Bishop Taylor’s Modernist Distortion of Catholic Social Teaching
The EWTN News portal (January 28, 2026) reports on Arkansas “bishop” Anthony Taylor’s statement comparing contemporary American societal conditions to Nazi Germany. Taylor invokes his Jewish ancestry and family losses during the Holocaust to warn against polarization, restrictive immigration policies, and nationalism. He specifically references “Pope” Leo XIV’s recent diplomatic address while urging Catholics to view migrants as “Jesus in disguise.” The article concludes with Taylor’s call for peace through humanitarianism rather than national sovereignty. This analysis reveals how Taylor employs naturalistic reasoning divorced from Catholic social principles while promoting anti-doctrinal concepts of human dignity disconnected from man’s supernatural end.
Naturalism Replaces Supernatural Vision
Taylor’s entire analysis operates within a horizontal framework foreign to Catholic social teaching. While decrying “moral decline,” he never identifies its cause: society’s rejection of Christ the King. Pius XI condemned this very error in Quas Primas (1925): “When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
The “bishop” treats immigration as a purely humanitarian issue rather than a matter of ius gentium (law of nations) subordinate to the salvation of souls. His CRS board membership explains this reductionism – an organization implementing Vatican II’s naturalistic “option for the poor” disconnected from their need for baptism. Catholic doctrine maintains that while nations should practice charity, their primary duty is protecting citizens’ spiritual welfare through ordered sovereignty (Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus, 1939).
False Moral Equivalence and Omission of True Threats
Taylor’s statement that “Trump is no Hitler” while drawing detailed parallels constitutes intellectual dishonesty. More gravely, he ignores the actual theological crimes of the current regime – from funding embryo destruction to enforcing transgender ideology. The Code of Canon Law (1917) states: “Catholics are to beware of those non-Catholics who attack Catholic teaching” (Canon 1325).
His Holocaust analogy dangerously implies that border enforcement equals persecution. Catholic theology distinguishes between refugium (temporary asylum) and uncontrolled migration. Pope Pius XII warned against using refugee crises to undermine national identities: “The Church favors all that truly assists toward the mutual cooperation of peoples…but not at the cost of independence and sovereignty” (Exsul Familia, 1952). Taylor’s call for open borders directly contradicts Pius XII’s teaching that nations have the right and duty to regulate immigration (Canonists like Ayrinhac, Immigration Legislation, 1929).
Distortion of Pro-Life Principles
The assertion that “foreign aid remains a pro-life issue” constitutes theological abuse. Catholic moral theology distinguishes between absolute negative precepts (thou shalt not kill) and positive obligations governed by prudence. Taylor conflates them to advance political goals, ignoring that Catholic nations historically prioritized evangelization over material aid. As the Holy Office decreed: “It is not licit to procure the common temporal good by sacrificing spiritual goods” (Instruction to Missionaries, 1659).
His CRS involvement reveals the modernist substitution of social work for conversion. Contrast this with St. Vincent Pallotti’s axiom: “First make them Catholics, then you will feed them”. Taylor’s worldview echoes the condemned error: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors, Proposition 55).
Illegitimate Appeal to Conciliar Authority
Taylor invokes “Pope” Leo XIV’s recent address as doctrinal support, despite the antipope’s lack of magisterial authority. True popes like Pius XI condemned the naturalistic peace Taylor promotes: “Peace is not liberty to live according to one’s whims…but the tranquility of order where all obey God’s law” (Ubi Arcano, 1922).
The reference to St. Augustine’s City of God proves particularly ironic. Augustine wrote: “Without justice, what are kingdoms but great robber bands?” (Book IV) – meaning justice defined by divine law, not Leo XIV’s “human fraternity.” Taylor omits Augustine’s core thesis: that all earthly polities remain defective until subordinated to Christ’s reign.
Call to Return to Catholic Order
Nowhere does Taylor mention the necessity of converting nations to Catholicism – the only path to true peace. Pius IX definitively condemned the notion that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Syllabus, Proposition 15).
His closing call to view immigrants as “the stranger in our midst – as Jesus” ignores Christ’s warning: “I was a stranger and you took me not in” applies only to baptized brethren (Matthew 25:35 interpreted by Church Fathers like St. John Chrysostom). The “bishop’s” sentimentalism replaces evangelization with universalist humanitarianism – the essence of modernism condemned by St. Pius X: “Catholicism is lumber; we must have Americanism” (Testament).
True shepherds would invoke Quas Primas: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration that Christ is King…that the Church may enjoy the freedom and peace necessary to labor for the salvation of souls”. Taylor’s silence on these truths confirms his alignment with the conciliar sect’s anti-Kingdom agenda.
Source:
Arkansas bishop draws comparisons in U.S. societal dynamics to Nazi Germany (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 28.01.2026