"Trump's agitation is being ignored"

Theologian criticises US bishops – and praises German bishops

Osnabrück - Donald Trump could soon become US president again. A huge threat to democracy, says theologian Massimo Faggioli. But many bishops are ignoring lies and agitation and are only focussing on the issue of abortion. There is praise for Germany.

Published  on 28.02.2024 at 09:11  – 

Catholic theologian Massimo Faggioli criticises many bishops in the USA. They support Donald Trump "despite his lies, his agitation and his attacks on democracy", he told the newspapers of the Verlagsgruppe Bistumspresse (Wednesday online). For many, the issue of abortion is more important than democracy. The Catholic Church in the USA is divided, added the professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University (Pennsylvania): "About half vote Democratic, about half Republican. White Catholics tend to vote Republican, non-white Catholics tend to vote Democrat."

In a guide published by the US bishops' conference in 2023, the issue of abortion is named as the number one priority: "This is of course a message that is automatically interpreted as support for the Republicans, who are considered to be the anti-abortion party - to which Donald Trump also contributed in his first presidency." Among other things, he appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court, and the supreme court subsequently overturned the nationwide right to abortion. Since then, the decision on abortion rights has been back in the hands of the individual states. Several states have subsequently banned abortions at any point during pregnancy, while others have massively tightened the regulations.

"The Catholics and the bishops, who see abortion as the number one issue, are therefore in favour of Trump - especially since Joe Biden has made the defence of abortion rights a theme of his presidency," Faggioli continued: "A minority of bishops, on the other hand, are sceptical about the focus on this one issue and also ask whether abortions could not be prevented by better social and family policies."

"If bishops can read, think and write"

Before the last election, the bishops would not have known that Trump "would try to falsify the result after the election, spread lies and conspiracy myths about Joe Biden's election and launch a coup against America's democracy", the theologian added: "Now they know that Trump has done all that. But for those bishops who supported Trump four years ago, it doesn't seem to matter. Trump's attacks on democracy make no difference in their eyes and also in those of many Catholics. That is shocking." Many of the bishops do not see Trump as the solution, but consider him more credible than Joe Biden, Faggioli continued: "They know that Donald Trump is corrupt and that he is not a Christian. But they hope that he can break up the current system, which has become alien to them."

Faggioli praised the statement by the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) on Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine: "It shows what happens when bishops can read, think and write. This is no longer the case for many members of the US Bishops' Conference." The US bishops' conference is "a collection of administrators of local churches who do a purely administrative job. Many of the bishops lack the ability to intellectually understand and analyse what is happening in the world and how democracy in the USA is in danger." (KNA)