Two Types of Catholics in the Trump Administration

The Border Czar and the Vice President

I want to begin by asking readers to pray for Pope Francis, who is hospitalized with pneumonia. Pray for the recovery of his health and for spiritual strength.

Vice President JD Vance has not yet responded to Pope Francis’s letter to the United States bishops criticizing the Trump administration’s immigration policies and indirectly challenging Vance’s theological claim, used to justify those policies, that Christians should prioritize loving their own family and their compatriots over those from other countries (Vance was referencing, and misappropriating, the traditional notion of the ordo amoris). Instead, on the same day Francis’s letter was released, the Trump administration sent out “Border Czar” Tom Homan to attack the pope and his intervention on the immigration issue.

Homan, whose official responsibilities are vague but seem to revolve around serving as a White House point person with the different agencies involved with immigration enforcement, is also a regular Mass-attending Catholic. That didn’t stop Homan from challenging the pope’s authority, however. Speaking on Fox News, Homan said: “I've got harsh words for the pope: I say this as a lifelong Catholic. He ought to focus on his work and leave enforcement to us.” Later in the day, he reiterated his point: "I wish he'd stick to the Catholic Church and fix that and leave border enforcement to us."

There’s certainly a kernel of truth in Homan’s remarks. It’s not the responsibility of the Church’s pastors, including the pope, to speak on the operational details of border enforcement. And when, for example, the US Catholic bishops speak in favor of a particular immigration bill or recommend a certain set of policies, there is room for Catholics to disagree in good conscience as long as their disagreement is rooted in a shared commitment to the dignity of each and every human person and to the authentic common good, as those principles are outlined in the Church’s social teaching. On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that the Church must remain silent on the treatment of immigrants and refugees; on the contrary, the Church has a responsibility to do so.

Ironically, as I noted in my article on the pope’s letter, Francis only briefly addresses the Trump administration’s policies. Contra Homan, the letter is hardly an inappropriate foray into matters outside the pope’s competence. In fact, the pope’s primary focus is to properly define Christian love and to re-orient our responsibilities toward those in need, tasks which seem well within the competencies of a pastor! Indeed, there would be few better ways to “fix” the Catholic Church than to enkindle in its members the fire of divine love for those in need.