Pope Francis appears to have rebuked Vice President JD Vance over his interpretation of Catholic theology as the pontiff condemned the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
In a remarkable step, the leader of the Catholic Church addressed the controversial program in a letter Tuesday to U.S. bishops, warning that mass deportations “will end badly” if based on force.
But perhaps more notable was the pope appearing to respond to Vance’s defense of Donald Trump and his promise to expel millions of immigrants from the U.S.
In a January social media post, Vance, who is Catholic, invoked the medieval Catholic concept of “ordo amoris,” or “order of love,” to suggest that Catholics must give priority to nonimmigrants.
It came after facing criticism for statements he made in a Fox News interview.
“You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” Vance told the channel. “And then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”
Without referring to Vance directly, Francis rejected that interpretation and suggested the ethos of “ordo amoris” can be found in the story of the Good Samaritan, a teaching about helping strangers in need.
“The true ‘ordo amoris’ that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the Good Samaritan, that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception,” wrote the pope.
In the letter, Francis said Trump’s deportation efforts would lead to a “major crisis” for the U.S.
“What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly,” he said.
He recognized nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals, but that right comes with limits.
“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he wrote.
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It’s not the first time Francis, the first Latin American pope, has intervened over Trump’s deportation program.
Even before Trump took office, the pontiff described the planned policy as a “disgrace” because it “makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill for the imbalance.”
Meanwhile, more than two dozen U.S. religious groups — including the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Mennonites and the Unitarian Universalists — filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to protect houses of worship from immigration arrests.