Far right Voice of Wales group launches bitter attack on the late Pope Francis

Martin Shipton

A notorious far-right activist who is a founder of the racist Voice of Wales group has posted a long diatribe on social media attacking the late Pope Francis and everything he stood for.

Together with his co-founder Dan Morgan, a convicted fraudster, Stan Robinson has repeatedly used social media channels to praise the criminal Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known by his alias Tommy Robinson.

The pair have also endorsed a Reform UK council by-election candidate in Llanelli.

Diatribe

Under the headline “The Last of the Fake Popes: With Francis Dead, the Long Rot of the Vatican May Finally End”, Robinson’s diatribe states: “Pope Francis is dead. At 88, the Argentine pontiff who charmed a credulous world with his carefully crafted image of humility has finally left the stage. Lauded by the global media as a ‘reformer’, a ‘people’s pope’ and a champion of the poor, Francis was in reality the culmination of a long, calculated subversion of the Catholic Church from within – an ideological descent that began decades ago and now, perhaps, reaches its end with his passing.

“The last of the fake popes is gone. Let this be the end of the era of theatrical humility and doctrinal betrayal. Let this be the beginning of reckoning and renewal. The Church must choose now – repentance or ruin,

“Now, with his death, the long arc of Vatican decay may have reached its terminus. Francis was the last in a line of Pontiffs who each – through blindness, cowardice or outright betrayal – contributed to the degradation of the Church’s moral authority and doctrinal clarity.

“For many faithful Catholics and defenders of tradition, his death represents not a tragedy but a grim relief. It is an opportunity – a glimmer of hope that the Church may finally begin to cleanse itself, to return to truth, to cast out the bureaucrats, appeasers and ideological subversives who have turned the Bride of Christ into a laughing stock.

“He ignored the cries of the persecuted faithful, while promoting activists and UN technocrats. He welcomed those who openly rejected Catholic teaching, while casting aside those who upheld it.

“Under Francis, the Vatican resembled less a bastion of divine truth and more a spiritual NGO – drifting from its foundation, intoxicated with progressive fads.

“His was a papacy not of faith, but of performance.

“Francis was in reality the culmination of a long, calculated subversion of the Catholic Church from within – an ideological descent that began decades ago and now, perhaps, reaches its end with his passing.

“Make no mistake: Francis did not begin the rot. He merely brought it to its logical conclusion.

“The modern corruption of the Vatican began in earnest under John-Paul II, whose rock star image and globe-trotting charisma concealed a dangerous laxity. He embraced interfaith spectacles that blurred the lines of doctrine and reduced the Church’s sacred uniqueness to one voice among many. His failure to decisively address the burgeoning child abuse crisis allowed predators to flourish under his watch, eroding trust in the clergy for generations.

“Then came Benedict XV1, the soft-spoken theologian who inherited the mess and did little to clean it up. As the former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he knew precisely how deep the rot ran. Yet when given the chance to confront it head-on, he chose to retreat, becoming the first pope in 600 years to abdicate. His resignation was not an act of humility – it was an act of surrender. And that surrender paved the way for something worse.

“Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was not simply a weak leader – he was an ideologue. Under the guise of compassion, he used the papacy as a platform to push climate alarmism, open-border politics, and the hollow dogmas of globalism. He insulted traditional Catholics as ‘rigid’, welcomed confusion into doctrine, and allowed the Church’s moral voice to be co-opted by secular agendas.”

Reform candidate

A Carmarthenshire County Council by-election is taking place in Llanelli’s Lliedi ward on May 29. Reform’s candidate will be Michelle Beer, the wife of Gareth Beer, who came within around 1,500 votes of defeating Llanelli’s sitting Labour MP Dame Nia Griffith in the July 2024 general election.

The Voice of Wales pair has endorsed Mrs Beer as a candidate, posting a message to her X account, stating: “Credit where it’s due, well done Michelle Beer for putting yourself forward. Good luck.”

A Llanelli Labour source said: “I find it astonishing that a Carmarthenshire County Council candidate can be friends with a rabble-rouser who is trashing the record of a respected ‘people’s Pope’ who is held in high esteem and was hailed for standing up for the under-privileged.

“A number of Christians living in the Lliedi ward have said they have been greatly offended by the Reform candidate’s virtual declaration that she is following God’s path to represent them in the county council.

“One said to me: ‘Jesus wasn’t a racist. All Reform does is sow division and spread hate. They are the party of the well-to-do and the millionaires.’

Toxic

The source said: “They are dressing themselves up as respectable alternatives and through their charlatan leader Nigel Farage they are trying to con people into believing they are on the side of the working class.

“They were toxic at the Stradey Park Hotel – which Labour opposed. They inflamed passions and frustrations which spilled over into public disorder and arrests.

“Labour, however, is seeking to improve the lives of the people of Lliedi. A higher minimum wage has been introduced and legislation which gives people more rights in their workplace in the government’s first nine months.

‘We are campaigning loudly for a new school for 250 pupils to replace the outdated Ysgol Heol Goffa with suitable education for 120 ‘forgotten’ children with autistic spectrum disorders.

‘We’re fighting for the return of the 24-hour minor injuries unit at Prince Philip Hospital and are pushing for the expansion of a major anti-poverty drive into Carmarthenshire to give dignity to people living in poverty.”

Mrs Beer was invited to comment, but has not done so.