The Pope is not the anti-Trump

As Trump’s fury attaches itself to an ever-wider array of targets, some on the left are tempted to rally behind liberal anti-Trump figures and lend them political credence. Pope Leo XIV has become one such figure, most recently praised by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with a number of left-minded activists in and around the labour movement.

The temptation must be resisted. Our political power as a movement is founded on our ability to speak from our own mouths, not those of a higher order. As the earthly embodiment of the institution of the Catholic Church, the Pope is an enemy for our goals, no matter his personal views or whom he chooses as an enemy.

Freedom

Marxists support the freedom of individual religious expression and oppose persecution on religious grounds. This does not, however, transfer into political support of any kind for organised religion, the critique of which is central to the Marxist movement. American Trotskyist James Cannon once said that “our business is not to save souls for another world, but to tell the truth in this one”. In this world, the Catholic Church is an institution rife with abuse and corruption, a store of untold wealth for the benefit of a privileged few, and a reserve of conservative communalism that has historically been used to oppose the workers’ movement, and doubtless will be again.

It is and does these things not because the previous popes have been too conservative, and a new individual will put it right. These are the logical outcomes of a fundamentally feudal power structure, based upon the preservation of a patriarchal hierarchy and hoarding of wealth. Unless the Catholic Church were to abandon its basic functions, give up all its land and property, and renounce its principles of human subservience to higher powers, it will continue to play a conservative role on the world stage.

Fighting Trump and his global movement is an urgent task for the left today. Because of this urgency, because of the need for a real transformation of the conditions around us, we must not rely on figures like the Pope to carry out our political fights for us.