Steve Bannon questioned why details of the Vatican’s deal to allow the Chinese government to jointly appoint bishops were not made public

The former White House strategist Steve Bannon has stepped up his campaign against the Pope by threatening to take legal action over the Vatican’s decision to allow the Chinese government to jointly appoint bishops.

Mr Bannon, 65, said that he was calling in lawyers to challenge the agreement made in September. He used a live online video to appeal directly to Chinese Catholics. In the footage he is standing on the roof of a Vatican monastery, saying: “You have been sold out by the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party, which is determined to see the destruction of the church.”

Mr Bannon questioned why details of the deal, between two sovereign states, had been kept secret, since Both China and the Vatican were signatories to