CORRIERE DELLA SERRA, ROME:
Bannon’s anathema: “Prevost’s election is rigged, the Vatican needs money. There will be a fight over migrants”
by Viviana Mazza
Trump’s former strategist on the choice of Leo XIV: “They were looking for someone more organized but aligned with Bergoglio. Traditionalism in America is growing”
NEW YORK – Steve Bannon and Leo XIV have something in common: they were both altar boys. But she seems to be the only one when it comes to Catholicism. The former Trump strategist who is now a leading voice in the “Make America Great Again” movement predicted Prevost’s possible choice and says that “this election is more rigged than the 2020 election against Trump.”
You say that “the deep Church has chosen an anti-Trump Pope.” What do you mean by deep Church?
“I said that the possible unexpected winner would be Prevost ten days earlier, on Piers Morgan’s show. I did my research. No one in the betting circles or in the mainstream media was talking about him. But behind the scenes, there was talk of nothing else. They had two problems that he solves. First, they needed to find someone more organized but ideologically aligned with Francis to finish Bergoglio’s radical reimagining of the Church that has abandoned the Latin Mass and traditional pre-Vatican II Catholicism.
Second, since MAGA-traditionalist Catholics have been able to cause such a stir in recent years, the flow of donations from the United States has fallen by almost 50%. The Vatican is not in danger of bankruptcy because it has resources, but it has a problem of flow of donations, mainly because of the collapse of funding from the US Church and in particular from big donors, such as the Papal Foundation. Prevost is perfect. He is American but not too much; he was born in America, but he is more from Peru, he is close to Liberation Theology. Bergoglio created him and selected him for this position. He has been a cardinal for only two years. He put him in charge of the powerful dicastery of bishops to make him known. They needed an American for donors to have access — so they can have their awards, dinners and papal blessings — and for donations to increase, but the American cardinals said in a press conference that he is the least American of them. His brother told the Daily Mail that they had discussed the name Leone before the conclave began. It is impossible for a virtually unknown American archbishop who has spent most of his life in Peru and has been a cardinal for less than two years to go to a Conclave and win in the fourth ballot. It was Bergoglio’s globalist Curia. This election is completely rigged. Some Maga Catholics say he met with Cardinal Burke and said he loves the Latin Mass and everything will be fine, but that is not true at all.”
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When you say that behind the scenes there was talk of Prevost, are you referring to US donors?
«Not just American donors, we have contacts in the Vatican. They took us to court over the Monastery of Trisulti because they said we wanted to organize an anti-Vatican but the accusations are false and we took the monastery back, they just slowed us down. Since then we have built contacts and incredible sources in the Vatican. I know what they do before they do it».
Do you think that the leadership of the Catholic Church is moving to the left while the US one is moving to the right?
«Strongly. In America there is a boom in the Church, traditionalist Catholicism is on the rise, especially among young men. When I go to Rome it is hard to see these magnificent churches half empty and with only over-seventy faithful and non-Italian priests. It is a problem in America too but not in the traditionalist Church with the Latin Mass. We are heading towards Schism. The people who want to bring back the Latin Mass and overturn the Second Vatican Council will not give up and they know that we are winning. Anti-Trumpism is another issue: there will be a political complication because the Pope will stand against mass expulsions. And we will not tolerate it. The ten million illegal immigrants who have invaded the country under Biden will leave: we will do it in a humane way, with Christian values.
Trump and Vance, however, congratulated the Pope.
“They should have, President Trump is the leader of the most important country in the world and JD Vance is the vice president and a recent convert, but this is not a battle for new converts, it is a battle for those who have been in the Church for a long time and know how it was destroyed. Our movement did not consider Bergoglio a legitimate Pope, we called him an apostate”.
Is it right for Vance to go to Mass on May 18?
“Of course, the heads of state will be there. But it is irrelevant”.
In addition to immigration, do you foresee other frictions with the US administration?
https://www.corriere.it/esteri/25_maggio_11/bannon-intervista-papa-a31c9969-23c0-4c3a-b258-7cc0bca15xlk.shtml
