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Is MAGA pushing the Catholic Church to the left?
Vox ^ | February 10, 2026 | Christian Paz

Posted on 02/10/2026 6:07:57 PM PST by MinorityRepublican

A quiet cold war is happening across America — one that many Americans might not be aware of if they’re not tuned into the changes underway in America’s Christian communities.

On one side is the religious right’s use of scripture and faith to justify and defend President Donald Trump’s agenda — and growing Christian nationalist sentiment. On the other side is the reshaping of the American Catholic Church, under Pope Leo XIV.

Through new appointments, orders to his bishops to speak out about immigration, and public comments critiquing the direction of the US under Trump, the pope is setting up his bishops and priests to be evangelizers, to be vocal about human dignity, and to be a counterweight to the authoritarian and nationalist tendencies of the right.

While the church has long played a role in US politics, Pope Leo’s interventions, according to Christopher Hale, a Catholic writer and political activist who writes the Letters from Leo Substack, represent something new.

In the absence of a well-organized “religious left” in America, he told me, Leo’s moves to reform and shake up the American Catholic Church are reinvigorating a “Catholic left” to engage in the moral struggles of the 2020s, specifically around immigration and creeping authoritarianism.

(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: 123oclock4oclockzot; christianpaz; church; commies; corrupt; multiplenicks; nevertrumpertroll; no; noxioustroll; popefrancisfan; randspam; tds; trollfarm; vox
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To: MinorityRepublican

Is the current government of Israel the same as Israel referred to in the Bible? During 2021 to 2024 was the Biden administration the United States?


61 posted on 02/10/2026 8:37:26 PM PST by alternatives?
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To: MinorityRepublican

Not in the least. It’s just making the undercover Leftists embedded in the Church louder.


62 posted on 02/10/2026 8:38:48 PM PST by Antoninus (Republicans are all honorable men.)
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To: MinorityRepublican

More BS working to divide us. Is it possible people will realize the left’s intent here or is it too much fun bashing ourselves?

The “March through the institutions” was the press and education and also the churches. Big shock, the left wormed its way into even LCMS and RCC and WELS not to mention the damage done to other denominations.

MAGA didn’t move anything left; it has caused a lot of leftists to reveal themselves as snakes.


63 posted on 02/10/2026 8:40:25 PM PST by No.6
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To: irishjuggler

After being raised Catholic and then spending many years around Protestants of all denominations, I found that all Christian denominations have both right and left wingers.

However, I also found that Catholic teachings are neither left nor right, but those teachings sometimes fall into both camps. For example, the Catholic Church is pro-life in all cases: It opposes both abortion and capital punishment.


64 posted on 02/10/2026 8:46:04 PM PST by Tired of Taxes
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To: skr

The term “social justice” started with the Catholic Church many years ago. AFAIK, it means we have a moral obligation to help other people.

The left took the term and twisted it to mean the government should forcibly take from people to give to others. AFAIK, that’s not the Catholic meaning, but some Catholics themselves might be confused about the meaning.


65 posted on 02/10/2026 8:55:41 PM PST by Tired of Taxes
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To: MinorityRepublican

Way back in the 1950’s, when I attended St. Mary’s Parochial School, in Stamford, CT., I was taught that I was an American, and, also a citizen of the Catholic church, and responsible to follow the decrees sent by the pope, even if they sound different to the ways of America.

In time, I figured that being an American is all I needed to be. I figured people died so that they were no longer under a foreign church state (England), and that was good enough for me.

Who coined this new crazy liberal term “Christian Nationalism” anyway?? Whether you are a Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, Daoist, and yes, even Pagan, if you love this country, that makes you “A Nationalist”.

There’s a deceased hero of the war in the sand, decorated, too, by the name of Patrick Stewart, USAR, Sgt. He was “A Nationalist” too.


66 posted on 02/10/2026 9:01:14 PM PST by Terry L Smith
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To: ansel12

Perhaps. There are a fair number of conservative Catholics who fight this.

I’m sure we could say the same about Protestants. There are many who are liberal, as well as some who are conservative.

I’m not interested in bashing either group.


67 posted on 02/10/2026 9:02:14 PM PST by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPett)
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To: Tired of Taxes

Well, sort of. Some recent popes have opposed capital punishment, but honest theologians will admit that reasonable Catholics can legitimately disagree on that.

Ratzinger, 2004 memo:

” While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”


68 posted on 02/10/2026 9:54:49 PM PST by irishjuggler
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To: Tired of Taxes
The term “social justice” started with the Catholic Church many years ago. AFAIK, it means we have a moral obligation to help other people.

The left took the term and twisted it to mean the government should forcibly take from people to give to others. AFAIK, that’s not the Catholic meaning, but some Catholics themselves might be confused about the meaning.

It makes sense, Pope Francis and Pope Leo both believe that it is the responsibility of the government to "help" people.

Pope John Paul lived under communism and obviously knew that didn't work.

69 posted on 02/10/2026 10:21:46 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Leo needs to shut his pie hole.

This Catholic is sick and tired of popes and their big mouths.


70 posted on 02/10/2026 10:40:40 PM PST by jmacusa ( Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: SPDSHDW

Quote-Once you realize some major tenants the Roman Church teaches are not scripturally sound, and Boarderline, if not entirely heretical, You can see why people despise the current form of the Roman Church.

When Mormonism and the Jehovah’s witnesses(which I am positive no one here will argue against them being heretics) are in all honestly, more scripturally sound(not by much) then the current Roman Church, there is a problem.

Thanks. A PROBLEM? Houston, we’ve had a problem and continue to have an exceedingly grave problem.


71 posted on 02/10/2026 10:55:32 PM PST by birg
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To: jmacusa

Quote-This Catholic is sick and tired of popes and their big mouths.___

Thanks. Indeed when you are pandering to a wide range of multiple sides in a fallen world, you will have a very BIG mouth.
.....roaring “meekly” like a devouring Lion....


72 posted on 02/10/2026 10:59:32 PM PST by birg
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To: birg
There's never any papal admonition to the countries these illegals are running away from.

It's never that. The papacy always blames the nations these criminals invade. That's why as a Catholic I stopped paying any attention to the Vatican after John Paul died.

73 posted on 02/10/2026 11:03:56 PM PST by jmacusa ( Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: irishjuggler
"There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia."

Sounds reasonable.

74 posted on 02/10/2026 11:26:33 PM PST by Tired of Taxes
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To: Tired of Taxes

Quote- The term “social justice” started with the Catholic Church many years ago.__

Yes, the Catholic Church started it’s modern teaching on “social justice” in the late 19th century with the publication of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (”Of New Things”) on May 15, 1891.
It’s considered the foundational document for CST.


75 posted on 02/11/2026 12:23:35 AM PST by birg
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To: MinorityRepublican

They’ve always been to the left (not all).


76 posted on 02/11/2026 12:28:38 AM PST by Bikkuri
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To: birg

Thanks for the background information.


77 posted on 02/11/2026 1:10:11 AM PST by Tired of Taxes
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To: MinorityRepublican

Pedophilia has been around longer than MAGA….


78 posted on 02/11/2026 3:07:14 AM PST by MrRelevant
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Maybe now…. But the history is undeniable.


79 posted on 02/11/2026 3:09:43 AM PST by MrRelevant
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To: FamiliarFace

I was pointing out how the majority of the Catholic vote goes, not talking about among the millions of the various groups are people of all political persuasions, the democrat party depends on the Catholic vote and loses on the rare occasions they don’t get it, which is why JFK wanted the 1965 Immigration Act.


80 posted on 02/11/2026 3:15:02 AM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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