Populist politics and the Pope

The rise of populist politics has been connected by several reporters to attacks on Pope Francis.

Source: https://www.ncronline.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_full_width/public/web%20RNS-STEVE-BANNON-082517.jpg?itok=6V5bwrrN

Former advisor to President Trump, Steve Bannon is one of many interesting persons mentioned in these reports. Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist, comments that Mr Steve Bannon stands for a worldview that is antithetical to the liberal values The Economist has always espoused… Bannon helped propel Donald Trump to the White House and he is advising the populist far-right in several European countries where they are close to power or in government. Worryingly large numbers of people are drawn to nativist nationalism. And Mr Bannon is one of its chief proponents.

The future of open societies will not be secured by like-minded people speaking to each other in an echo chamber, but by subjecting ideas and individuals from all sides to rigorous questioning and debate. This will expose bigotry and prejudice, just as it will reaffirm and refresh liberalism. That is the premise The Economist was founded on. When James Wilson launched this newspaper in 1843, he said its mission was to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”1 

The Associated Press reports that Pope Francis is recommending a Christian kind of populism after being attacked by Italian politicians for defending migrants.

 Francis told a crowd of 100,000 at an outdoor Mass on Saturday that “the only possible populism” is a Christian one that “listens to and serves the people without shouting, accusing, stirring up quarrels.”
The pope spoke in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. Many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants rescued at sea in recent years were taken to the Italian island’s ports.
Francis has staunchly championed the rights of migrants.
Italy’s new populist government is discouraging their arrival. Interior Minister Matteo Salvini insists people rescued at sea from human traffickers’ boats won’t be allowed in Italy.2

Michael Sean Winters, who covers the nexus of religion and politics for the National Catholic Register, reports recently that Richard Engel, of NBC news, began his show "On Assignment" with a segment on Steve Bannon's attack on Pope Francis.

Engel, like the Guardian, shines a light on Bannon's allies. When Michael Voris, the head of Church Militant, talks about the need to "drain the swamp" at the Vatican because "there is a gay network running the Vatican," you felt for Engel: Was he trying to suppress a laugh or was he genuinely flummoxed? Fr. Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute admits he does not much care for Francis because the pope does not understand rich people, but he adds that Bannon is "not my cup of tea" and does not know him. Engel produces a letter from Acton's Rome office supporting Bannon's Dignitatis Humanae Institute and Sirico says that he has never seen this before. I believe him: Sirico is gullible about capitalism, but I do not think he is a liar.3 

Mark Townsend, Home affairs editor of the Guardian, writes that Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon advised Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini to attack the pope over the issue of migration, according to sources close to the Italian far right.

Bannon has steadily been building opposition to Francis through his Dignitatis Humanae Institute, based in a 13th-century mountaintop monastery not far from Rome.
In January 2017, Bannon became a patron of the institute, whose honorary president is Cardinal Raymond Burke, an ultra-conservative who believes organised networks of homosexuals are spreading a “gay agenda” in the Vatican.
The institute’s chairman is former Italian MP Luca Volontè, on trial for corruption for accepting bribes from Azerbaijan . He has denied all charges.
Among the institute’s trustees is one of the pope’s most outspoken critics, Austin Ruse, a former contributor to rightwing news website Breitbart. Ruse runs C-FAM, an anti-abortion group whose founder was prone to antisemitic rants about population control and which has been termed a hate group by human rights campaigners. Like Volontè, Ruse is an official of the World Congress of Families, a gathering of far-right, anti-gay Christian groups backed by Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
Other trustees include Ben Harris-Quinney, chairman of the Conservative thinktank the Bow Group, who met Bannon in London last summer, alongside Raheem Kassam, the former UK editor of Breitbart. Bannon was a founding member of Breitbart’s board.
Bannon was invited by the Observer to respond but at the time of publication had not yet replied.4 

The position of Pope Francis on migration, climate change, and the excesses of capitalism are in tension with the policy of right wing populist movements.

References

1	(2018, September 4). The Open Future Festival and Steve Bannon - A statement from our .... Retrieved April 16, 2019, from https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/09/04/the-open-future-festival-and-steve-bannon
2	(2018, September 15). Pope says populism should serve people, not stir up quarrels - AP News. Retrieved April 16, 2019, from https://www.apnews.com/94ca83be880049fe8a6a8da701c04641
3	(2019, April 16). Bannon helps spread cancer of populist nationalism | National .... Retrieved April 16, 2019, from https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/distinctly-catholic/bannon-helps-spread-cancer-populist-nationalism
4	(2019, April 13). Steve Bannon 'told Italy's populist leader: Pope Francis is the enemy .... Retrieved April 16, 2019, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/13/steve-bannon-matteo-salvini-pope-francis-is-the-enemy