Brand Says Vatican Feels Like Empire Not Battlefield Under New Atheism

What was said

"When I looked at them and I thought, you have 10 minutes and a few heartbeats away from the Vatican. Like, that kind of Christianity, that costs you something. The Vatican would have battlements. The Vatican would feel like a sort of the center of a war. It would feel like it. It would not have some easy affiliation that, if not secular, may as well be."

Russell Brand criticized the Vatican's perceived accommodation with secular power after viewing Caravaggio's martyrdom paintings of Saint Matthew in Rome. He argued that authentic Christianity should resemble a war center with battlements, not an institution with 'easy affiliation' to state power. His critique extends to all institutional Christianity that appears to have made peace with worldly authority.