'Moral dissonance': How MAGA Catholics flaunt their contradictions

The Vatican's announcement that 69-year-old Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, would be replacing the late Pope Francis inspired a variety of reactions from American Catholics. While many moderate and liberal Catholics praised the choice as historic — noting that Leo will be the first American pope ever — MAGA Catholics attacked Leo as "woke," noting parallels between him Leo and Francis.

Politically, Catholicism is complex in the United States, where practicing Catholics range from extreme social conservatives like Vice President JD Vance and "War Room" host Steve Bannon to former President Joe Biden and ex-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California). The U.S. Supreme Court is now dominated by right-wing Catholics, although liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a devout Catholic and a liberal Barack Obama appointee.

In an article published on May 24, Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams describes the struggles of American Catholics who are torn between church doctrine and their political views.

READ MORE: 'America First': Far-right MAGA Catholics declaring war against 'globalist' Pope Leo

Williams explains, "Anyone who's been a practicing Catholic has had to negotiate through the often-conflicting imperatives of their personal morality, the particular flavor of Catholicism practiced in their home parish and the strict, no-wiggle- room allowed tenets of the (Catholic) Church….. You can have your own ideas about where unbaptized babies go when they die or carry on nuanced debates about same-sex unions, but either you know in your heart that the host and the wine are the literal body and blood of Christ, or you can G--O. Metaphors are for Protestants."

Williams continues, "It's in that space of theological certitude where Vance's apparent lack of spiritual struggle really stands out."

The Salon journalist, a self-described "former cafeteria Catholic," views Biden as a much more sympathetic figure than Vance — who was raised Protestant but is a convert to a severe form of Catholicism.

"The difference…. between Joe Biden advocating for reproductive choice and JD Vance saying that drug dealers should be executed is the moral dissonance," Williams argues. "Biden, who positioned himself as pro-reproductive choice, has continued to maintain consistently that he's still 'not big on abortion,' just as he's made his positions against capital punishment clear. Vance, on the other hand, affirms, 'I'm pro-life. I care about the rights of the unborn. That very much flows from my Christian perspective,' while ignoring that the catechism of the religion he picked out for himself holds that the death penalty is 'inadmissible.' Maybe because those private prisons are a real moneymaker."

READ MORE: Revealed: The scale of Fox News' influence on US politics as Trump's ratings slide

Mary Elizabeth Williams' full article for Salon is available at this link.