Why does the right hate the pope so much?

[marmar]

Why does the right hate the pope so much?
It might be the weirdest fact of this upside-down decade: The church is on the right side of history (sort of)

By Andrew O'Hehir
Executive Editor
Published April 5, 2026 10:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) My adult children and I amused ourselves recently with an absurd fictional scenario in which we reach Karl Marx by spectral telephone in the afterlife — where he is no doubt surprised to find himself — and try to explain that right-wing Americans of the 21st century, with no apparent sense of irony, sometimes accuse the pope of being a Marxist.

....(snip)....

On one level, the deepening right-wing antipathy toward Leo and his predecessor, Pope Francis, is easily understood. Neither of them made any substantive changes to core Roman Catholic doctrine, but when you’re the bishop of Rome and the head of the world’s largest single religious denomination, practice matters more than theory. Both Leo and Francis have subtly but noticeably downplayed the most unforgiving elements of church dogma on human sexuality and reproduction, while focusing far more visibly on issues like worsening global inequality, predatory capitalism, war, poverty and the fate of migrants and refugees.

Leo has often been described as a more conciliatory and less confrontational figure than Francis, who clearly emerged from what might be called the center-left of the Latin American church. But while the White Sox fan now in the Vatican almost never utters Donald Trump’s name, he has made little effort to conceal what he thinks of Trump’s mass deportation agenda, his support for the Israeli destruction of Gaza or the unprovoked U.S. war against Iran.

....(snip)....

It’s hardly surprising that Americans on the MAGA-adjacent far right, whether inside or outside the church, experience that kind of language as a startling political betrayal. They have long understood the Roman Catholic hierarchy, especially the notoriously reactionary American cardinals and bishops, as a fellow-traveler force of unbending moral rigor, devoted to the persecution and suppression of liberals, radicals, socialists, feminists, LGBTQ advocates and other political or sexual nonconformists. .....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/05/why-does-the-right-hate-the-pope-so-much/

[Joinfortmill]

1. I think they hate him because he is authentically good and kind.

[Ritabert]

2. MAGA so-called Christians like "eye for an eye" Old Testament religion

Pope Francis and Pope Leo ascribe to New Testament theology like the Beatitudes. MAGA can't stand "Blessed are the peacemakers, etc."

[usonian]

3. A new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

I actually missed "The Pope" in the title (it's early already) but "hate the people" also applies.

The Reich wing is a cult. Cults are run by very strict hierarchy and defined by "not being THEM", that is: defined not by self, which changes as the lie du jour is issued, but by who they are NOT.

This is the opposite of a society in which "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me".

Brothers and sisters, not suckers and losers, not rapists and murderers, all projections of the dark side of the groundless accuser.

Projection works both ways. The cult sees its dark side in everyone else, and considers them "lesser" . A true leader sees the divinity (or Buddhahood) in everyone else, and considers them "equal, but marvelously different, every one".

The cult is always at war (like "Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia." ) and tries to rewrite history as conflict.

On the other hand, there's cooperation.

Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda:

To end the human institution of war, to relegate it to history with such barbarous practices as slavery―at one time also considered a natural, inevitable, “part of human nature”―we must establish respect for the inviolable dignity of human life as the core value of our age.

Every war, when viewed from the undistorted perspective of life’s sanctity, is a “civil war” waged by humanity against itself.


One's own lack of dignity and self-respect is simultaneously their view of others. Rules are written to maintain that distance from humanity, racism is invented, religious division is created, misogyny is invented, nationalism is invented. All to keep a few in power, be they cult leaders, "priests", presidents, oligarchs, who substitute control for the happiness they lack inside.

They all want to be "God", but a cruel and manipulative god that they invented like Iago in Shakespeare's and Verdi's Othello.

I believe in a cruel God
who created me in his image
and who in fury I name.

From the very vileness of a germ
or an atom, vile was I born.
I am a wretch because I am a man,
and I feel within me the primeval slime.

Yes! This is my creed!
I believe with a heart as steadfast
as that of the widow in church,
that the evil I think
and that which I perform
I think and do by destiny's decree.

I believe the just man to be a mocking actor
in face and heart;
that all his being is a lie,
tear, kiss, glance,
sacrifice and honour.

And I believe man the sport of evil fate
from the germ of the cradle
to the worm of the grave.

After all this mockery then comes Death.
And then? ... And then?
Death is nothingness,
heaven an old wives' tale.

[alittlelark]

4. Christian nationalists consider the pope to be demonic - seriously.

[Ritabert]

5. Right wing "Christians" used to call the Catholic Church the "Whore of Babylon".

[Whip-poor-will]

6. surprised ?

Projection again

[OC375]

7. Catholics aren't always welcome on the right.

Then again, they aren't always welcome a lot of places. As far as the Pope, it's always been a love/hate thing, even amongst Catholics.

[Scrivener7]

8. Because he espouses actual christian teachings.

[JustKay]

9. They hate everyone who isn't just like them.