(LifeSiteNews) — By now it shouldn’t be surprising when Catholic clergy counter-signal President Trump. It happened first when Pope Francis attacked him for wanting to build a border wall in 2016. It happened in December of last year when Leo indirectly rebuked him for his peace plan in Ukraine, which he said would “break apart” the U.S.’s “alliance” with Europe. And it happened again earlier this month when three of the most liberal members of the American Church’s hierarchy pushed back on his foreign policy.
On January 19, Cardinal Blase Cupich, Cardinal Robert McElroy, and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R. published what several mainstream media outlets rightly noted was an “unusual” statement subtly rebuking the Trump administration for its approach to international affairs, a topic that under former president Joe Biden the three oddly never opted to weigh in on.
While specifically mentioning Venezuela, Ukraine, and Greenland, Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin expressed concern about national sovereignty across the world being under attack. They also worried that “the building of just and sustainable peace” is being “reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies.”
“Our country’s moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination,” they argued. They further claimed that the “moral foundation for American policy is beset by polarization, partisanship, and narrow economic and social interests.”
Seemingly referencing cuts to USAID, they also worried that “wealthy nations” are wanting to “reduce or eliminate their contributions to humanitarian foreign assistance programs.”
It doesn’t take an advanced college degree to know what is being said here. The cardinals are clearly upset that the Trump administration is seeking to implement a more realist America-first foreign policy that withdraws the U.S. from serving the interests of the liberal world order that was constructed in the 20th century following the Second World War. They are also paranoid over the possibility that the U.S. will no longer provide a free ride for Europe and that its longtime promotion of UN and globalist-backed groups is coming an end. If one ever needed proof the Deep Church is the handmaid of the global Deep State, this letter is it.
What is especially concerning – though not unpredictable – about this letter is that while it rightly speaks of peace among nations, it fails to mention the fact that peace can only be brought about by a conversion of nations to the Catholic religion. “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony,” Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical Quas Primas reads.
Being the liberals that they are, it is rather rich to hear Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin speak of their concern for “abortion and euthanasia” and how “the right to life” and “religious liberty” are being violated.
First, do they not know that the Trump administration has aggressively called out religious liberty violations taking place across the world, especially in places like Nigeria, but also here in the U.S., where it has taken the government’s boot off the neck of Christians and pro-life groups?
Second, on dozens of occasions over the last decade Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin have repeatedly sought to downplay the intrinsic evil of abortion while trying to upgrade “social justice” issues like gun control and “climate change.” Seeing them express concern over the killing of preborn children when the Trump administration has broadly sought to prevent that from happening is puzzling.
Third, when Joe Biden spied on Latin Mass attendees and persecuted pro-lifers like Mark Houck, Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin did not issue a joint letter. Deciding to speak up now when, in years past, they were silent on the violations they say they are now deeply concerned about reeks not only of Trump Derangement Syndrome but of a blatant political decision meant to give moral cover to liberals who want to attack the administrations’ efforts.
Other American clergy and laity have fretted about the U.S.’s foreign policy as well. Earlier this month heterodox Catholics were furious when the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing from over 60 leftist international organizations. In a statement provided to left-wing outlet National Catholic Reporter, Bishop Elias Zaidan claimed that the decision will “have painful and direct repercussions on the lives of vulnerable populations and God’s creation already suffering from a changing climate.” Zaidan chairs the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace.
Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, defended the administration’s decision. In a press release titled “Withdrawal from Wasteful, Ineffective, or Harmful International Organizations,” Rubio rightly complains that, “what started as a pragmatic framework of international organizations for peace and cooperation has morphed into a sprawling architecture of global governance, often dominated by progressive ideology and detached from national interests.”
He continues: “From DEI mandates to ‘gender equity’ campaigns to climate orthodoxy, many international organizations now serve a globalist project rooted in the discredited fantasy of the ‘End of History.’ These organizations actively seek to constrain American sovereignty. Their work is advanced by the same elite networks – the multilateral ‘NGO-plex’ – that we have begun dismantling through the closure of USAID.” This is precisely what Cupich, McElroy, and Tobin oppose.
U.S. Nuncio Christophe Pierre delivered a speech late last year on the Church’s assessment of current political movements. While some left-wing Catholics see his critique of “woke culture” and “post-liberalism” as being nuanced, at the end of the day, his remarks failed to see things correctly, as he hyperbolically mischaracterized the rise of nationalism in the face of globalism as being pushed by “ultra-conservatives” who are leading persons “towards authoritarian temptations or towards a fundamentalism that contradicts the legitimate plurality of modern life.” This is tantamount to defending the status quo.
The Trump administration and the Church hierarchy’s will continue to be at odds with one another, as their visions for the future of the international order are rooted in diametrically opposed principles. Whereas one sees “climate change,” open borders, and entities like the UN as outdated and even harmful initiatives of a failed liberal system that is suppressing a much needed adaptation to a changing world order, the other sees them as necessary and beneficial to maintaining the old way of doing things on the world stage.
