The leftists running the Jesuit-linked publication America have got things all figured out for us.

They've ran an article from Religion News Service with this lovely headline:

Archbishop Viganò pushes conspiracy theories about Ukraine and Russia in 10,000-word letter

Way to go on the civility front, wokesters.

The Italian* archbishop, a former papal nuncio (or diplomat) has long been a target in leftist gunsights. He's the one who famously criticized Pope Francis for shielding pervy leftist (now ex-)Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, whose specialty was preying on young seminarians, from prosecutors. He has drawn a following from traditional Catholics for his fearless willingness to defend Western Civilization and its values. In general, he speaks the truth others don't want to speak.

Now they've got him down as a 'conspiracy theorist' despite his very well reasoned and carefully worded declaration warning of the dangers of the global cabal that seems to be intent on provoking Russia into war, and apparently has succeeded.

According to the Religion News Service piece:

 ...Viganò released a letter Monday (March 7) blaming “deep state” forces in the United States, the European Union and NATO for triggering the current war and demonizing Russia.

“The United States of America and the European States must not marginalize Russia but build an alliance with it, not only to restart trade for the prosperity of all, but in lieu of the reconstruction of a Christian Civilization, which will be the only one able to save the world from the transhuman and medical-technical globalist monster,” the archbishop wrote in his nearly 10,000 word letter.

Which sounds like Catholic doctrine to me. Catholics are supposed to pray for the conversion of sinners, not marginalize them, which is kind of like declaring that the devil should get a fresh one for Hell because the wokesters don't like him. Doesn't work that way in Catholicism, whose recent messaging from the Gospels at mass has been to pray for one's enemies. 

The America guys apparently felt there were some exceptions to that Gospel stuff and hence, their headline proclaiming that Viganò was some kind of nut.

Let's not even get into the calumny issue of which Church teachings have plenty to say on that front, too.

Let's go back to the nutjob conspiracy theorist claims:

The archbishop said in his letter that Putin has been cornered by an aggressive NATO, backed by the United States, which is seeking to escalate the conflict for its own gains. “This is the trap for Russia just as much as Ukraine, using both to allow a globalist elite to bring its criminal plot to fruition,” Viganò wrote.

Which sounds like someone looking at this war from a cool, detached, perspective quite outside the cares of the world. Conspiracy theorists don't talk that way.

Here's the other thing: Conspiracy theorists are generally marginal unless something is really off kilter with the official reality. They're wackos. People ignore them. They are dismissed. Can America explain why this nastily headlined Religion News Service piece is number one in the the America publication's traffic right now? Check it out here.  Correlation is not causation but this is not a typical pattern for an otherwise easily dismissable 'conspiracy theory' promoter.

Now let's go back to the issue of nutjobs, of which they have implicitly branded the Italian archbishop.

Anybody remember the last time America magazine found itself in the news? They ran this headline in 2019:

The Catholic Case for Communism

And they didn't back down when readers were disgusted or scandalized -- they doubled down:

Why we published an essay sympathetic to communism

 But Viganò is the nutjob?

What's wrong with this picture?

It's perfectly possible to disagree with some of what the archbishop has to say without going bonkers. I disagree with his conclusion that Vladimir Putin is on some kind of holy mission to re-Christianize Europe or protect it from secularism given his record of corruption, utterly violent and destructive tactics, and involvement with Muslim extremists from the Russian south and Syria to get the job done. What this concerted effort to demonize Archbishop Viganò shows is that there is a deep state, just as he warns, there is a censorship movement going on in the supposedly free West, and there are malevolent characters well intent on thwarting and destroying Christianity in the West.

In other words, America mag validates all that he warned about. The whole declaration can be read here.

America magazine has once again beclowned itself as pillars in the world of wokester establishment narrative.

Image: Official photo, public domain

*Correction: An earlier version of this piece misstated the archbishop's nationality.