How Big Money Is Dividing American Catholicism
A schism in the faith between liberals and conservatives is being exacerbated by a group of plutocrats.
A plaque at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California
“This is what they have done,” Robert Busch writes with weary outrage as he forwards me a photograph of a group of nuns, one of them wearing a “Stop the Steal” button, cheerfully joining President Trump’s January 6 rally in Washington, D.C. Busch, who lives in Redwood City, California, recently formed a study group on economic justice within the Thomas Merton Center, which collaborates with members of the St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Palo Alto. Like most of his fellow study group members, he calls himself a “Francis Catholic,” in deference to Pope Francis. He has more of a natural affinity with the “Nuns on the Bus” a Catholic group that advocates for a range of social justice issues than with the “Stop the Steal” sisters. He usually has at the tip of his