Articles of Faith: Rachel Donadio

Pizzagate at the Vatican MAGA Catholics play a familiar game of conspiratorial dissent, but to what end?

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IN THE DAYS LEADING up to the conclave that would name the 267th pope, Catholic muckety-mucks from the U.S. descended on Rome for a week of networking, schmoozing, and fundraising. “America Week,” as it’s called, had been planned long before the death of Pope Francis, but the timing couldn't have been better. For the past 12 years, the archconservative wing of the Roman Catholic Church had found itself out of power, frustrated by a pontiff who had restricted use of the Latin Mass and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples. Now, the wealthiest among them would be on hand to socialize and gossip and, just maybe, if they prayed their rosaries right, tilt the College of Cardinals toward their choice as the next leader of the world’s 1.4 billion members of the faith.

When, on the second day of voting, the former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost emerged on the loggia of Saint Peter's as Pope Leo XIV, it became pretty clear the conservative Establishment had lost again. The traditionalists, for all their political and financial muscle, found their influence slipping still. The only question was, What next? The visiting MAGA delegation had a few ideas. In a borrowed Airbnb far from historic Roman palazzi, they were stirring a familiar brew of conspiratorial dissent. Within days, Stephen K. Bannon claimed to Corriere Della Sera that the conclave had been “rigged.”

“The only smoke that worked out in their favor was the cigar smoke they had at their receptions,” said Christopher White, the Vatican correspondent for National Catholic Reporter, a liberal outlet, who is writing a book on Leo ordered by Loyola Press.