Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Challenging pope on multiple fronts, Bannon wants to train gladiators
Crux ^ | Apr 1, 2019 | Elise Harris and John L. Allen Jr.

Posted on 04/01/2019 5:54:47 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o

Challenging pope on multiple fronts, Bannon wants to train gladiators

ROME - Suppose you’re the kind of conservative Catholic frustrated with Pope Francis on a whole range of things, not just his handling of the clerical abuse crisis but his deal on naming bishops with Communist China, his continual critique of populist and nationalist movements, his ardent support for immigrant rights, and so on.

If so, that more or less puts you in the same boat with Steve Bannon, the architect of Donald Trump’s rise to power, and now Bannon has a proposition for you: How about spending a year in his new year-long institute in Italy, with the aim of emerging as a “gladiator” in the defense of Judeo-Christian civilization?

Bannon was in Rome in late March, in part to gear up for a pilot program this fall located at a medieval monastery in Trisulti, about an hour outside Rome. He told Crux March 30 that he expects the full version of the institute, with roughly 100 students and additional faculty, to open in 2020.

“The whole concept of the gladiator is the single-mindedness of it … gladiators weren’t just about technique or physicality or courage, their biggest thing was this amazing single-mindedness,” he said.

His new institute, he vowed, “is going to get you all the content of why this civilization, this culture, is special, what’s made it special - from understanding the Old Testament and its roots in Judaism and everything about the law, to everything up to modern times,” along with the ability to defend that legacy in a noisy and confrontational culture.

Who’s footing the bill?

“Unfortunately, right now funding for this is coming from Steven K. Bannon,” he said, while expressing confidence that “we’re going to have some pretty prominent Catholics put some money in.”

While Bannon was clear that the scope of the new institute is broader than simply a reaction to Pope Francis’s agenda, in his conversation with Crux he also didn’t back away from pointed criticism of the pontiff on three distinct fronts: The abuse scandals, China and populism.

Bannon predicted that without dramatic intervention, the entire American Catholic church could end up in receivership in 10 years, after being prosecuted under RICO statutes originally designed to combat organized crime.

“It’s so obvious that this thing is going to end in tears,” he said.

“They’re going to start treating the Church like the mob…the RICO statutes are set up so they can grab assets immediately, start to monetize those assets and give them to whoever. The victims and these lawyers are just going to plow on top of this.”

To prevent that, Bannon counseled the creation of some new panel or board that would allow qualified lay people to handle negotiations on behalf of the Church to attempt to protect assets.

“It’s almost like a pre-bankruptcy,” he said. “You need professionals, you need laity, you need people to do due diligence and to start to get into negotiations or whatever, to make sure that financially this doesn’t get out of control.”

Strikingly, one of America’s most politically polarizing figures insisted that such an effort would have to be apolitical.

“It has to be from conservative, traditionalist, Latin Mass Catholics to the most progressive,” Bannon said. “We have to put the politics of the Church aside and come together and help and work with the clergy, the hierarchy.”

Bannon said he has own personal purchase on the latest wave of scandals - especially those involving Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal and now ex-priest accused of a wide range of sexual abuse and misconduct, and Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who resigned from Washington after being criticized in a Pennsylvania grand jury report for his handling of abuse cases.

“I’m the guy that got McCarrick and [Cardinal Donald] Wuerl into the Oval Office,” Bannon said.

“It’s traditional that the cardinal of the archdiocese of Washington meets the president the first week of his administration,” he said. “Wuerl was the guy but they both wanted to come, and I was the one who got them into the schedule, got them into the oval, sat in there, etc. Trump greeted them and spent an hour with them.”

“You feel like, wow, I wish I’d had a heads up!” Bannon said. “I feel kinda dumb right now, but that’s where a lot of laity are at.”

On China, Bannon was even more emphatic that Francis is on the wrong track.

“Pope Francis and the Secretary of State have signed a deal with the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese Communist Party is not the Chinese people … this is a radical cadre of President Xi and his henchmen, a totalitarian dictatorship whose number one focus in their pursuit of control is basically the destruction of religions,” he said.

