it be known to those firing salvos at the Catholic Church to knock it the hell off. If he doesn’t all bets are off. We’ll have to wait and see if this turns into a real, and significant “thing.” Let’s all hope it doesn’t.
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