Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene responds to backlash over comments after pope’s death; group calls for censure

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A religious and civil rights group is calling for the censure of Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene in the wake of social media remarks which many, including the group, believe were referencing Pope Francis, who died Monday.

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is calling for Greene’s censure after a post on X, formerly Twitter, from the congresswoman. It reads, “Today there were major shifts in global leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God.”

The tweet, which was posted right before 10:45 a.m. Monday and does not name Pope Francis, was posted just hours after the Vatican announced Francis’ passing.

“As Newsweek journalist Gabe Whisnant noted, the two major world leadership changes that were announced (Monday) were the death of Pope Francis and the resignation of Klaus Schwab as the head of the World Economic Forum. It is obvious that Greene’s remark about God defeating ‘evil’ was aimed at the Holy Father,” Catholic League President William Donohue said in a letter to the House Ethics Committee.

Donohue said while Greene, as an ex-Catholic, has a right to make “reasoned criticisms” of the late pope, “no sitting member of Congress has the right to denigrate the leader of a world religion.”

“To allow her to continue to smear Catholicism reflects badly on the Congress. Therefore, I am asking that Republicans and Democrats come together to censure Marjorie Taylor Greene for her bigoted remarks,” Donohue wrote.

The social media 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.

In a lengthy statement released on Wednesday, Greene demanded an apology from Donohue. She 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 went on. “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.”

Read the full statement:

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

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