Pope Francis: 'Tea Party Catholic'?

On Breitbart News Saturday, Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Editor in Chief Alex Marlow discussed Pope Francis’s remarks to the United Nations where he called for “legitimate redistribution of economic benefits by the State,” using government and the private sector. Bannon asked guest Austin Ruse, head of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and a Breitbart contributor, “Is Pope Francis a Commie?” 

“I know he is a Jesuit,” Bannon said, explaining that Jesuits sit at the vanguard of the Communist revolution in Latin America there, before asking if “Pope Francis been taken over by liberation theology?” Bannon, who also hosts Breitbart News Sunday, noted that the pontiff had tweeted from his official account a couple of weeks ago that “inequality is the root of social evil.”

Ruse answered by saying that, “I don’t think he is a Communist. I think that he is largely misunderstood.”

Skeptically, Bannon responded that, over the course of the last two papacies, that of John Paul II and then Benedict XVI, through the fall of Communism and the rise of Islamic radicalism, he doesn’t remember once having to translate the Pope’s messages. Now, it seems to Bannon, with Pope Francis, “every time Pope Francis comes out with another outrageous statement on income inequality the main response we get is ‘Oh it’s not the right translation.'”

Ruse didn’t refute Bannon’s point but claimed instead that Pope Francis is not looking to end capitalism, but rather send a message to the world that everyone can do more for his neighbor. Moreover, according to Ruse, Francis is not just talking to America, but to the whole world. We have to be reminded, claims Ruse, that “most of the world is under the yoke of rapacious thugs. A billion people can’t get a clean glass of water… and keep in mind he came of age in a country [Argentina] that was just ‘crony capitalism’ from stem to stern.”

Ruse added that “Francis is a Tea Party Catholic. He’s a populist.” According to Ruse, the Pope and the Tea Party have a common denominator insofar as they are both opposed to the establishment and to corporatism.

While this is certainly a tough sell, Bannon did agree with Ruse that Francis is not a man to give favors to the elites, citing that at the ceremony at the Vatican for the four Popes “there was no VIP seating.” “This was strictly on a total first come first served basis,” he said. “And that the man in the street has the same rights, he does not differentiate. Francis lives in a small, modest ‘hotel like’ section of the Vatican. You may not like everything you hear about the Pope, but this guy walks the talk.”

Ruse went on to say that some of what the Pope says is used as a weapon by the secularists to beat up on the religious and conservatives. He added that the Pope’s abhorrence of abortion and his staunch advocacy for the right to life clearly puts him on the side of the conservatives. In his speech to the UN on Friday, he spoke about the culture of death and the protection of the unborn child and “he was really speaking truth to power.”

Listen to Breitbart News Saturday on Sirius XM Patriot Radio Channel 125 every Saturday at 10 to 1 pm ET, hosted by Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Editor in Chief Alexander Marlow