Catholic priest Calvin Robinson defrocked after 'salute'

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A right-wing priest has been defrocked after mimicking Elon Musk’s controversial salute while addressing a pro-life convention.

Father Calvin Robinson, 39, spoke at the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington D.C. last weekend where he claimed that the U.S. is the “only country fighting for life”.

Robinson concluded his speech by thumping his chest and raising his right hand to the sky. “My heart goes out to you,” he said with a wry smile as he exited the stage.

The priest’s actions – and remarks – appeared to emulate those made by Musk who, at Donald Trump’s post-inauguration rally on January 20, beat his chest and shot his right hand – twice – uttering the same phrase. Musk denies his gesture was a Sieg Heil, or had Nazi connotations.

Addressing a viral video of his remarks on Wednesday, Robinson tweeted he received a raft of “nasty calls, texts, voicemails and emails” from “very bitter, angry, vile leftists.”

“My heart goes out to you,” he repeated along with a salute emoji.

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Robinson, from Nottinghamshire in England, belonged to the UK Anglican Catholic Church – before he was defrocked and had his license revoked.

“Mr. Robinson had been warned that online trolling and other such actions (whether in service of the left or right) are incompatible with a priestly vocation and was told to desist,” the church wrote in a notice on its website on Wednesday.

“Clearly, he has not, and as such, his license in this Church has been revoked. He is no longer serving as a priest in the ACC.”

On Thursday, Robinson reduced his actions to a “joke” that was poorly taken by “hysterical liberals”.

“My attempt at dry wit, in that typical British way, was not a joke at the expense of WWII, nor an admission of my membership in the Nationalist Socialist Party,” he tweeted.

“Whether a silly old cleric like me makes a poor joke is irrelevant. Do not be swayed and distracted by the enemy whispering in your ears. Focus on the light. All human life is sacred. Imago Dei.”

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Robinson has been colloquially branded Britain’s conspiracy theorist cleric.

After studying theology at St Stephen’s House in Oxford, he hoped to become a deacon for the Church of England but his application was unsuccessful. He continues to trash the church as being weak, and cowardly.

Robinson become a firm fixture in the UK’s far-right movement and bills himself online as a lead spokesperson for the right-wing populist party UKIP, which was formerly led by Trump loyalist and Reform U.K. leader, Nigel Farage.

Robinson, who describes his background as “half Afro-Caribbean and half English”, previously derided the Black Lives Matter movement as “clearly a con”.

On his Substack, Robinson condemned same-sex marriage as “sacramental sodomy,” urging homosexuals to “repent!”

“I have no doubt some of you will consider me a bigot, a homophobe. But I am neither of those things,” he added in a post from early 2023.

He believes that Muslims – which he refers to as “Mohammedans” – are trying to take over the U.K. and that its citizens should fight back.

Robinson is friends with incarcerated far-right agitator and founder of the now-defunct English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, whom he describes as “a patriot, persecuted for being a working-class hero”.

Musk recently ruffled feathers in the U.K. for lobbying for Tommy Robinson’s release from prison, while he serves an 18-month sentence for admitting to contempt of court during a libel case involving Syrian refugee schoolboy, Jamal Hijazi.