Catholic Influencers’ Antisemitism Problem

Among the most prominent influencers on the new right are some who claim to be Catholic and yet trade in their Catholic identity as currency to push ideas in conflict with the teachings of the Church. Notable among them are Candace Owens, Nick Fuentes, Pearl Davis, and now Carrie Prejean Boller.

While the Church isn’t capable of responding to every bad actor who speaks as a Catholic, these four have a prominence requiring a response.

It’s not just that they hold ugly or even crazy opinions. Owens, Fuentes, and Boller hold antisemitic views, which they seem to tie to their Catholicism. Fuentes openly hates other minorities and women. Davis repeatedly denigrates women and marriage. While free to engage in discourse, no matter how unseemly, an issue arises when these public figures act as though their own ideas are compatible with Catholicism or, in the case of Boller, are incorrectly presented as Church teaching.

This raises the issue of scandal, which is an action or teaching that leads another person to sin. In the Catholic Church, scandal is a grave matter and can lead to mortal sin.

It is important to make the case that these figures’ actions rise to the level of necessitating discipline. In a subsequent piece I will seek to explain why such discipline matters.

As stated, Owens, Fuentes, and Boller hold antisemitic views, which they use to generate clicks and influence on social media while claiming to be faithful adherents to the Catholic Church. Owens has repeatedly asserted that her platform is “a gift given to me,” claiming it is in the service of God. She has championed blood libel and accused Jews of being behind the slave trade, alleged in a rant against her Jewish former colleague Ben Shapiro. During the rant, Owens repeatedly said to him, “on your belly, worm.” The depiction of Jews as worms was common imagery deployed by the Nazis. In 2024, StopAntisemitism named Owens “Antisemite of the year,” and her former employer, Denis Prager, felt the need to make public a 15-page letter he sent in response to her attacks on Jews.

Owens also helped to popularize using the phrase, “Christ is King,” as a way to attack Jewish people on social media. This has been adopted by antisemites throughout social media, blasphemously using the name of Christ as a cudgel by which to attack Jews. When Owens first did this, it was in an exchange with Shapiro in which she cited the biblical verse “you cannot serve both God and money.” Fuentes loves use of the phrase; Boller used it repeatedly.

Fuentes has mocked the Holocaust. As seen in a video shared by StopAntisemitism, he joked about the “Cookie Monster” baking cookies in an oven to cast doubt about the number of Jewish people murdered in concentration camps. He also called Hitler “cool” and doubled down on the comment when he appeared on Piers Morgan’s Uncensored. In a leaked Daily Wire video, Fuentes can be seen holding up a Crucifix and praising the crowd for bringing their rosaries.

The problems with Fuentes and Owens don’t stop at Antisemitism. Fuentes has mocked many minorities. He has used slurs to discuss Second Lady Usha Vance and states “blacks need to be in prison for the most part, and we would live in paradise.” He also claimed “a lot of women want to be raped,” stated that all women should be put in “gulags,” and insisted that once that was done, “we will determine who the good ones are after the fact.”

Owens has accused French First Lady Brigitte Macron of secretly being a man. As ridiculous as the charge is, it is also a calumny (the making of false and defamatory statements in order to damage a reputation), which the Catholic Church considers a grave sin. Owens has dedicated an eight-part series to this false claim, mocking and defaming the first lady of France for clicks. It is also a calumny when she implies that Turning Point USA and widowed Erika Kirk were involved in the murder of Charlie Kirk. She has done so for months. Owens never fully accuses but merely suggests, encouraging her followers to do the same. Recently, she implied that, if the roles were reversed, Erika Kirk would have been hauled into prison and questioned about the murder of her husband. Harassment of widows online is contrary to the corporal works of mercy.

Carrie Prejean Boller has also learned that veiled antisemitism is a way of gaining clicks and influence. The former Miss California was inexplicably seated as a member of the White House Religious Liberty Commission. Boller, who has been Catholic for less than a year, claimed to speak for all Catholics, despite the protests of the other Catholics on the panel, claimed that Catholics could not be Zionists and repeatedly used a hearing on antisemitism to defend Owens.

Boller told The Babylon Bee satirist Seth Dillon that she watches Owens every day and has never heard her say anything antisemitic. She demanded of a victim of antisemitism at Harvard University to condemn the war in Gaza. Boller has since claimed that her subsequent removal from the commission is anti-Catholic bigotry, despite the committee having multiple seated Catholic members. She has also accused those who disagree with her of “worshiping a foreign nation,” repeatedly called “Zionists” “Israel First,” and said that she would rather “die than bow to a foreign government committing genocide.”

Someone who had been a Catholic longer than five minutes would perhaps grasp the irony of claiming a minority group had dual loyalty.

Political commentator and self-described anti-feminist Pearl Davis spews hate for other women. She routinely states that today’s women “don’t deserve to be wives,” recommending that men cohabitate with women instead of marrying them. Davis claims that “marriage is a bad deal for men,” and so the sacrament should just be avoided in favor of living with one’s partner. Of course, the Catholic Church considers cohabitation a grave sin. She has also justified the use of pornography by men; also a grave sin. Davis states that, while she continues to attend Mass, she is reconsidering her Catholicism because she feels that the church’s veneration of Mary is another example of how, throughout history, women have been over-emphasized.

It is clear that the Catholic Church does have an issue with some of today’s most prominent  influencers claiming to be adherents of the faith. What to do about this and why will be covered in a subsequent article.

More from IRD :

Coalition of Catholics Against Antisemitism

Post-Liberal Catholicism & Anti-‘Zionism’

Christian Zionism, Antisemitism & Christian Realism

Catholics and Antisemitism—Is It Still a Problem?

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