Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s post on X has users wondering if she celebrated the death of Pope Francis.
“Today there were major shifts in global leaderships,” the Republican Congresswoman’s post read. “Evil is being defeated by the hand of God.”
A reader-added context note pointed out that it was posted hours after the Vatican announced Francis’ death. A spokesperson for Greene did not immediately respond to USA TODAY’s request for clarification on what her post was referring to.
Greene has been critical of leadership within the Catholic church before, saying bishops were “controlled by Satan” for providing aid to immigrants, the Religion News Service reported.
Greene’s anti-Catholic comments rooted in anti-immigration stance
Francis, who died the morning of April 21 of coma, stroke and irreversible heart failure, was critical of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, explicitly commenting on it in a rare open letter to U.S. Bishops.
“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment…” the letter reads. “…damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert who has also clashed with Francis over immigration, met with the pope briefly on Easter, the day before he died.
Greene’s “Satan” comments in 2022 prompted the civil rights group Catholic League to ask the House Ethics Committee to sanction Greene “for her virulent anti-Catholicism.”
In response, Greene issued a lengthy letter on X about her history with Catholicism.
“I am a cradle Catholic. I was born into the church, raised in it and I was married in the Church,” the letter read. “With great sorrow, and unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, I stopped attending Catholic Mass when I became a mother, because I realized that I could not trust the Church leadership to protect my children from pedophiles, and that they harbored monsters even in their own ranks.”
She also accused Catholic bishops of advocating for immigration.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY; Reuters
Kinsey Crowley is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.