Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was criticized after sharing a cryptic post about "evil" being defeated "by the hand of God" on Monday morning shortly after the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis had died at 88.
The Vatican has confirmed that Francis died of a stroke that led to a coma and ultimately heart failure. Francis, who had a history of chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed in his youth, was previously hospitalized for 38 days earlier this year after a respiratory crisis escalated into double pneumonia.
The death of a pope triggers a sequence of long-established rites and ceremonies. In time, eligible cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope through a secretive and sacred process known as the Conclave.
That's huge news with global ramifications—and though Greene did not mention Francis by name, she did write the following on X:
"Today there were major shifts in global leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God."
You can see her post below.
Greene, a self-described Christian nationalist who has likened President Donald Trump to Jesus—she bragged that the man she worships "is also a convicted felon and he was murdered on a Roman cross"—has a history of criticizing the Catholic Church.
In April 2022, she told a far-right Catholic media outlet that offering aid to undocumented immigrants was evidence that “Satan’s controlling the church," adding that "the church is not doing its job, and it’s not adhering to the teachings of Christ, and it’s not adhering to what the word of God says we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to live.”
Greene has said that when she became a mother she "could not trust the Church leadership to protect my children from pedophiles, and that they harbored monsters even in their own ranks," referring to sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church—and while that's a justifiable reason, it's not the same as saying the entire organization is under Satan's control.
In light of that, how could anyone not take her post to mean that she was cheering the Pope's death as "evil being defeated"?
We see you, Marge.
@WhiteHouse/X
