TRUMP CAMPAIGN'S CATHOLIC OUTREACH IS TO CATHOLICS HOSTILE TO THE HOLY FATHER

 “A lot of people are holding their hands over their ears until the Argentine socialist is gone.” — former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu (R), the father of current New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R)

From a website accusing Pope Francis of being part of a Masonic conspiracy.

One of the puzzling features of the current Presidential campaign is that while Catholics supporting Joe Biden as well as the Biden Campaign are respectful towards the Holy Father while the Trump Campaign and its Catholic outreach surrogates are often openly hostile to Pope Francis.  This has troubled some mainstream Catholic Republicans as a bad strategy and identified Trump with the anti-Francis cabal.  

Trump has tweeted out support former papal nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was relieved of his duties by Pope Francis and now lives in retirement.  He has called for Pope Francis to resign, an unheard of action of a Catholic archbishop.  Trump also tweeted support for the author and online polemicist Taylor Marshall.  Marshall is known for his criticism of Church authorities and has proclaimed about the Holy Father that "I resist him to his face."   He has accused the Pope of allowing Freemasonry to take over the Vatican.  Marshall has recently been associated with the traditionalist priestly Society of St. Pius X, who are in “irregular communion” with the Catholic Church. He has tweeted that Catholic men should not attend diocesan seminaries, spoken about his “resistance” to Pope Francis, and has recently clashed with Bishop Robert Barron, who reportedly referred to him as an “extremist,” amid a disagreement over the role of clerics and laity amid the destruction of the statues of saints.

Marshal’s 2019 book “Infiltration” claims to outline a plot by which “Modernists and Marxists hatched a plan to subvert the Catholic Church from within. Their goal: to change Her doctrine, Her liturgy, and Her mission,” according to the book’s website.

The journalist Ed Condon of the conservative Catholic CNA news service has written:  

Officials working in the Trump administration have told CNA that they have been frustrated by recent presidential tweets elevating controversial Catholic figures...

Two Catholics in senior positions in the administration told CNA the decision to elevate Viganò and Marshall has put the White House at odds with the U.S. bishops, instead of putting a focus on issues of agreement, and has frustrated some Catholic administration officials.

...[O]ne White House official told CNA. “I believe in the work I’m doing, and believe it matters as a Catholic. But I spend enough time just defending that simple premise – I don’t want to have to deal with crazy Catholic Twitter too.”

A second senior administration official, who attends weekly meetings with the president in the Oval Office, told CNA the president believes he has not been supported by U.S. bishops for his efforts on religious liberty, and that White House strategists have urged him to court Catholic votes through figures like Marshall and Viganò.

Trump apparently considers the Pope and many of the Catholic bishops as enemies, with particular anger for the criticism he received from the Archbishop of Washington for using a Catholic chapel as a photo op background after he had anti-racism protestors tear-gassed.  

With that in mind, the Catholic reporter Michael Sean Winters writes:

That news was followed by the more bizarre — and perhaps more desperate? — news that Trey Trainor, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Federal Election Commission had sat for an interview with Michael Voris at Church Militant. And not just an interview. Trainor seemed to fit right into the conspiratorial, fringy, Archbishop-Carlo-Maria-Viganò-loving and Vatican-II-hating climate at Church Militant.  

Trainor warned that electing Joe Biden constituted an "existential threat" to the Catholic Church and — apparently ignorant of canon law and the theology of the sacrament of holy orders — asserted that priests should defy their bishop if the bishop orders them to stay away from partisanship in the pulpit.

Here is the problem for the Trump campaign. Yes, he needs to motivate his base. He also needs to avoid giving reasons to stay home and not vote to his "soft" supporters, the 4% or 5% who do not approve of his job performance but tell pollsters they plan to vote for him over Biden. He needs their votes, too, and cozying up to cranks like Church Militant tends to turn off those more moderate voters.

Then there is Frank Pavone, the priest heavily involved in the Trump campaign but also denied any pastoral ministry from his bishop.  Pavone apparently has been for the second time dismissed from his diocese (a very rare action) and seems to now be permanently without a priestly assignment or diocese. 

It has been noted why people like Viganò, Pavone and Marshall appeal to Trump. Conspiracy theories, communists, freemasons, tons of retweets and YouTube followers? It’s right up his alley.  

The question is, why would a Catholic loyal to the Holy Father support a presidential candidate attacking the Pope and supporting those trying to destroy him?