Pope Francis: America's right-wing Catholics angered by pontiff's 'liberal' views allegedly plotting against him

Leading American neo-cons, including former vice-president Dick Cheney, have joined right–wing Catholics to oppose what they see as Pope Francis’s left-wing take on everything from gay marriage to economics and the environment, a Vatican expert has claimed. In The Enemies of Francis, his third book on the current Pope, Nello Scavo says a powerful array of forces are ranged against the Argentinian pontiff, and that a conservative block in the US represents perhaps the greatest threat.

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The Pope’s outspoken criticism on everything from trickle-down economic theory to the arms trade had already riled the American right. But the final straw was his much-publicised role in helping thaw diplomatic relations between Washington and communist, anti-clerical Cuba.

“This was one of the key breaking points. Both the political right and conservative Catholics were angered by it,” said Mr Scavo, who is a correspondent for the Italian bishops’ newspaper, Avvenire. Among commercial and political interests in the US allegedly plotting to undermine Pope Francis are some investment banks and conservative think-tanks, says the book, notably the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), in which Mr Cheney, one of the chief architects of the invasion of Iraq, is actively involved.

The AEI is sponsored by the US oil fields service giant Halliburton – a company that cashed in on oil-field construction work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Mr Cheney was its chief executive from 1995-2000.

The pontiff’s recent encyclical warned of the grave threat posed by man-made global warming angered the oil industry and led Forbes magazine, the bible for business people, to claim that the Pope had aligned himself with fanatics. Mr Scavo said that American neo-cons unhappy with Pope Francis’s “economics, theology, and geopolitical vision” were lobbying conservative Catholics.

He said that leading US Catholic figures and institutions already ranged against Francis include Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, and the shadowy Catholic lobbying group, The Knights of Columbus, an organisation which has been called “The Catholic Masons”. Cardinal Dolan was reported to be one of 13 cardinals who signed a letter to the Pope this week claiming that the current Synod had been hijacked by liberal interest groups. The leaked letter led the veteran Vatican watcher John Thavis to comment that the old-style back-stabbing and intrigue at the Vatican was “still very much alive”.