Jeanie Hannaman

By Kenneth Craycraft, Our Sunday Vistitor - In a recent appearance on a TV news show, JD Vance articulated the “Christian concept that 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, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.” The comment caused immediate, harsh reaction from many in the Catholic commentariat, condemning Vance’s observation. Some have cast doubt on his personal faith. One prominent British journalist even questioned the faith of the priest who received Vance into the Church.

By Fr. Peter Totleben, O.P., Catholic World Report - It’s not often that Catholic theology breaks into the news cycle, but this is just what happened when Vice President J. D. Vance gave an interview to FOX News defending the Trump administration’s actions regarding immigration and its “America First” stance on foreign policy. Vance appealed to the traditional theological concept of the “order of love” (ordo amoris)—the idea that our love of neighbor has a certain set of priorities—to justify prioritizing the needs of citizens over immigrants and domestic concerns over foreign ones.

Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture - Based on this comparison, for example, I have little sympathy for Cardinal McElroy’s characterization of Trump’s immigration policies as a “war of fear and terror”, or even for Pope Francis’ direct denunciation of Trump’s efforts. I don’t withhold my sympathy for these critics because I am in favor of mass deportation of poor immigrants desperately seeking a better life. Rather, I withhold it because I insist on knowing where these critics were when it was a question of President Biden’s far more evil abortion, sex and gender policies.