Exploring Twenty-First-Century Catholic Traditionalist Resistance Movement through Digital Cartoons of Pope Francis

Abstract

Ever since cartoons were created as a medium of political and social commentary, they have been used to both criticize and uplift religious communities. The anti-Catholic cartoons of Thomas Nast and Jack Chick are easily recognizable, but interestingly, among twenty-first-century Catholic communities in Europe and the United States, Catholics themselves have been creating caricatures of Pope Francis, a more left-leaning pope in favor of reinforcing post-Second Vatican Council modernizations. These digital cartoons are tangible examples of a radically traditional antagonistic Catholic counter-public. This study delves into how radical traditional Catholic communities, who argue that pre-Vatican II traditions are a more authentic form of Catholicism than that encouraged by the current Pope Francis, are using cartoons to voice their agenda. By drawing from discourse theoretical analysis and hermeneutics, we identify four themes of criticism and discontent surrounding the pope: exposing his “bad agency,” ridiculing papal values, unveiling Francis’ “polarized and unbalanced” behavior, and expressing his predatory attitude toward representatives of Catholic traditionalism. Ultimately, we see these cartoons as the product of an antagonistic and anti-Pope Francis force internal to the Church, hypermediation without sources to public actions, and the digital milieu based on modernity in technology.