Europe has (or had) a history of “Catholic parties.” in countries such as Italy, the Christian Democrats were de facto the “Catholic party” in that they appealed to practicing Catholics as voters, opposed communism and were generally on friendly terms with the Church. Similarly, the CSU in Bavaria was and perhaps still is very much the “Catholic party.” The Christian Democrats in Italy, West Germany and the Benelux countries were an important bulwark against Soviet communism 1945-89. As such, it’s unsurprising that Bergoglio, who never met a commie he didn’t love, would oppose the concept.
Of course. I wasn’t considering parties in Italy. When Jesus said “My kingdom is not of this world”, it should mean that the Pope would not put politics ahead of religion. I have no problem with a political party putting its religious beliefs first, however. But fat chance we’ll ever see that without liberals screaming “separation of church and state!”.