The left-wing captivity of the papacy and the churches

The reasons why the churches have moved far to the left since the 1950s is an interesting and important one. Although few read theologians and few in developed countries outside the USA now go to church, theology is all important. All debates, as Cardinal Manning told Hilaire Belloc, are theological debates. One of the greatest of recent historians Maurice Cowling understood and wrote about this. 

The Pope is the first Jesuit pope and the Jesuits moved very far to the left at the time of the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s. This article in the conservative magazine National Review tells some of the story and includes these words. I have to say I read the description of Cardinal Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis, with great surprise.

"Fortunately, great Jesuits still exist today. American theologian Avery Cardinal Dulles is widely regarded as a model of theological rectitude. Another Jesuit, Argentina’s Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, is considered a living saint."

The left-wing shift in the Catholic Church is the background and explanation for the present papacy. I recommend The Liberal Jesuit Captivity of the Papacy by George Neumayr from another and very good conservative magazine, American Spectator, published in July, 2017.

Meanwhile Christianity, which flourishes in Africa Latin America and China, is in very steep decline in the developed world, apart from the USA and even there it is declining.