Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser to US President Donald Trump, discussed opposition strategies with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein against Pope Francis, with Bannon saying he hoped to “take down” the pontiff, according to newly released files from the US Department of Justice.
Messages sent between the pair in 2019, released in the massive document dump last month, reveal Bannon courted the late financier in his attempts to undermine the former pontiff after leaving the first Trump administration.
Bannon had been highly critical of Francis whom he saw as an opponent to his “sovereigntist” vision, a brand of nationalist populism which swept through Europe in 2018 and 2019. The released documents from the DOJ appear to show that Epstein had been helping Bannon to build his movement.
“Will take down (Pope) Francis,” Bannon wrote to Epstein in June 2019. “The Clintons, Xi, Francis, EU – come on brother.”
Pope Francis was a significant obstacle to Bannon’s brand of nationalist populism. In 2018, the former Trump aide described Francis to The Spectator as “beneath contempt,” accusing him of siding with “globalist elites” and, according to “SourceMaterial,” urged Matteo Salvini, now Italy’s deputy prime minister, to “attack” the pontiff. For his part, Salvini has used Christian iconography and language when pursuing his anti-immigrant agenda.
Rome and the Vatican have been important for Bannon. He set up a Rome bureau when he ran Breitbart News and has been involved in trying to establish a political training “gladiator school” to defend Judaeo-Christian values not far from the Eternal City.
Francis, meanwhile, was a counterweight to the Trumpian worldview, strongly critiquing nationalism and making advocacy for migrants a hallmark of his pontificate.
The recently released DOJ files reveal Bannon messaged Epstein on several occasions in his efforts to undermine the late pope.
(Deep Ironies revealed here – Peter)
In his messages with Epstein, Bannon references “In the Closet of the Vatican,” a 2019 book by French journalist Frédéric Martel that lifted a lid on secrecy and hypocrisy at high levels of the church. Martel created a storm with his book by claiming 80% of the clergy working in the Vatican are gay, while exploring how they keep their sexuality secret.
The whole question of homosexuality in the church has been a lightning rod for some conservatives, who see it as evidence of a deeper, systemic crisis in the church, with some linking it to the wider sexual abuse scandals. Most experts and researchers view any conflating of sexual orientation with abuse as scientifically inaccurate.
Bannon showed an interest in turning Martel’s book into a film after meeting the author in Paris at a five-star hotel. In the messages, Bannon appears to suggest that Epstein could be the film’s executive producer. “You are now exec producer of ‘ITCOTV’ (In the closet of the Vatican),” Bannon wrote.
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Elsewhere in the files, Epstein jokes with his brother, Mark, about inviting Pope Francis to his residence for a “massage” during the US papal visit in 2015. Three years later, he messages Bannon to say he’s trying to “organize a trip for the pope to the Midde East,” adding “headline – tolerance.”
When Bannon shares with Epstein an article about the Vatican condemning “populist nationalism,” Epstein quotes John Milton’s biblical poem “Paradise Lost,” when Satan has been cast out of heaven.
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven,” Epstein tells Bannon.
“Most experts and researchers view any conflating of sexual orientation with abuse as scientifically inaccurate.”
Absolutely. However, as well covered in Spotlight, an inordinate* percent of men who join the celibate priesthood have immature and/or unnaturally suppressed sex drives. They further have their perspectives warped by being placed in a position of relative authority in vulnerable communities.
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*No pun intended.