Editor’s NOTE: Been out of town for a few days, so I’m playing catch-up — Jonathan Tobias’ column reassures conservatives that the new Pope is not Marxist. And there is a letter from Presiding Episcopal Bishop Sean Rowe about South African migration and the Trump Administration. As I empty my very full in-box, there will be more editorial columns posted later in the week. Thanks for reading — maybe leave a comment.

Tobias’ Talks: Pope is Not a Marxist

He’s just a Christian who reads the red letters

BY JONATHAN TOBIAS

On Thursday, May 8th, white smoke billowed from the temporary chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. In one of the shortest conclaves in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, a new Pope was elected by the College of Cardinals.

And boy howdy, was this new pope a surprise and a half. The former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, is an American, born on the south side of Chicago. He’s a White Sox fan (which shows a high level of character, seeing that the team’s 2024 record was 41 and 121). He also voted in 3 Republican primaries since 2010. He’s a 1977 Villanova grad in math and science. He’s pro-life: he was a member of Villanova’s antiabortion club. His theology is traditional, as one would expect from the Augustinian monastic order. He knows how to fix cars, which was a necessity as he was a bishop posted in the boondocks of Peru.

Some time before he became Pope, he preached these evangelical words: “We are often worried about teaching doctrine, but we risk forgetting that our first duty is to communicate the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus.” My late father, a preacher of the Gospel for sixty years, preached those exact words.

By and large, the news of Pope Leo’s election was received with acclaim. President Trump congratulated him warmly, and joined with Americans in general and American Catholics in particular in the joyful wonder that an American is now sitting on St Peter’s chair.

But not everyone is joining the ovation. More than a few internet pundits and influencers took quickly to the wire and started up a whining choir. Mike Cernovich tweeted: “Sorry, Catholics. This new Pope is an open borders globalist. He will be pushing for abortion soon. This isn’t a guess. You can scroll his X account and see what he’s been up to.” Not to be outdone, Vince Langman tweeted: “In case you’re wondering why they picked an American to be a Pope for the first time in history. He’s a WOKE Never Trumper liberal. That’s why!”

Lara Loomer, who is no stranger to grandiloquence and periphrasis, tweet-hollered this: “WOKE MARXIST POPE” and claimed he “is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis,” adding that it’s “GROSS” that he is now in charge of the Vatican.

I was expecting the all-caps flourish, as that seems to be au courant for that sort of discourse. And it came as no surprise that the word “Marxist” was deployed.

Come now, let us reason. Pope Leo XIV is certainly not a Marxist. The word “woke” is susceptible of so many interpretations that it has lost any reliable meaning. Both terms, “Marxist” and “woke,” are used so sloppily and irresponsibly that they mean only “I don’t like you so I’m going to call you the worst thing I can think of.”

If you’re going to call someone a “Marxist” – as Loomer seems to enjoy doing, as also does White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller – then you are claiming that that someone is a believer in Marxism. Marxism is a strictly materialist philosophy that believes in a history driven completely by class warfare. God has no place in Marxist theory.

And so to call Pope Leo XIV a Marxist is not only ridiculous, it is also “bearing false witness,” to use the words of the Decalogue. One may disagree with the Pope on his call for treating immigrants, the poor, and the powerless with humane kindness and dignity. But on that score he’s not being a Marxist at all. He’s simply being faithful to his calling as a Christian minister. If the Pope agreed with the extremities of deportation, then he wouldn’t be a Catholic bishop. He’d be a bad Catholic bishop — but I’m of the mind that if someone is a bad bishop, he’s not a bishop at all.

The new Pope took the name Leo because of his admiration of Pope Leo XIII, who wrote the hugely significant document Rerum Novarum in 1891. This was a document that addressed the revolutionary changes imposed on society by world industrialization. It was the Gilded Age, when the tycoons were amassing wealth and workers (including children) were being abused by inhumane work conditions and long hours (like 60 per week at a minimum). Women were literally locked into garment factories – in 1911, 123 women (including teenage girls) died in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City – because management had locked all the exit doors.

It’s important to note here, especially now in these torrid days of name-calling and loose speech, that in Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII denounced not only the excesses of Gilded Age tycoons, but also the Marxist Communist movements that were rising up in violent reaction. This Pope Leo of 1891 was on the side of neither the tycoon nor the communist revolutionary. He was on the side of humanity, and humanity’s God.

And so is the next Leo of 2025, the present Pope of Rome.

We cannot allow ourselves to make fever dream mistakes in this hot partisan environment. We cannot get to a point where just because someone says that we should care for the poor and the powerless, just because someone insists upon justice and due process for all persons, just because someone wants the hungry fed and the sick healed, that that someone should not be called “woke” or “Marxist” or “liberal.”

