Much has been written recently about Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's closest adviser, and the man many believe is the real president of the United States.
The alt-right fanatic who believes that an apocalyptic "cleansing war" is coming, and is obsessed with global destruction.
But did you know that Bannon's fascist tentacles also reach into the Vatican?
His enemies tried to undermine Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change by leaking it before it was officially released today.
But it's still an incredibly powerful document.
Pope Francis on Thursday called for a radical transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles to confront environmental degradation and climate change, as his much-awaited papal encyclical blended a biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action.
And what makes it so powerful for me, is its call for a moral revolution.
As you may know Pope Francis' encyclical on climate change has been leaked to the media before its scheduled release on Thursday.
Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have “grave consequences for all of us”.
And not only is it a clear attempt to steal his thunder.
Even more ominously, it shows that there are wolves in the Vatican who may be out to destroy him.
Well now we know why Pope Francis ruined Stephen Harper's little photo-op at the Vatican the other day.
By giving Harper only ten minutes of his time, compared to the fifty minutes he gave Vladimir Putin.
And looking like he couldn't wait to get rid of him.
But the reason Harper looked so green after the meeting was over...
Graeme MacKay/Hamilton Spectator
Probably had less to do with Putin, and more to do with the Pope's plan to call for a green revolution.
Well it seems that it was as I predicted yesterday. Pope Francis was indeed not too happy to see Stephen Harper.
And couldn't have made his feelings more obvious.
Harper’s 10-minute meeting with the Pope Francis was unusually short by Vatican standards. Russian President Vladimir Putin had a nearly 50-minute private audience with the pontiff a day earlier.
But then who came blame him eh?
It had to be one of the scariest confrontations in the Baltic Sea since the darkest days of the Cold War.
Or one of the most ridiculous.
For there was Stephen Harper, on day five of his mega tour of Europe, in feverish pursuit of the ethnic vote...
You know, the mega photo-op that's costing us MILLIONS.
When old Queeg, the self-styled Scourge of Putin, peered through his binoculars and saw the Russians were coming !!!!
I did have such high hopes for him. He did seem to be the best Pope I have ever seen.
He did say some great things about capitalism and climate change.
But it turns out Pope Francis is not as good as I thought. Just more of the same.
Or just another old reactionary.
Even though he belongs to the most conservative wing of the Catholic Church, and is a fierce enemy of the equality of women and gay people.
Even though he is an inflexible religious reactionary, like most of the other old men at the Vatican.
I can't help hoping that the first Pope from the New World, this humble man, this friend of the poor, will humanize his church and bring some light into its darkness.
But that will not happen until he bares his humanity, and talks about what he did or didn't do during the infernal darkness of the Dirty War.
