WhatFinger


Conservative Christians in the U.S. as “ignorant”, “theocratic”, “Manichean, war-mongering fanatics”.

Dissing America,  Father Antonio Spadaro Style



It was Ex-President Barack Obama who started a dissing America trend that went all the way to the Vatican. While president, Obama went on a world tour of countries whose inhabitants loved to hear America being put down and kept it up during his eight years in the Oval Office. You won’t read the terms, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, the editor-in-chief of the quasi-official Vatican periodical La Civiltà Cattolica, used to denigrate Christians in anyone’s Sunday missal wherein he describes conservative Christians in the U.S. as “ignorant”, “theocratic”, “Manichean, war-mongering fanatics”.
Without anyone asking him to share his spittle-flecked opinion on Steve Bannon, Spadaro suggests that Bannon is part of a dangerous “fringe group of U.S. Christians who seek to bring about a theocratic Christian state, wiping away America’s healthy secularism. (Breitbart News, July 15, 2017) Only a Jesuit priest, who nestles down in the accommodating nest of Pope Francis, could call America’s secularism “healthy”.
“The Jesuit priest is a friend and counselor of Pope Francis and drafted the essay with a Presbyterian minister, Marcelo Figueroa, another friend of the Pope, who was hand-picked by the pontiff as editor of the Argentinean edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. (Breitbart News) “The article states that U.S. evangelicals and Catholics have engaged in “an ecumenism of conflict” that seeks to advance “a theocratic type of state.”
Proving that cleric bigwigs are willing to try on for size the Fake News practiced by the mainstream media of the day, the authors claim—without any substance or proof—that Steve Bannon came by his Christian faith from Calvinist Pastor Rousas John Rushdoony, the father of so-called “Christian reconstructionism,” and assert that Rushdoony had a great influence on Bannon’s “theopolitical vision of Christian fundamentalism.”

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“In the sparsely documented essay, Spadaro makes no mention of where he came up with his odd theory that Bannon is a disciple of Pastor Rushdoony, a radical Calvinist who advocated the application of strict biblical law, including execution for adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality, witchcraft, and other sins. (Breitbart) “Instead, in a footnote, the authors refer to an article in the Washington Post that in turn cites more essays denouncing Mr. Bannon, such as “Steve Bannon Believes The Apocalypse Is Coming And War Is Inevitable” (the HuffPost) and “Steve Bannon Wants to Start World War III” (the Nation). Again, no mention of Rushdoony. “Father Spadaro seems to share the views of Steve Bannon articulated by fellow Jesuit Father James Martin, who was recently tapped by Pope Francis as a consultor to the Vatican’s communications department. “Last February, Father Martin, who is the editor of the Jesuit-run America magazine, repeatedly insulted Bannon, throwing his support behind a fabricated story of a “war” between Pope Francis and Trump’s chief strategist. “On an MSNBC segment titled “Steve Bannon vs. the Pope,” Father Martin claimed that Bannon uses church teaching to promote “racist, misogynistic, homophobic, xenophobic sentiments.” “Martin also said that Bannon is a “radical traditionalist” who opposes Pope Francis’s reforms and pines “for a time when the Church was purer,” a theme picked up by Father Spadaro in his recent screed.

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“Bannon is not only anti-Pope Francis, Martin alleged, “I would also say he is an anti-Pope Benedict and an anti-Pope John Paul.” “All these people were about economic justice,” Martin said, implying that Steve Bannon is not. “Father Martin also made the astonishing claim that Jesus Christ does not share Steve Bannon’s view of Catholicism as the “Church militant,” which he said is a synonym of “radical traditionalists.” In his article, Father Spadaro also picked up the topic of the “Church militant,” associating the term with an outlying group by the same name. “Neither Father Martin nor Father Spadaro mentioned that their religious order—the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits)—was approved in 1540 by Pope Paul III with the papal bull titled “To the Government of the Church Militant,” and the Jesuits were commonly referred to as the pope’s “shock troops.” “Moreover, as literate Catholics know, the “Church militant” is a common expression employed by countless Catholic saints, including Pope John Paul II, to distinguish the members of the church on earth still doing battle with evil from those who have already died. “Pope Francis is, of course, a Jesuit as well.


“The panel of guests on the MSNBC program with Father Martin continually referred to Bannon as a “white supremacist,” without ever being challenged to back up their insults with facts. “Steve Bannon is aligned with a radical sect of Catholics,” the MSNBC tag for the show read, a claim Father Spadaro seems to have swallowed hook, line, and sinker. "Apparently, in Pope Francis’s Age of Mercy, bearing false witness against one’s neighbor is no longer an issue, at least not for some Jesuits."
Some members of the Catholic laity at large, including those at Canada Free Press, agree with the open letter to Spadaro written by James W. Sherwood, of Carmel, New York:
“You have one hell of a nerve to write that crap about this Nation, THE USA. You have, in effect, used the La Civilta Cattolica to bash our Nation and our President and put it out to a worldwide audience! AND IT IS THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF THE TRUTH. NOW APOLOGIZE!  THAT IS,YOU AND FIGUEROA!!! AHORITA!  GOD, I AM SO ANGRY…”
Bearing false witness against thy neighbor and spewing hatred of a nation at will, particularly for those whose job is supposed to be saving souls, is a sin. In the name of all those offended: Amen!

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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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