Steve Bannon, President Trump's
former chief strategist, lashed out at leaders of the Catholic Church in
the United States who condemned the president's recent decision to phase out an
Obama-era program that has allowed nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who
were brought to the country as children to gain temporary legal status.
Bannon, who is Catholic, accused
the church of wanting a steady flow of illegal immigrants coming into the
country to fill its church pews and make money.
“Unable
to really to come to grips with the problems in the Church, they need illegal
aliens, they need illegal aliens to fill the churches,” Bannon said. “It's
obvious on the face of it.”
Bannon added: “They have an
economic interest. They have an economic interest in unlimited immigration,
unlimited illegal immigration.”
“As much as I respect
Cardinal [Timothy] Dolan and the bishops on doctrine, this is not doctrine,”
Bannon said. “This is not
doctrine at all. I totally respect the pope and I totally respect the
Catholic bishops and cardinals on doctrine. This is not about doctrine. This is
about the sovereignty of a nation. And in that regard, they're just another guy
with an opinion.”
Following the announcement that
the Trump administration would phase out the Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
called the decision “reprehensible” in a strongly worded
statement. About 1 in 4 U.S. Catholics are foreign-born, and 34 percent of all Catholics are
Hispanic, according to the Pew Research Center.
“Now,
after months of anxiety and fear about their futures, these brave young people
face deportation,” they wrote. “This decision is unacceptable and does not
reflect who we are as Americans.”
Several of Trump's top aides, along with
his wife, are Catholic. The president, who identifies
as Presbyterian, met with Pope Francis at the Vatican
in May. The two have not had an easy relationship. In February 2016, the pope condemned Trump’s hardline immigration
agenda and suggested that such stances did not match the values
of Christianity.
Trump
immediately fired back from the campaign trail, saying it was
“disgraceful” for the pope to question his faith and accusing the Mexican
government of “using the pope as a pawn” and providing him with inaccurate
information. In October 2016, Trump attended a charity roast in New York City that
benefits Catholic charities and said in a speech that his Democratic
opponent, Hillary Clinton, was “pretending not to hate Catholics.”
The overall Catholic vote in 2016 was split
between Trump and Clinton. Hispanic Catholics overwhelmingly supported
Clinton, while Trump won over Catholics who are opposed to abortion above all
else and wanted to see a conservative justice named to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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