READ MY NOTICE TO EXPRESS MYSELF AS A FREE ADULT CITIZEN OF THE STATE OF TEXAS

In the early evening light of Rome, the world welcomed Pope Leo XIV—an American, a missionary from Peru, a son of St. Augustine. His election was a moment of historic significance and spiritual promise. Yet before the incense had cleared from the Sistine Chapel, reactionary American Catholics were already crying foul. MAGA-aligned traditionalists declared him “not Catholic enough.” But let’s speak plainly: what they defend is not Catholicism—it is heresy in the guise of tradition.

Let me be clear from the start. I am a Queer Existentialist who would be considered by the Magisterium a prodigal son at best, a heretic at worst. So, I know something about what it means to be outside the camp. I know what it means to walk with a sense of holy defiance, to live in ambiguity, and to wrestle with truth from the margins. And from that place, I say this: the MAGA Catholics who parade as guardians of orthodoxy are the true heretics of our age.

Their heresy is not one of abstract doctrine, but of moral inversion. They reject the Gospel’s clear calls to justice, mercy, and love of neighbor. They scoff at the preferential option for the poor, the dignity of the refugee, the protection of creation. They idolize power and wealth, wrap nationalism in liturgical garments, and venerate Donald Trump as a kind of golden calf.

Two figures stand as icons of this distortion: Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas. Both men claim fidelity to the Church, yet their jurisprudence reflects a theology of control, not compassion. They serve an empire of punishment, not the Kingdom of God. Thomas’s silence in the face of insurrectionist extremism and Alito’s relentless assault on reproductive justice and civil rights betray a deep abandonment of Catholic conscience.

This is not tradition. It is political sacrilege. It is schismatic in spirit, even if it claims to kneel at Rome’s altar.

True Catholic tradition—rooted in the prophets, the saints, and the Gospel itself—does not recoil from complexity or change. It embraces paradox, seeks justice, protects the vulnerable, and follows the Christ who broke bread with outcasts and overturned the tables of empire.

Pope Leo XIV may not be the pope MAGA Catholics wanted. But he may be the one we need. A bridge-builder, a servant of the poor, a reminder that the Holy Spirit does not obey the American culture war.

So let us be honest: MAGA Catholicism is heresy. And it’s time we said so. Not to excommunicate our fellow Catholics, but to call them back. Back from idolatry. Back from nationalism. Back from fear. And toward the radical love and justice that defines the Church at her best.

As for me, I will continue to be the heretic I am—if that means standing on the side of Christ’s liberating truth.