I used to teach Catholic Social Theory at a Catholic seminary in Pittsburgh, and Rerum Novarum was such an important text in the curriculum. In that course, we made very clear that it is a mistake to force any religious leader like Pope Leo XIV into American partisan categories. He’s neither liberal nor conservative, neither rightwing or left. He’s simply Christian, a church minister who reads the red letters of the Gospel and takes the Sermon on the Mount seriously.

So, Ms Loomer, with all due respect, Pope Leo XIV is not a Marxist.

Jonathan Tobias is a resident of Edenton, NC. He can be reached at janotec77@gmail.com, and his substack address is https://substack.com/@jonathantobias.

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Editor’s NOTE: A group of 59 white South Africans, largely Afrikaners, arrived in the US on May 12, 2025, after being granted refugee status by the Trump administration. The US government chartered a flight to transport them, and they were greeted at Dulles International Airport by federal officials. The Trump administration stated that Afrikaners are being targeted for resettlement as they are victims of racial discrimination in South Africa. This letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe of the Episcopal Church sheds some light on the church’s position regarding the migration of South Africans to the United States.

Episcopal Explanation Regarding the Migration of South Africans to US

Letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on Episcopal Migration Ministries

May 12, 2025

Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church:

I am writing today with some significant news about Episcopal Migration Ministries, the organization that leads The Episcopal Church’s refugee resettlement ministry.

Since January, the previously bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in which we participate has essentially shut down. Virtually no new refugees have arrived, hundreds of staff in resettlement agencies around the country have been laid off, and funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has been uncertain. Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.

In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.

I want to be very clear about why we made this decision—and what we believe lies ahead for Episcopal Migration Ministries’ vital work.

It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years. I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country. I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.

As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries, but by the sure and certain knowledge that the kingdom of God is revealed to us in the struggles of those on the margins. Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command. Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program and investing our resources in serving migrants in other ways.

For nearly 40 years, Episcopal Migration Ministries has put hands and feet to our church’s commitment to seek and serve Christ in migrants and refugees. We have served nearly 110,000 refugees during this time, many of whom are now American citizens and beloved members of our communities, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Over the years, EMM has resettled individuals from Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Myanmar. We have supported vulnerable populations from across the globe, regardless of nationality.

Since March, a dedicated team of Episcopal Migration Ministries employees has fulfilled our commitment to serve people who arrived just before or in the first days of the new administration. Now that we are ending our involvement in federally funded refugee resettlement, we have asked the administration to work toward a mutual agreement that will allow us to wind down all federally funded services by the end of the federal fiscal year in September. We are working with the affected staff members to provide extensive outplacement services and severance packages.

I have said before that no change in political fortunes alters our commitment to stand with the world’s most vulnerable people, and I want to reaffirm that promise. While our public-private partnership as a refugee resettlement agency is no longer viable, we are hard at work on a churchwide plan to support migrants and refugees through:

• Diocesan partnerships: We have vibrant ministries around the church serving migrants of all kinds. Episcopalians support newcomers through education, direct service, and advocacy. Our dioceses also work to address the root causes of migration. We pledge to redouble our efforts to support these ministries and the migrants among us.
• Global connections: We will invest in our ministries that support forced migrants throughout the countries and territories of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. This includes our powerful ministry in Europe, where the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe has served more than 140,000 refugees in the last two years, primarily from North Africa, Ukraine, and Central Asia. We will continue to work with our dioceses and Anglican partners throughout Central America to help those seeking safety.
• Continued support for refugees: While new refugee arrivals and funding have been curtailed by the current administration, thousands of refugees welcomed by Episcopal Migration Ministries in previous years still need support. We will invite Episcopalians to connect with resettled refugees and explore how to continue services we have long provided—language services, continuing education, support with childcare, and job training. If refugee resettlement begins again with the support of private sponsors, we will explore those new possibilities. 
• Fundraising: It is important to understand the scale of federal grant money from which we are stepping away. In most recent years, Episcopal Migration Ministries received more than $50 million annually in federal funds. This is not a loss that can be bridged with donor funds or proceeds from investments. However, we will raise funds for new and expanded migration ministries across the church and for our partners in this ministry. You can contribute to this new work by making a donation on the Episcopal Migration Ministries website.

In the coming weeks, Episcopal Migration Ministries will share more news about how to be involved. In the meantime, please pray for vetted refugees who have not been granted permission to come to this country, for the staff who will be affected by the end of these federal grants, and for everyone who grieves the end of our federal refugee resettlement work.

May our faith in the Risen Christ, who draws all people to himself, sustain and guide us through the tumult of these times.

Sean Walter Rowe is an American bishop who has served as the 28th Presiding Bishop and primate of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America since 2024.