CV NEWS FEED // In a Monday article in the Religion News Service (RNS), Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ, called former President Donald Trump an “antichrist.”
“If we compare the Gospel message with that of Trump and other authoritarian leaders, we can only conclude that he and they are antichrists,” wrote the Jesuit priest and former editor of America magazine.
The piece, titled “In a world where Christ is king, authoritarian leaders can only be antichrists,” was headed by a picture of the 45th president addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this year.
Reese prefaced his editorial by noting that last Sunday was the Feast of Christ the King. He then compared Trump and other “authoritarian leaders around the world” to absolute monarchs and fascist dictators such as Benito Mussolini.
Reese claimed these “anti-democratic” leaders “portray themselves as the heroes of their narratives where they alone can save the nation.”
They will destroy our enemies and protect us from outsiders. They will not be slowed down by democratic niceties or laws. Each promises that if we put him in power, if we make him king, he will save us. We will have success and prosperity.
This is not the platform of Christ the King. These authoritarian leaders are the antichrists of our time.
Although Reese did not name any of the other so-called “anti-democratic” leaders in his piece, Breitbart speculated that he was referring to the increasing number of socially conservative and populist leaders elected by various countries in the past few years.
These figures might include former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, current Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentinian President-Elect Javier Milei, and presumptive Dutch Prime Minister-designate Geert Wilders. Like Trump, all of these leaders were democratically elected. Bolsonaro, Meloni, and Milei are Catholics.
In addition, Breitbart reported that during the 2020 presidential election, “Reese stumped for Joe Biden, urging his fellow Catholics to join the ‘grassroots’ group ‘Catholics for Biden.’”
“The launch event sought to ‘engage Catholic voters’ and whip up enthusiasm for the Biden-Harris ticket,” Breitbart continued. The priest also “attempted to convince Catholics that it is okay to vote for Catholic candidates who openly flout Church teaching on issues such as abortion.”
In doing so, Reese argued that Biden’s stances on “racism, immigration, global warming and COVID-19,” justified Catholics voting for him despite his support for abortion and the LGBTQ movement.
Eighteen years ago, Reese resigned as editor of the left-wing America magazine, which is published by the Jesuits. The National Catholic Reporter (NCR), another left-wing source, then described that his resignation was “at the request of his order following years of pressure for his ouster from the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
NCR added that the leader of the Congregation during much of its investigation of Reese was none other than Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the eventual Pope Benedict XVI.
Again from NCR’s 2005 report:
Over the course of a five-year exchange between the doctrinal congregation and the Jesuits, the Vatican congregation had raised objections to various editorial choices at America under Reese’s leadership, including:
An essay exploring moral arguments for the approval of condoms in the context of HIV/AIDS;
Several critical analyses of the doctrinal congregation’s September 2000 document Dominus Iesus, on religious pluralism;
An editorial criticizing what America called a lack of due process in the congregation’s procedures for the investigation of theologians;
An essay about homosexual priests;
A guest essay from U.S. Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, challenging suggestions that the church should refuse Communion to Catholic politicians who do not vote as a number of bishops believe they should vote.
RNS, the publication in which Reese’s “antichrist” article appeared, was embroiled in a scandal in 2015. Then, it was revealed that the agency reportedly received a large grant from an LGBTQ activist group.
As the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported at the time, the RNS editor denied that the grant “has biased [RNS’] coverage of traditional religion, which includes a recent controversial story on Cardinal Raymond Burke.”
CNA continued:
The Arcus Foundation dispenses millions of dollars in grants every year to support LGBT activism. Its 2014 grants included $120,000 to the Religion Newswriters Foundation, the owner of the widely syndicated Religion News Service.
The Arcus Foundation’s grant listing said the one year of support was intended “to recruit and equip LGBT supportive leaders and advocates to counter rejection and antagonism within traditionally conservative Christian churches.”
