(LifeSiteNews) — Tucker Carlson recently shared high praise for his “closest friends” who are members of the Catholic Church.
Carlson, an Anglican, appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show this summer to discuss pretty much every topic under the sun, including his past relationship with the CIA as well as religion and spirituality.
Carlson said that when he was growing up, he looked down upon church-attending Americans. As he’s gotten older, he said, he’s come to believe there is a spiritual battle taking place and that the crux of that battle is between those who believe in God and those who don’t.
One particularly revealing moment came when he and Ryan, a former Navy Seal and CIA contractor, spoke about Catholicism. The two were discussing what they see as an increasingly sharp separation between good and evil.
“A lot of my closest friends are Catholic – they’re the most fervent, sincere, on-target Christians I know,” Carlson said. “Maybe their theology’s wrong. I don’t know … But they are serious Christians and they mean it, and their life is bearing fruit of those beliefs. In other words, as the church, like, the structure collapses, some of the members of the church seem even stronger.”
Carlson’s observation is confirmed by a 2024 Gallup study that found there is a dramatic decrease in weekly attendance at churches across the U.S.
“Most religious groups have also seen a decline in regular attendance at religious services over the past two decades,” the report found. “Two decades ago, an average of 42% of U.S. adults attended religious services every week or nearly every week. A decade ago, the figure fell to 38%, and it is currently at 30%.”
Carlson further told Ryan that “Christianity seems to be growing in power even as the church is collapsing into absurdity. Church leaders, not all, but a lot of them, are totally corrupt. I don’t know what’s going on with the pope. I’m not Catholic, so I’m not going to comment on that, but like, whoa, doesn’t look like Christianity to me.”
Ryan angrily remarked that “the pope is saying that gay marriage [sic] is great. Look, I don’t give a s— about gay marriage [sic] … the pope is not the man to change the Bible or the Word of God.”
To which Carlson replied, “Just take three steps back [from that] … that’s f—- up. You know? You’re serving the other team. I’m sorry, you are.”
While it is unclear what exactly Ryan had in mind when he said Pope Francis said so-called “gay marriage is great,” the Vatican did issue a document earlier this called Fiducia Supplicans that purports to allow clergy to give “blessings” for homosexual “couples.” Prominent churchmen like former apostolic nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò have rebuked the document as heretical.
Francis also recently wrote the preface for a book authored by pro-LGBT Jesuit James Martin. Additionally, he endorsed a pro-homosexual retreat that Martin coordinated this summer in Washington, D.C. In June, Francis reportedly urged a young man suffering from homosexual tendencies who was thrown out of seminary to not give up on pursuing the priesthood. Many orthodox Catholic laity and clergy have raised the alarm on these and many other heterodox statements that Francis has made since the 2013 conclave.