The Christian Groups Marching at Anti-Vaxxer Protests
This article is the work of a Christian antifascist who has been researching the growing presence of Christian groups at the recent covid hoaxer ‘Freedom rallies’ in London. We thank them for allowing us to publish their research.
After Christian banners were spotted at lockdown protests, I was compelled to find out who is using Jesus to push harmful and dangerous views, due to belonging to the faith too. The pictures, taken by allies that were scoping out the anti-lockdown events, took these pictures a few months ago:
From the initial pictures of the banners at the anti-vax marches, there was a unique flag of the virgin Mary, the whitest version of her I have ever seen, and a flag with a variation of Sacred Heart Jesus, in which Jesus’ heart is shining out rainbows. Both styles are unique to the Catholic church. But this is all we had. We were unable to find the images once again, and thus no other leads.
When my church mentioned a group of Catholics being against vaccinations, it gave me the first break I’ve been hoping for. The mention of Portsmouth.
After a quick search, a recent story from August 6th showed that a member of St Marys Church in Portsmouth area had emailed out to the lay men, and also put up a blog post, against vaccines, labeling them a bio-weapon.
The father in question is Father George Roth. It has also been reported that in January, Roth adopted some pro-Trump beliefs, including that he “drained the swamp”, and very pro-life views (link to archived Daily Mail here).
The Marian Franciscans of Gosport
Roth is a member of the Marian Franciscans of Gosport, henceforth referred to as the MFs. This is a very traditional order of monks from the Franciscan school. While the mainstream of the Catholic Church is not openly homophobic, preferring to remain silent on the matter (in fact Pope Francis and the Irish Catholic mainstream lay clergy are almost anomalies for saying positive things about the LGBTQ+ community), the Marian Franciscans have stood fast in their bigotry, evident in the below Youtube video (CW: homophobia) – for those who would prefer not to watch, it’s another monk of the order referring to the LGBT+ community and pride month as part of a culture of death, the same phrase used by our good friend Father Roth in regard to abortion.
The Marian Franciscans still have Father Roth’s picture on their front page despite everything. But since they both share the same lingo, it can be assumed that the MFs are, if we were to give a very generous take, not put off by these comments on vaccines, or find them insignificant compared to his support for reactionary Christian beliefs.
The MFs also have a radio platform called Radio Immaculata. Here they have several preachings from Father Roth, however these stopped being uploaded on August 1st, that being the last sermon before the news broke out on August 6th. This appears to be a decision not by the MF but by the church that hosts them. The MFs have not put out a statement, and they still have Father Roth’s picture on their front page as mentioned previously, alongside his blog. It should be noted that the Vatican has come out to say taking vaccines is a duty of each Catholic.
However, the MFs represent a traditionalist Catholic view. This tendency of Catholicism has grown angry at the Vatican under Pope Francis. This tendency has been around in the US for some time via the website www.churchmilitant.com (CW: everything under the forsaken sun). Just to give you an placement on how far-right this tendency can be, the Church Militant website has an ad saying to stop watching Fox News…because it’s not right-wing enough.
I was unable to find anything else out about Father Roth. Nothing shows he has any authority outside of the MFs, and the Bishop of the church that houses them is trying to hide him away. I looked into Portsmouth trips from the church to London for March for Freedom, but found nothing. I can only conclude Father Roth is not the cause of the Catholic presence at the lockdown marches, or a leader in any sense. At this stage of research, I had not dismissed the possibility that the Marian Franciscans of Gosport are involved, however due to their focus on the spiritual rather than the political, I started to turn my attention elsewhere.
Radio Immaculata
After looking at Radio Immaculata’s Facebook page, two things I noticed. First, the group were organising a bus to take people from Gosport, Portsmouth to London for the Saturday 4th ‘March 4 Life’ anti-abortion event. This does show the capability of the MFs to send people to London for events but could not find a similar post for the March for Freedom events.
As a side note, I should point out that the March 4 Life is a fringe Catholic march and does not have strong bishop backing. Again, like LGBTQ+ issues, mainstream Catholicism tends to ignore the issue of abortion, rather than being for or against them. But the recent March 4 Life was in a couple of thousand. A reduction on the 5k turnout peak in 2019, but still seems to have a core number of supporters.
The second thing was the profile pictures in their ‘Friends’ page. Many of the profile pictures where of a very white virgin Mary, with white headscarf instead of blue, closest I had seen to the flag in the pictures of the march. Other profiles had Jesus with a very similar version to the Sacred Heart rainbow Jesus in another flag. It is this traditionalist tendency that is likely to have inspired these Catholics who attended.
After clicking through a lot of search pages regarding Father Roth, looking into Churches he used to attend (all of them seem to be enforcing covid regulations), I found this site which had mentioned Roth in a blog post: sget.info.
