Pope Francis's Stunning Rebuke of JD Vance Exposes MAGA's Dark Soul
Greg Sargent
February 12, 2025
The vice president took a stab at theology to defend the administration’s rank cruelty. Then a higher authority weighed in.
The other day, JD Vance sought to reconcile President Donald Trump’s “America First” vision with the tenets of Christianity. Vance argued for a “Christian concept” that orders our ethical obligations in a series of concentric circles, starting with love of family, then out to love of neighbor, then to community and nation, and only then out to the rest of the world. Vance claimed the left has “inverted that,” casting Trumpism as more faithful to the allegedly Christian notion he’d outlined, because it puts “American citizens first.”
This was sharply criticized online, leading Vance to defend it by citing the concept of “ordo amoris.” That means “order of love”: Even if we are called upon to love all people, the practical limitations on the help we can offer others directs us to prioritize aid to those nearest to us.
Now another authority of sorts has weighed in on Vance’s defense of Trumpism: Pope Francis. In a remarkable letter, Pope Francis condemned the Trump administration over “mass deportations” and even indirectly criticized Vance’s use of ordo amoris to defend Trumpist nationalism.
SNIP
In his response, Pope Francis recognizes that nations and communities must defend themselves from serious or violent criminal migrants. But he condemns the broad conflation of undocumented status with “criminality,” a clear rebuke of Trumpists who tar all migrants who illegally cross our borders as criminals by definition.
https://newrepublic.com/article/191427/pope-francis-jd-vance-maga-dark-soul?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tnr_daily
For what its worth.
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