Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says Catholic bishops are ‘controlled by Satan’

ATLANTA (WRDW/Gray News) – Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene fired back after a religious and civil rights group called for her censure over an online post that followed the death of Pope Francis.

Greene made the controversial post on X just hours after the Vatican announced the passing of Pope Francis’ passing.

“Today there were major shifts in global leaderships,” it reads. “Evil is being defeated by the hand of God.”

After the post was made, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights called for Greene’s censure.

The congresswoman then doubled down in a lengthy statement issued Wednesday, demanding an apology over a letter Catholic League President William Donohue sent to the House Ethics Committee.

Greene said she stopped attending mass when she became a mother after realizing “she could not trust the Church leadership to protect my children from pedophiles.”

“It’s the church leadership I was referring to when I invoked the Devil,” she continues. “Just so we’re clear, bishops, when I said ‘controlled by Satan,’ I wasn’t talking about the Catholic Church. I was talking about you.”

Greene did not mention Pope Francis by name in her response. However, the pope is the bishop of Rome.

Greene’s initial post drew ire from many, including Clarence Blalock, a Democrat who is seeking to unseat Greene as the U.S. House District 14 representative in 2026 after falling short in the 2024 Democratic primary for the seat.

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