Italian Bishops Rip Trump After Landslide Presidential Victory

Pope Francis maintains a sullen silence, repeating his 2016 reluctance to wish Trump well

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In a series of articles, the Italian bishops' mouthpiece launched a stinging attack on President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning, minutes after American media announced he had defeated Kamala Harris in a landslide victory.

The invective issued by Avvenire, the historic newspaper of the the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), mirrored the attitude of Pope Francis who maintained a sullen silence, even after several world leaders had congratulated the 47th president-elect of the United States.

A lead editorial titled "Victory: How was it possible?" blamed the resounding victory on Trump riding the "wave of middle-class discontent and reshaping the Republican Party in his own image."

"He said he would declare himself the winner regardless of the outcome of the most expensive, sulfurous, and violent race for the White House in the last hundred years," the bishops' official newspaper thundered.

Simmering with faux outrage, the editorial explained that Trump's victory was because he had acted as a "tragic midwife" to American resentment, behaving "ruthlessly like an early twentieth-century nabob whose boundless wealth was accompanied by the unscrupulous exploitation of every possible resource (natural, financial, human)."

Further, Trump's victory was enabled by his "aggressive and disrespectful attitude towards women, the disabled, the less fortunate, the poor, the marginalized and anyone who was his adversary."

"'The Donald' has ridden the anger and the end of the American Dream, exhausting his steed, falling and getting back up, chanting threats and proclamations worthy of an operetta dictator ('I will build a wall on the Mexican border and the Mexicans will pay for it, and I will deport ten or twenty million illegal immigrants') but also full of subversive populist seduction," Avvenire suggested.

Citing left wing American journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, the editorial claimed that "many Americans considered Trump more honest and less of a liar than Hillary Clinton: 'His lies have the emotional resonance of the truth.'"

Parroting the Democrats' false depiction of Trump as a fascist, Avvenire ranted: "we find ourselves at the twilight of that idea of ​​participatory democracy that the preamble of the American Constitution with its 'We the People' proudly proclaimed two hundred and thirty-four years ago."

The article went on to malign Trump by reporting that he had "declared himself an admirer of Hitler and his generals" and "hoped that someone would shoot journalists and someone else would kill Dick Cheney's fanatical daughter."

It also slammed him for giving "a prominent position in the government to the Kennedys' crazy nephew" and promising "American women (a bit like the Guardians of the Revolution and the Morality Police do in Iran with the unfortunate women who take off their veils) that he would be their protector."

Summing up the diatribe, the editorial blamed "the WASP, white and poorly educated male" for Trump's victory.

Not sparing even the assassination attempt on the victorious contender, Avvenire wrote: "Having escaped a sniper's bullet, he has suddenly adopted the heroic posture of Iwo Jima, consigning himself to the myth of a predominantly white (but not only white) middle class that sees in him the liberator from social anguish and the ghost of poverty."

"Did America, the cradle of liberal democracy, deserve this? Certainly not. But apparently, the ballot boxes said yes," the editorial concluded.

By Wednesday evening, Pope Francis had still not mentioned Trump's victory in his traditional Angelus address or prayed for the president-elect, reflecting his attitude when Trump won the White House in 2016.

On Nov. 9, 2016, Francis responded to the news of the election with a muted message on Twitter: "May we make God's merciful love ever more evident in our world through dialogue, mutual acceptance and fraternal cooperation."

In a statement to Vatican Radio, Cdl. Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, offered congratulations and prayers to Trump, stating: "The Lord illuminates and sustains him in service of his country, naturally, but also in service of the well-being and peace of the world."

"There is need for everyone to work to change the global situation, which is in a situation of severe lacerations and great conflict," Parolin added.

At a news conference aboard the papal plane in September, Francis had urged US Catholics to "choose the lesser evil" when they voted in November.

"Not voting is ugly," the 87-year-old pontiff said. "It is not good. You must vote."

"You must choose the lesser evil," he continued. "Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don't know. Everyone, in conscience, [has to] think and do this."

Francis told journalists that both candidates' policies were "against life," explaining: "Whether it is the one who is chasing away migrants, or the one that kills children. Both are against life."

The pope called immigration "a right," citing Bible passages that call orphans, widows and foreigners three kinds of people that society must care for. "Not giving welcome to migrants is a sin," said the pope. "It is grave."

In yet another column, Avvenire blasted Elon Musk for his support of Trump, describing the owner of the social media platform X as possessing a "histrionic personality with an oversized ego."

A third article attacked Italy's conservative prime minister Georgia Meloni, predicting that the anti-open borders leader would "valorize and capitalize on the Trumpian line on migrants, on the 'defense of the borders.'"

"As for the economic consequences of a possible new phase of US protectionism, Meloni plans to cushion them with the card she has been cultivating for years: the direct and personal relationship with Elon Musk," it added.

In yet another piece filled with fear-mongering, Avvenire issued a dire prediction of Trump "unleashing a tariff war" and putting trade between Italy and the US at risk, especially "the export of Grana Padano, Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino; three cheeses that alone represent 80% of Italian exports to the United States."

Meanwhile, editorials and comment pieces in secular Italian media noted that Trump's re-election was terrible news for Pope Francis, especially after recently-excommunicated prelate Abp. Carlo Maria Viganò had published an open letter urging American Catholics to vote for Trump.

The positive response of Catholics in favor of Trump was a slap in the face of papal authority, they reported.

Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.

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