Conservative firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is coming under fire for her accusation that the Catholic Church is controlled by Satan.
During an April 21 interview with far-right Catholic news organization Church Militant, activist Michael Voris alleged that bishops receive “enormous sums of money from the federal government, federal taxpayers, to assist in illegal immigration,” prompting Greene to take aim at Catholic charities that provide funding for causes related to undocumented immigrants.
“What it is is … Satan’s controlling the church. The church is not doing its job. It’s not adhering to the teachings of Christ. It’s not adhering to what the word of God says we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to live,” she said.
“And what they’re doing by saying, ‘Oh, we have to love these people and take care of these migrants and love one another. This is loving one another’ — yes, we are supposed to love one another, but their definition of what ‘love one another’ means means destroying our laws. It means completely perverting what our Constitution says. It means taking unreal advantage of the American taxpayer.”
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Her inflammatory comments sparked Catholic League President Bill Donahue to condemn her remarks, asserting that he would be reaching out to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy regarding the matter.
“Satan is controlling the Catholic Church? She needs to apologize to Catholics immediately. She is a disgrace,” he said in a statement. “We are contacting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about this matter. He’s got a loose cannon on his hands.”
Greene later attempted to clarify her comments, demanding an apology from Donahue.
“The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue accused me of slandering Catholics and Catholicism in an interview I gave to Michael Voris at Church Militant. Nothing could be further from the truth, and he must apologize promptly and publicly for these words,” she said.
“It’s the church leadership I was referring to when I invoked the devil. The bishops know that but had their loyal lapdog pretend I was being disrespectful about the faith. Just so we’re clear, bishops, when I said ‘controlled by Satan,’ I wasn’t talking about the Catholic Church. I was talking about you.”
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Greene is no stranger to controversy. The Georgia Republican was removed from her committee assignments last year after social media posts from before her time in Congress surfaced that peddled conspiracy theories and included violent and racist rhetoric.
