Terms and boundaries
"Christian nationalism" usually means the belief that a nation's identity, laws and institutions should be explicitly Christian. Some writers speak of a "Catholic nationalism" or of a "Catholic Christian nationalism," while others reject the label. A Crisis Magazine essay, "Towards a Catholic Nationalism," presented itself as a restatement of nationalism for conservative Catholics. The integralist journal The Josias published a 2024 essay against Christian nationalism, arguing that integralism subordinates the state to the Church whereas Christian nationalism subordinates the Church to the state (see Integralism and postliberalism). This page covers the online, populist end of the spectrum: commentators, influencers and political figures who mix Catholic identity with nationalist or right-populist politics. Most of them have no institutional link to the traditionalist Mass communities, and most traditionalist Catholics take no part in this politics.
How journalists and researchers describe it
The National Catholic Reporter has argued that Catholics are emerging as some of Christian nationalism's most muscular champions. It also reported that only 8% of white Catholics qualify as Christian nationalism "adherents," compared with 30% of white evangelical Protestants. The same article quoted the scholar Lauren Horn Griffin: "Trad Caths use Latin, Crusader imagery, and Catholic material culture" to portray a beleaguered Western civilisation. Griffin's peer-reviewed study of men's "trad" Instagram accounts appears in traditionalist online culture. PRRI's 2025 American Values Atlas found that about 11% of U.S. adults qualified as adherents, with no gender gap. Writing in Commonweal in 2022, the theologian Massimo Faggioli argued that militant Catholic clerics, donors and pundits were contributing to the Church's "exculturation." Mother Jones (2022) reported on right-wing activists seeking to reshape the Church.
Flashpoints, 2016–2026
Steve Bannon and Rome. The former Trump strategist worked with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute and its director Benjamin Harnwell on plans for an academy for populist leaders at the Trisulti monastery near Rome. Italy's culture ministry later evicted the institute (The Art Newspaper; America), though CNN reported in 2026 that a Rome court had cleared Harnwell in 2024 and that he was seeking to recover the lease (CNN). Justice Department files released in 2026 included 2019 text messages in which Bannon discussed with Jeffrey Epstein a planned, never-made documentary that, Bannon wrote, "will take down Francis." Religion News Service noted that it is not clear how serious the plan was. It also reported that Cardinal Raymond Burke cut ties with the institute in 2019, writing that he did not think the book should be made into a film (RNS; CNN).
Viganò and the 2020 election. In June 2020 Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò published an open letter to President Trump describing a "deep state" and a "deep church," which Trump praised on Twitter (NCR). He also addressed the December 2020 Jericho March by video, where, according to Salon, a largely evangelical audience cheered alongside his Catholic supporters. After the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol, the Jesuit writer James Martin argued that some Catholic leaders' rhetoric had helped create the conditions for it, and Bishop Richard Stika of Knoxville rejected that argument (CNA/National Catholic Register). NCR traced the wider religious background.
"Ordo amoris" (2025). In January 2025 Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, defended immigration restrictions by describing a Christian order of love that runs from family to neighbours, community and fellow citizens before the rest of the world. In a letter to the U.S. bishops dated 10 February 2025, Pope Francis criticised plans for mass deportations and wrote that "Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups." He pointed instead to the Good Samaritan (CNA; RNS; America).
Leo XIV. After Leo's election in May 2025, the commentator Laura Loomer attacked his politics in a series of posts (NBC News). Bannon predicted friction between the new pope and Trump (Newsweek). Other conservatives were cautiously hopeful (PBS/AP). By October 2025 Leo's remarks on immigration and climate had drawn MAGA criticism (CNN). In April 2026 he opposed U.S. threats against Iran, and Trump said the pope was "endangering a lot of Catholics" (The Hill). Vance said the Vatican should stick to matters of morality (Deseret News). The bishops' doctrine chair defended the pope's use of just-war teaching (Yahoo/syndicated). NPR noted that popes have spoken on politics before, but called this clash different.
Nick Fuentes and the "groypers." The American Jewish Committee describes Fuentes as a white nationalist activist and reports that he was raised Catholic and prefers to be called a "Christian conservative." It says he hailed the overturning of Roe v. Wade as "Catholic Taliban rule" (AJC). The Week (2026) reported a mostly young, male following, with about 1.2 million followers on X (January 2026). Catholic responses have diverged. A Catholic World Report commentary said: "His claim to Christian faith is a mockery of the Gospel." The traditionalist Integrity Magazine, by contrast, argued in October 2026 that he is right about much in politics but wrong about Vatican II. See Judaism and antisemitism.
Influencers and podcasters. The 19th reported in 2025 that young Catholic women had become prominent pro-Trump messengers online (see Tradwives and homesteading). The podcaster Timothy Gordon has appeared on Alex Jones's Infowars (Rumble). In 2025 a letter from Bishop Joseph Strickland, removed as bishop of Tyler, Texas, in 2023, addressed to priests and distributed at an event at Mar-a-Lago, criticised Pope Francis (The Pillar). On how figures from mainstream Catholic media moved into this space, see From mainstream to the margins.
What the Church teaches on the points at issue
The Catechism treats love of country as a duty of gratitude belonging to the order of charity (CCC 2239). It asks prosperous nations to welcome the foreigner as far as they are able, while allowing public authorities to set juridical conditions on immigration (CCC 2241). Every form of discrimination based on race, colour or social condition is to be eradicated as incompatible with God's design (CCC 1935, quoting Gaudium et Spes 29). The Council taught that every person has a right to religious freedom (Dignitatis Humanae 2; see Religious liberty), and Nostra Aetate 4 rejects any presentation of the Jews as rejected or accursed by God. Francis's February 2025 letter applied the parable of the Good Samaritan to the "ordo amoris" debate. The Dicastery for Communication's Towards Full Presence (2023) warns against polemical and divisive online communication.