Vatican cardinal pulls out of Bannon's far-Right boot camp in ancient Italian monastery

Steve Bannon’s hopes of converting an ancient monastery in Italy into a “gladiator school” for the far-Right have suffered another setback after a leading Catholic cardinal withdrew his support from the venture.

Raymond Burke, an ultra-conservative American cardinal and a leading adversary of Pope Francis, announced he was resigning as honorary president of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, which manages the 800-year-old monastery outside Rome.

He said the institute had become “more and more identified with the political programme” of Mr Bannon, former chief strategist to Donald Trump and the architect of his election victory in 2016.

Mr Bannon, who toured Europe ahead of the European Parliament elections in May to whip up support for nativist, Right-wing parties, is a patron of the institute and a member of its board of trustees.

In a statement the cardinal, one of the most trenchant critics of Pope Francis’s reformist moves and his support for migrants and refugees, said that he had “effective immediately, terminated any relationship with Dignitatis Humanae Institute.”

The institute is led by a Briton, Benjamin Harnwell, a former aide to a Conservative MEP.

He was placed in charge of turning the 13th century monastery at Trisulti, in the mountains east of Rome, into a boot camp for Right-wing, Christian politicians determined to defend the “Judeo-Christian” roots of the West.

Cardinal Burke was particularly incensed by reports that Mr Bannon might make a film about closet homosexuality within the Catholic Church.

The cardinal said the former White House strategist had had a meeting with Frédéric Martel, a French journalist who recently wrote an expose about gay priests called “In the Closet of the Vatican.”

The idea was to turn the book, which was published in February and alleges that up to 80% of Catholic clergy are either openly gay or in denial about being gay, into a film.

"I do not, in any way, agree with Mr. Bannon's assessment of the book in question," the cardinal said.

"Furthermore, I am not at all of the mind that the book should be made into a film. I disagree completely with a number of Mr. Bannon's statements regarding the doctrine and discipline of the Roman Catholic Church.”

It was “objectionable” that Mr Bannon had called into question the Church’s insistence on celibacy for priests, he said.

Mr Harnwell confirmed that he had set up the meeting between Mr Bannon and the French author.

He described Cardinal Burke as “a principal guiding figure to the DHI, not to mention a good friend, over many years.”

Last month Italian authorities said they intended to revoke the institute’s lease on the historic property after promises to extensively restore the monastery had been broken.

The culture ministry announced that it would cancel the 19-year lease on the state-owned charterhouse because of “violations of various contractual obligations”.

It emerged at the weekend that Mr Bannon claims to have advised Boris Johnson over his resignation as Foreign Secretary last year.

In TV footage that will feature in a forthcoming documentary about Mr Bannon, the former strategist claimed he had extensive contacts by telephone and text with Mr Johnson last July.

A spokesman for Mr Johnson dismissed the connection, saying that the idea that the man likely to be Britain’s next prime minister had taken advice from Mr Bannon was “preposterous to the point of conspiracy”.

During a round of interviews on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said claims that he had been in close contact with Mr Bannon were “codswallop.”