“There’s a process in that deal … leading to full diplomatic relationships between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party, and that throws Hong Kong, it throws Taiwan, it throws a hundred million Catholics under the bus,” Bannon said. “This is outrageous. You can’t do this.”

Bannon expressed frustration that the details of the deal signed last September between the Vatican and China to regulate the selection of bishops have not been revealed, insisting that the Vatican is obligated as a signatory to the 1961 Convention of Vienna regulating diplomatic relations to avoid secret deals.

Bannon said he’s founded a $100 million “Rule of Law” funded back by expatriate Chinese billionaires, and he may use some of that cash to fund a lawsuit demanding the Vatican cough up the terms of the agreement.

“They are a signatory to an agreement which bans what it did. It’s very specific that you cannot do what they did,” he said, adding that the venue for a lawsuit might be New York, where the UN is located - though, he insisted, he’d prefer to get the deal through persuasion rather than litigation.

On today’s populist tides in global politics - from Trump in the U.S. to Italy’s Matteo Salvini, as well as Brazil’s new president Jair Bolsonaro - Bannon insisted that Francis needs to stop pointing fingers.

“What the pope and the people around him are doing is continually singling out that these are bad guys, this is where all the problems are coming from, this is only going to lead to disaster,” he said. “I think that’s got to stop.”

Finally, Bannon said he’s long been struck by a certain similarity between his former boss, Trump, and the pontiff.

“He and Trump are at the same level,” Bannon said. “He breaks news every day, and he’s also very sophisticated. He knows exactly how to drop the headline. They’re very similar … they’re honey-badgers.”

Francis, Bannon said, “is a fighter, and I have a lot of admiration for a lot of things.”


TOPICS: Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: antipope; francis; homosexualagenda; migrants; popefrancis; populism; romancatholicism; westernciv
If I were a couple decades younger, I'd grab my gladius and be on my way to Trisulti.

But Steve, my man: for God's sake see a barber.

1 posted on 04/01/2019 5:54:47 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

Stevie still trying desperately to be relevant


2 posted on 04/01/2019 7:27:44 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nifster

And I didn’t know he was the architect of Trump’s success. I thought that was Trump.


3 posted on 04/01/2019 8:00:25 PM PDT by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

The Pope is an enemy of the American people.


4 posted on 04/01/2019 8:08:41 PM PDT by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mariner

Our new Pope was, I believe, the Guy the scriptures warned us about. Holy Mother Church will not go down with out a fight. Others, Emperors, Governments, nations and movements have tried and all have failed. As long as one Catholic remains—the Church lives. Many will perish in the coming fight but Heaven is big enough for the godly-—and Hell has been expanded for our foes to burn forever! Remember: God + one is a majority (Rev. Fulton Sheen—soon to be a saint).


5 posted on 04/01/2019 9:41:52 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll Onward! Ride to the sound of the guns!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: miss marmelstein

True words


6 posted on 04/01/2019 10:31:54 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

It’s my belief Francis is only encouraging the continuing attacks and murders of African and Asian Catholics as well as attacks and destruction of churches By his supporting their mono theistic claims and his refusal to condemn them and the theological Islamic claims used in doing so.


7 posted on 04/01/2019 10:44:21 PM PDT by mosesdapoet (mosesdapoet aka L,J,Keslin posting here for the record)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

“They’re going to start treating the Church like the mob…the RICO statutes are set up so they can grab assets immediately, start to monetize those assets and give them to whoever.”

True. The losers in the hierarchy have opened the door for confiscation of property by the state. Bannon is one step ahead of others.


8 posted on 04/02/2019 12:48:25 AM PDT by Falconspeed
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mariner
"The Pope is an enemy of the American people."

Not only that: he's the enemy of the Catholic Church. In my POV, the most dangerous one in history.

9 posted on 04/02/2019 4:44:58 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Just the fact, ma'am, just the facts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: mosesdapoet
I think Pope Francis is using the Chinese Communists to eradicate traditional Catholicism in China.

It could not possibly be worse.

10 posted on 04/02/2019 4:46:38 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Just the fact, ma'am, just the facts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson