#1708 Rent Asunder: From the Moderation of Pope Francis to Extremism of JD Vance, the Catholic Church is Deeply Divided
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 May 2025
⏱️ 171 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 5/2/2025
We're taking the passing of Pope Francis as an opportunity to explore the deeper political implications of the extremist, rightward turn for some in the Catholic Church, including many recent converts.
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KEY POINTS
KP 3: The Meaning of Pope Francis - Know Your Enemy - Air Date 4-25-25
KP 5: Opus Dei A Catholic Cult with Gareth Gore - Free Thought Matters - Air Date 2-20-25
KP 6: To Understand JD Vance, You Need to Meet the TheoBros - Mother Jones - Air Date 10-2-24
(53:23) NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
On the benefits of democracy
DEEPER DIVES
(1:04:00) SECTION A: THE POPE
(1:22:49) SECTION B: IN POLICY
(1:43:34) SECTION C: POST-LIBERAL CATHOLICS
(2:17:50) SECTION D: MEN
SHOW IMAGE CREDITS
Description: Composite image. Showing a disgruntled looking JD Vance looking toward an image of Pope Francis smiling while blessing a child in a crowd. A quote in a box says “What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly, and will end badly.”
Credit: Design by A. Hoffman | Components: “JD Vance” Gage Skidmore, Flickr | License: CC BY-SA 2.0 | Changes: Cropped, used in composite | “Blessing of children pope” by ansehen, Pixabay | License: Pixabay
Produced by Jay!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of a Left podcast. |
| 0:06.7 | We're taking the passing of Pope Francis as an opportunity to explore the deeper political implications of the extremist right-word turn for some in the Catholic Church, including many recent converts. |
| 0:18.8 | For those looking for a quick overview, the sources providing our top takes |
| 0:22.4 | in about 50 minutes today |
| 0:23.6 | includes MSNBC reports, |
| 0:26.3 | the Muckrake political podcast, |
| 0:28.2 | Know Your Enemy, |
| 0:29.5 | straight white American Jesus, |
| 0:31.2 | Free Thought Matters, and Mother Jones. |
| 0:34.1 | Then, in the additional deeper dives half of the show, |
| 0:36.3 | there will be more in four sections. Section A, the Pope, followed by Section B, In Policy, Section C, Post-Liberal |
| 0:44.5 | Catholics, and Section D, Men. But first, I'm still promoting our new weekly YouTube show |
| 0:50.7 | on the Best of the Left YouTube channel. The show is called Solved. |
| 0:55.1 | We really need everyone to check it out, watch, subscribe, like, comment, all those things. |
| 1:01.6 | You engaging with the channel will help other people find it. |
| 1:05.5 | And we're looking to find a new audience on a new platform that way. |
| 1:10.0 | Not to mention, we're really proud of the show and actually |
| 1:12.4 | want for as many people as possible to see it. And so we think you'll like it if you check it out |
| 1:17.5 | anyway. And as a side benefit, you'll help others find the show. So thanks in advance for your help. |
| 1:35.5 | As the Catholic Church prepares to lay its Pope to rest and elect its next leader, it raises this question. |
| 1:41.3 | What power and influence could a changing church have on American politics? |
| 1:44.1 | No justice. No justice. |
... |
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