Cardinal Christoph Schönborn

The arbitrary nature of so many decisions – the fact that they overthrow prior agreements and break trust with other parties to those decisions – is a ‘dangerous’ early feature of the Trump administration in the USA – according to one of the church’s heavyweight advisers to Pope Francis.

A close confidant of Pope Francis, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn – in a brief column in an Austrian newspaper – says that “Trade agreements are being unilaterally broken, existing state rights are being called into question, the existing law and its constitutional protection are being pushed aside.”

Attributing arbitrariness not to democratic leadership but to leaders who resist checks upon their own power, the cardinal observed that “dictatorships are on the rise worldwide and with them the arbitrariness of those in power.”

“Good faith, trust and security are falling by the wayside, and above all the weaker, poorer and defenceless. Is that what we want?”

A respected theologian and intellectual, Cardinal Schönborn has served as the chairman of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals, a group of senior church officials who provide counsel to the Pope on a variety matters.

For the full report in CRUX click here.