Biden’s New Appointment ‘Aiding and Abetting Sabotage within the Catholic Church’
The newest person named to the Biden administration has devised and implemented radical left-wing policies at the highest levels of government, including attempts to revolutionize the teachings of an entire Christian denomination, critics say.
President Joe Biden announced Monday that he would replace Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry with John Podesta. The longtime Democratic fixture served as chief of staff to Bill Clinton, adviser to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, and president of the influential left-wing think tank Center for American Progress (CAP). Podesta, who acted as a “fixer” inside the troubled Clinton White House, promotes radical climate extremism. He also embraces abortion-on-demand, same-sex marriage, and transgender ideology — all of which is condemned by the Bible and his church — and has been a longtime fan of an artist known for promoting occultic imagery. However, emails released by WikiLeaks show Podesta “created” left-wing organizations to redefine doctrine and “plant the seeds of revolution” inside the Roman Catholic Church.
The email chain asked if the Obama administration’s HHS mandate — which forced people of conscience to furnish contraceptives, potential abortifacients, and sterilization to their employees with no co-pay — might be the “opening for a Catholic Spring” analogous to the Arab Spring, which toppled governments and unleashed chaos throughout the Middle East.
“There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a [M]iddle [A]ges dictatorship an the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church,” wrote Sandy Newman of Voices for Progress. “I don’t qualify to be involved and I have not thought at all about how one would ‘plant the seeds of the revolution,’ or who would plant them. Just wondering ...”
Podesta replied, “We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this. But I think it lacks the leadership to do so now. Likewise Catholics United.” Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good purportedly represent lay Catholics but endorse left-wing orthodoxy championed by Podesta.
Critics say the combination of dissenting Catholics Biden, Kerry, and Podesta seems ominous for those committed to the Catholic Church’s traditional teachings rooted in the Scriptures. “President Biden’s pick of John Podesta to replace John Kerry as climate czar is revealing on several fronts. All three Catholics worship at the altar of climate control more than they do the altar of the Magisterium, or the teaching body of the Catholic Church,” Catholic League President Bill Donohue, who plans to write a longer column on the topic, told The Washington Stand exclusively.
“In the case of Podesta, not only is his fidelity misplaced, he has actively sought to subvert the Catholic Church,” Donohue continued. “To be specific, we learned in 2016 that Wikileaks documents from 2012 showed how Podesta created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, a bogus lay Catholic entity. He did so with the express purpose of mobilizing Catholics to challenge the Catholic hierarchy, forcing changes that advance the left-wing agenda.”
Although Podesta is a dissenting Catholic, he has been a decades-long fan of an artist who promotes such “spirituality” as “spirt cooking.”
‘Spirit Cooking’?
Another email released by WikiLeaks shows Podesta’s brother, Tony, inviting John to the home of artist Marina Abramovic, who planned to host a “Spirit Cooking dinner.” An Abramovi? exhibit titled “Spirit Cooking with Essential Aphrodisiac Recipes” featured her writing in pigs’ blood and instructing participants to draw blood, and to consume “fresh breast milk with fresh sperm milk,” as well as “fresh morning urine.” At least one recipe includes self-harm, telling participants to “cut deeply” into their left middle finger and “eat the pain.” It also asks visitors to touch their foreheads to a “mineral” or crystal “until the energy is transmitted.”
Podesta has been a fan of her artwork since the 1990s.
Maria Abramovi? told Snopes.com that she served Podesta and around 10 people “a normal menu, which I call spirit cooking. There was no blood, no anything else. We just call things funny names, that’s all.” She also insists her artwork is “far away from Satanism” and merely embodies “spirituality.” (You can see Abramovi?’s June 1997 presentation of “Spirit Cooking” here.)
Promoting Left-Wing Ideology
Podesta, a Chicago native, had the unenviable job of managing the erupting scandals of the Clinton administration. “Whenever there was a dirty job to do at the Clinton White House, John Podesta got to do it,” reported the Chicago Tribune in 1998, including handling Whitewater, Travelgate, and finding Monica Lewinsky a job.
He founded the Center for American Progress (CAP) in 2003 with vast funding from left-wing megadonors, including George Soros, as the Left’s answer to The Heritage Foundation. With a $50 million annual budget, CAP has reliably placed its members into the personnel and guided the policy agendas of multiple Democratic administrations. CAP warns that “averting a climate catastrophe is still within our reach … only if world leaders swiftly transition to a 100% clean economy worldwide” by eliminating all fossil fuels and have claimed the Arab Spring was exacerbated by climate change.
In 2018, Robert Mueller investigated John’s brother, Tony Podesta, for failing to register as a foreign agent while working with Paul Manafort to lobby the U.S. government on behalf of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Podesta’s overall character and hostility to traditional Christian teachings make him a dangerous hire for people of faith, said Donohue.
“If a non-Catholic president chose Podesta for a senior post in his administration, we would brand it as anti-Catholic,” Donohue told TWS. “When a president who identifies as a Catholic does it, it is aiding and abetting sabotage within the Catholic Church.”
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.