Presidential Chief Adviser Stephen Bannon is allied with papal critic Cardinal Burke, and is interfering with Vatican church politics. Burke says, “If Pope won’t answer dubia, ‘we simply will have to correct the situation’ .
While scouting for Pope Francis news this morning, I found this about Francis not answering "dubia". Says I, "Why should Frank answer Dubia? Dubia hasn't been President for over 8 years now. "
Turns out that a "dubia" is a religious pronouncement, in this case the “doubts” of four Cardinals about whether Catholics who practice homosexuality, contraception, divorce, and remarriage, and sex outside of marriage should be able to receive holy communion. Conservative cardinals, led by Bannon ally Cardinal Raymond Burke, are threatening the People's Pope with a "formal correction" if he doesn't give them some "moral clarity" on these issues.
This, together with some mysterious anti-Francis posters which have appeared overnight in Rome, is probably associated with Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon. Bannon openly opposes Pope Francis, whose messages of peace, compassion, and tolerance counter those of the Bannon / Trump administration. Bannon's ally in this is Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is proposing that Francis answer the "dubia" or face a formal rebuke from the church.
I'm a Unitarian heathen pagan, and no Catholic "dubia" will make any difference to me. But I'm a believer. I like Francis' messages of peace, compassion, and tolerance, and yes, I do think that the world needs Francis' "moral clarity", if not precisely the moral clarity (intolerance, condemnation, and punishment) which Bannon and Burke promote.
This autocratic right wing BS and foreign interference has not just screwed up our American elections – these people have ambitions to spread religious authoritarianism to France, (via "French Trump" candidate Marie Le Pen) the European Union, and now to millions of Catholics worldwide. And yes, Cardinal Burke does have ties to Putin, to Breitbart, and the whole far right wing cabal, which seeks to reassert white Christian dominance in the style of the worst excesses of the Catholic church.
The good news is that the push to religious autocracy is not winning everywhere; frequent Breitbart contributor Geert Wilders was not elected in Holland; Cardinal Burke's undermining was crushed by Pope Francis, and fears of a papal “coup” seem to be overblown. However, in France, Marine Le Pen's candidacy is polling higher than anyone else's in a crowded field of candidates. France could elect a female Trump, and Bannon could score another beachhead in his dream of a new world order, in which capitalism furthers "western Judeo-Christian" values. The vehicle for spreading those "values" is war. As Editor of Breitbart News, Bannon had a media forum to push his anti-Islam views worldwide. Now, as the President’s Adviser, Bannon has the power to create real war on a global stage. Bannon is a big fan of war. Pope Francis promotes peace, even criticizing war profiteers.
Bannon used Breitbart News to spread his anti-Islam ideology. His allies foster dissent within the Catholic church, and are undermining a progressive Pope. This is another stage in Bannon’s “War of Values”. Now that he has the American President's ear, Bannon's reach has expanded exponentially- He now has the ability to promote actual physical, violent war by helping to destabilize the European Union and NATO.
If this doesn't scare the crap out of you, it should.