The claimed Christian views of the far right in Germany are ‘not authentic’ according to Pope Leo.

He was responding to questions from a German journalist on his flight home to the Vatican, following a highly successful visit to France.

“…A combination of these far-right points of view with a certain kind of religion, which in not only my view, but I mean both the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church in Germany have spoken out about [how] that’s not an authentic expression of Christianity.”

This is almost certainly a reference to the anti-immigrant and aggressively nationalist tendencies of far-right parties in general but to the AFD in Germany in particular – who are seen as ‘instrumentalising’ religion to justify exclusion, fear of outsiders and exaggeration of national identity.  For Pope Leo these tendencies contradict Gospel universality and the preferential option for the most vulnerable.

For the full Crux report of this interview, click here.