Too Christian for the Defenders of Christianity
Marx, Castro, Lenin and the Pope are at the racetrack. The communists are studying the odds; the Pope is down in the paddock asking after the horse that nobody wants.
As the new Pope prepares for a visit to Spain, an odd political spectacle is taking shape. The same far-right forces that eagerly borrow from the rhetoric of MAGA and Europe’s nationalist movements are finding themselves increasingly at odds with the head of the Catholic Church.
The reason is not especially complicated. On migration, poverty and human dignity, the Vatican’s message often sits uneasily alongside the politics of walls, fear and exclusion. What is striking is not that the Church is saying these things, but that some who claim to defend Christian civilisation seem so offended when it does.
My latest column reflects on this curious moment: a Church that once seemed comfortable backing emperors and strongmen now appearing, however tentatively, to be betting on mercy instead.