This is the Saint George’s Educational Trust (SGET). A UK-based ‘charity’ based in the traditional Catholic tendency. They have a Facebook page: (HERE) and a telegram: t.me/sgettradcat. They are anti-Pope Francis (believing he is a “free-mason puppet”), Anti-Semitic, homophobic, etc… Examples are below, and an obvious content warning for each of the previous mentioned sins:
SGET and the International Third Position
If SGET sound familiar, it’s because SGET has previously been exposed as having links to the British far right and Italian-linked fascist group International Third Position (ITP), first reported back in 1999 when trustee associations were investigated by the Charity Commission, and in 2001, when the Commission instructed SGET to sever their ties with far right organisations. In the second article, ex-National Front’s Colin Todd is mentioned as a former SGET Trustee, and ex-National Front, ITP and former BNP leader Nick Griffin was also reported to have visited their headquarters. We can see its continued fascist links through its Third Way posts on the website, in which it denounces both capitalism and communism. The site also pushes anti-vax conspiracy theories.
The sister charity mentioned in the articles, the Trust of St Michael, seems to have become silent since 2011. While registered still, it has not done a report on activities since 2016. I’ve also not found any other reference. I assume then that SGET is the main active group.
The Fascist Trustees of SGET
On the board of trustees of SGET, Michael Fishwick is currently the Chair (archived version of his VK page here). Michael Fishwick was previously Chairman of the Young National Front as well as its Communications Director. He has
In 1989, along with Derek Holland (more on him below) and Colin Todd, broke away to join Nick Griffin and Robert Fiore, a former SGET trustee, at ITP. Those who broke away to join ITP were known to be part of the Political Soldier faction of the National Front. He also wrote a holocaust-denying article in 2009 which was published on the ‘Final Conflict’ blog (link to archived version). This blog is the dregs of a Political Soldier/ITP affiliated project which ran a now discontinued Nationalist music fanzine, and which continues online to promote and sell white power music.
(ARC note: Michael Fishwick is holds a Superior position in Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a tradionalist international organisation which describes itself as a “priestly fraternity”. It has been embroiled in various controversies concerning anti-Semitism, abuse cover ups and support for far right governments. Antifascist researcher @IsAntifascist on Twitter exposes the many links between SSPX and far right groups here.)
Linked heavily to Michael Fishwick, ITP and Final Conflict is Derek Holland, another third positionist who is well noted for his Catholic Integralism. Luckily, our good old friends Church Militant describes this philosophy ‘Catholic Integralism’ (link to archived version) for us. TL;DR – they want the Catholic Church to be a driving force behind the government aka theocratic rule.
Another trustee is Patrizio Nicoletti. His VK .com account (archived version here) reveals him to also be a fascist. He follows several fascist and far right pages – such as Forza Nuova, a far-right party founded by SGET former trustee Roberto Fiore mentioned in the previously linked articles. He also follows a page called ‘Revisionismo storico‘, which translates to “historical revisionism” – yes, it’s an Italian holocaust denial page. Another page he follows is ORDER15, an neo-Nazi group who describe themselves as a “traditionalist fraternity” and who have published articles supporting the proscribed neo-Nazi group National Action. Patrizio is friends with a bunch of British fash – interestingly, he follows Danny Tommo, the pound shop Tommy Robinson.
SGET links to the Anti-Vaxxer Movement
The SGET telegram group, with 1.9k subscribers, has pushed anti-vax march updates from around the UK, as well as weirdly posting updates from the Workers of England Union, a nationalist trade union led by the neo-fascist English Democrats. It has also been active in pushing various anti-lockdown protests across the western world. There is one other event that SGET was pushing on its telegram: The March 4 Life on the 4th of September in London.
Their Facebook has shared pictures of Catholics holding a picture of a saint and a banner:
In the Facebook post above, SGET also posted an article on the traditional Catholic site (and anti-lockdown site) called LifeSite, which gave an account of a London ‘Freedom’ rally and urged Catholics to “stand shoulder to shoulder with anti-lockdown protestors“.
The ‘Christian Bloc’ at the Freedom Rallies
As for the banners in the original pictures, we have found some of them. The banner pictured featured on the SGET, for example. And another flag, the M with the cross, is the Marian Cross of Saint Mary, a symbol that also appears on the Marian Franciscans’ website. This is a strong connection between the monk order and the anti-vax protestors. The symbol was briefly on the website as well:
As for other groups, SGET themselves recently promoted an interview with nuns from Tyburn Convent, based near marble arch. They are a group of nuns who are vocal anti-vaxxers, who have been filmed hugging protestors at the ‘Freedom’ rallies. One to watch, especially as they’re based in central London.
Another major Christian presence at the lockdown marches is this group:
You may notice the lack of pictures of Jesus or Mary – a sign they are protestant. Upon looking at this front banner, you can see a logo. This is the logo for a Camden town based Church called Hope and Anchor. Curiously, they attended the Kill the Bill protests in August.
Conclusion
At this stage, it seems like these are groups are small , some disorganised, but radical. However, we should be wary. If traditional, radical churches are allowed to prosper, and two orders in the UK seem to be falling under this branch, being the Marian Franciscans and Tyburn Convent, we may see a rise of Catholic fascists like SGET getting stronger and more influential.
A faith-based fascism is one that is more terrifying, combining two beliefs of dogma over facts, and we should ensure it does not rise in the UK. Antifascists, especially Christian Antifascists, should keep an eye out for these groups rising.
If you have any information on Christian fascism that will help with further research, please reach out to LAFA (London Anti-Fascist Assembly).
I’d like to thank LAFA comrades for their pictures and support, and especially ARC who helped with some research on SGET and for giving me a platform to post this.
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