In 1953, Manning Johnson, a former propaganda director for the Communist Party in America, testified to the U.S. Congress that Marxists had infiltrated Catholic seminaries. “In the earliest stages it was determined that with only small forces available it would be necessary to concentrate Communist agents in the seminaries and divinity schools,” he said. “The practical conclusion, drawn by the Red leaders, was that these institutions would make it possible for a small Communist minority to influence the ideology of future clergymen in the paths most conducive to Communist purposes.”
At the time, many dismissed this testimony. But who doubts the long march of the Marxists through the Church now? In 2009, the baldly heretical German Hans Kung dreamed of a red pope in the mold of Barack Obama: “What would a Pope do who acted in the spirit of Obama? Clearly, like Obama he would… proclaim the vision of hope of a renewed church, a revitalized ecumenism, understanding with the Jews, the Muslims and other world religions and a positive assessment of modern science…”
In Jorge Bergoglio, Kung got his wish. In 2015, Pope Francis made a speech in Bolivia before a group of communists, socialists and leftists called the “World Meeting of Popular Movements.” It was an exciting moment for the left, proof that the papacy had fallen into its hands. Sharing the platform with open Marxists such as Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president who donned a jacket emblazoned with a picture of Che Guevara, Pope Francis exhorted the radicals in attendance to continue their social agitation.