Marjorie Taylor Greene feuds with conservative Catholics around ‘Satan’ remarks

WASHINGTON (RNS) — A conservative Catholic activist is calling for Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to be sanctioned by Property management in excess of a the latest job interview in which she referred to bishops lending help to immigrants as an example of “Satan controlling the church.”

Greene, who has garnered common criticism for offering voice to conspiracy theories, manufactured the remarks throughout an hourlong job interview with Church Militant, a Detroit-based mostly, correct-wing Catholic internet site rebuked by its individual diocese and condemned by detractors for incendiary rhetoric decried as racist and homophobic.

Early in the job interview, which was titled “Marjorie for Pope,” Church Militant head Michael Voris requested the lawmaker about the Catholic Church’s longtime support for undocumented immigrants. Voris expressed aggravation with Catholics who assist migrants at the border, and singled out Catholic Relief Products and services.

Greene, a extended-standing critic of the existing border procedures, described this kind of initiatives as “Satan controlling the church.”

“The church is not executing its position, and it’s not adhering to the teachings of Christ and it’s not adhering to what the Phrase of God claims we’re meant to do,” she mentioned.

Greene did not specify a certain part of Catholic training she thinks church leaders are violating by aiding immigrants. She went on to say that Christians need to love other men and women — but argued Christian love should be employed to even further American pursuits, not a “globalist plan,” and accused Catholic church leaders of harming American taxpayers. 

 ”Yes, we are supposed to appreciate just one yet another,” she said. “But their definition of what enjoy 1 another implies implies destroying our legal guidelines. It implies completely perverting what our Constitution states.”

Greene’s rhetoric contrasts starkly with remarks by Pope Francis, who has manufactured assist for immigrants a fixture of his papacy. The pope has frequented the U.S.-Mexico border and has funded Mexico-primarily based projects to support migrants. In 2015, he lauded Sister Norma Pimentel, government director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley for her function aiding immigrants together the border, an initiative Voris appeared to reference in his interview with Greene.

In addition, Francis openly feuded with former President Donald Trump for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, at one issue declaring he was willing to confront the president specifically on the concern.

Greene, for her component, was a single of two lawmakers who chanted “build the wall” — a reference to Trump’s border proposal — during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union tackle previously this year.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks with Church Militant head Michael Voris all through an interview. Movie screen grab

On Wednesday, Bill Donohue, chief of the conservative group Catholic League, blasted Greene for the remarks.

“She desires to apologize to Catholics promptly,” he stated. “She is a disgrace.”

Donohue said his group plans to get hold of Property Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy about the problem, and Donohue inspired viewers to get to out to Greene’s communications director.

Representatives for McCarthy did not immediately return a ask for for comment.

Greene fired again in a prolonged assertion posted to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, defending her comments and insisting Donohue ought to alternatively apologize to her. She explained herself as a “cradle Catholic” who stopped attending Catholic services right after she had youngsters, citing concerns about the kid sexual intercourse abuse disaster. (Greene was reportedly baptized about 2011 at North Position Community Church, an evangelical Protestant megachurch primarily based in Alpharetta, Georgia.)

“Just so we’re distinct, bishops, when I stated ‘controlled by Satan,’ I wasn’t conversing about the Catholic Church. I was conversing about you,” Greene wrote. “The Catholic Church need to throw out these monsters as a substitute of lecturing the people its very own bishops have pushed away. I refuse to use kinder, gentler language as Bill Donohue may possibly favor when I talk about his disgusting and corrupt good friends, who have produced him loaded with the donations from everyday churchgoing Catholics.”

Greene, who reportedly texted Trump main of staff members Mark Meadows in advance of Biden’s inauguration about imposing “Marshall law” to maintain Trump in business office, then doubled down on her criticism of clerics who support immigrants.

“The bishops are also fast paced destroying our country working with taxpayer funds to advocate for the illegal invasion across our borders,” she mentioned. “They dare to costume up Democrat vandalism and lawlessness as somehow ‘religious,’ which most likely explains their distaste for me.”

The discussion ongoing into Thursday, when Donohue despatched a letter to the Property Ethics Committee demanding Greene be sanctioned.

“The time has occur for her to be possibly reprimanded or censured,” Donohue wrote. “Her irresponsible behavior has currently caused her to be removed from committee assignments. Appropriately, her burst of anti-Catholicism now requires much better sanctions towards her.”

California Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu, who is Catholic, criticized Greene from the Property ground on Thursday, calling her remarks “bigoted.”

Scott Jennings, a CNN contributor and Republican strategist, also derided her feedback as “unfortunate.”

“We have to appreciate one particular an additional — that’s the mandate from Jesus to the church,” he said.

A representative for Catholic Aid Expert services despatched Faith Information Assistance a assertion rebutting Greene and Voris’ characterization of the group’s do the job. They stated CRS does not resettle refugees or undocumented migrants, but as an alternative “assist(s) the poor and susceptible overseas.”

“We’ve been concentrated on tackling the troubles that drive people today away from their homes prior to it takes place,” the assertion browse. “The root cause of migration is frequently violence and poverty that push folks into the not known, seeking for basic safety and steadiness. By developing careers and operating to reduce violence, people can keep in their communities, and not have to uproot just to survive.”

The again-and-forth hinted at sluggish-yawning fissures in conservative Catholic circles, the place Donohue has frequently been a outstanding voice in the previous.

Greene, whose sights affiliated with the QAnon movement have been decried as antisemitic and anti-Muslim and resulted in her remaining stripped of committee assignments soon immediately after assuming place of work in 2021, has emerged as a celebrated determine among considerably-suitable Catholics this 12 months.

In addition to her Church Militant job interview, Greene spoke in February at an celebration structured by Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist and Catholic whose supporters frequently chant “Christ is King!” although keeping crucifixes aloft.

“My title is Marjorie Taylor Greene, I am the daughter of the king, the a single genuine living God, the Alpha and Omega, our Father in heaven, and I am a forgiven sinner, washed in the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ,” she mentioned in her remarks prior to the group.

When attendees commenced chanting “Christ is king,” she responded, “Amen — Christ is king.”

Greene later distanced herself from Fuentes and his team America First, insisting she did not know their views. When introducing Greene, Fuentes credited Milo Yiannopoulos, a significantly-right activist who is now a contributor at Church Militant, for brokering her look.

Reps for the Archdiocese of Atlanta, which encompasses most of Greene’s district, declined to remark.