​Catholic League Calls for Censure of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Over Post Following Pope Francis’ Death

A promi­nent Catholic orga­ni­za­tion is urg­ing Con­gress to cen­sure Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mar­jorie Tay­lor Greene (R‑Ga.) for a social media post made short­ly after the death of Pope Fran­cis, which many inter­pret­ed as a veiled attack on the late pon­tiff.

Controversial Post Sparks Outrage

On April 21, hours after the Vat­i­can announced Pope Fran­cis’ pass­ing, Greene post­ed on X (for­mer­ly Twit­ter):​

“Today, there were major shifts in glob­al lead­er­ships. Evil is being defeat­ed by the hand of God.”​

While Greene did not explic­it­ly men­tion the Pope, the tim­ing of her mes­sage led many to believe it was a ref­er­ence to his death. The post drew imme­di­ate back­lash from var­i­ous quar­ters, includ­ing the Catholic League for Reli­gious and Civ­il Rights.

Catholic League’s Response

In a let­ter to the House Ethics Com­mit­tee, Catholic League Pres­i­dent William Dono­hue called for bipar­ti­san action to cen­sure Greene, stat­ing:​Wikipedia+4The Express Tribune+4https://www.wrdw.com+4

“No sit­ting mem­ber of Con­gress has the right to den­i­grate the leader of a world reli­gion.”​FOX 5 Atlanta+2The Express Tribune+2https://www.wrdw.com+2

Dono­hue empha­sized that while Greene, a for­mer Catholic, is enti­tled to her opin­ions, her remarks crossed a line into big­otry. He fur­ther not­ed that Greene has a his­to­ry of mak­ing inflam­ma­to­ry state­ments about the Catholic Church, includ­ing past crit­i­cisms of church lead­er­ship and poli­cies.​

Greene’s History with the Catholic Church

Greene was raised in the Catholic faith but left the Church years ago, cit­ing con­cerns over lead­er­ship and child abuse scan­dals. In a 2022 post, she expressed dis­trust in the Church’s abil­i­ty to pro­tect chil­dren and crit­i­cized its stance on immi­gra­tion.​

Political Repercussions

The con­tro­ver­sy has not only drawn crit­i­cism from reli­gious groups but also from polit­i­cal oppo­nents. Clarence Blalock, a Demo­c­rat plan­ning to chal­lenge Greene in the 2026 elec­tion, con­demned her post as “dis­turb­ing” and dis­re­spect­ful to Pope Fran­cis.​

As of now, Greene has not respond­ed to the calls for cen­sure or clar­i­fied the intent behind her post. The House Ethics Com­mit­tee has yet to com­ment on the mat­ter.​

This inci­dent adds to the ongo­ing debate about the respon­si­bil­i­ties of pub­lic offi­cials in their pub­lic state­ments, espe­cial­ly con­cern­ing sen­si­tive reli­gious mat­ters.​