SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
The first American pope in the Catholic Church’s 2000-year history is evidently no big fan of his homeland’s current political leadership.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was born in Chicago and is now Pope Leo XIV, is no woke luvvie, but he maintains an X account that has featured some choice commentary on the Trump administration’s attitude toward migrants.
On February 3, a fortnight after Donald Trump’s inauguration, he linked to an article by the National Catholic Reporter titled: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
The opinion piece referred to an interview Vance, the vice president, gave to Fox News in which he argued the America First approach to immigration was consistent with a Christian concept of loving people in order of proximity.
“There’s this old school – and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way – that you love your family, and then you love your neighbour, 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 prioritise the rest of the world,” Vance said.
“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to have the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to run a society.”
Later, Vance identified this as the medieval Catholic principle of ordo amoris, or orderly love. “Just google ‘ordo amoris’, he said on X. “Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense.”
But this assertion was highly divisive within the church. The late Pope Francis implicitly criticised Vance in an open letter to American bishops on February 10, saying he was closely following the “major crisis” in the US regarding migration.
“Christians know very well that it is only by affirming the infinite dignity of all that our own identity as persons and as communities reaches its maturity,” Francis wrote.
“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.”
In the piece shared by Prevost, the writer, Kat Armas, said Vance’s argument “feeds the myth that some people are more deserving of our care than others”.
US President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.Credit: nnariwood
“It’s a framework that makes sense in a world governed by scarcity and fear, where protection comes at the expense of others,” Armas wrote. “But Jesus never speaks of love as something to be rationed. He speaks of love as abundance – a table where there is enough for everyone.”
Ten days later, Prevost shared another piece, this time in the American Jesuit Review, that was also critical of Vance and the Trump administration.
Sam Sawyer, a New York Jesuit priest and editor, wrote: “It ought to be clear that Catholics cannot support a rhetoric that demonises immigrants as dangerously criminal simply because they have crossed the border in search of a better life for themselves and their families.”
And as recently as last month, Prevost reposted an article from the Catholic Standard by Bishop Evelio Menjivar of the Archdiocese of Washington, which strongly condemned the US federal government for its deportations of alleged illegal immigrants, and called for people to speak up.
“More than a few natural-born Americans are saying they do not recognise their country anymore, but many of us from other lands recognise all too well the terror of people being snatched by secret police and disappeared,” wrote Menjivar, who grew up in El Salvador.
“We left our former countries precisely to get away from it. Yet, too many people are still remaining silent, perhaps out of fear, forgetting that the Holy Spirit gives us the grace of fortitude to boldly speak out for good.”
Vance – who converted to Catholicism in 2019 – offered Leo XIV his congratulations on Thursday (Friday AEST), and said American Catholics would be praying for his success. But there is no doubt the vice president would be aware of the new pope’s views.
He visited Francis at Easter, the day before the late pontiff died, and the two men engaged in an “exchange of opinions” about immigration, the Vatican said afterwards.
Trump, too, congratulated Prevost on his election. “It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” he wrote on TruthSocial.“What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!“
Trump had earlier caused controversy by posting an AI image of himself as the Pope, which he said was a joke.
As an American, Pope Leo may carry some extra gravitas if and when he decries Vance’s invocation of ordo amoris, or implores Washington to be nicer to migrants and refugees.
But that would be entirely consistent with the previous pope. And what difference did that make?
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