Why J.D. Vance Is Wrong About the Catholic Church’s Mission

This past Sunday my essay, “Why J.D. Vance Is Wrong About the Catholic Church’s Mission”, was published at The Dispatch as part of the excellent Michael Reneau’s Dispatch Faith Newsletter.

The essay explores Vice President Vance’s recent dust up with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and his theological defense of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. I found, “The combined effect of traditionally anti-Catholic rhetoric followed by novel appeal to the church’s social teaching was deeply strange.”

I think the parable of the Good Samaritan provides the most striking corrective the Vice President Vance’s theological argument:

The parable, like all of Christ’s parables, is unfathomably rich. It does not provide an answer conditioned by nation, religion, or ethnicity. Those boundaries, it transcends. What there is, is physical proximity, recognition, compassion, and action. It doesn’t give us a rigid category of “neighbor” but tells us how to be one wherever the Lord puts us.

Full essay available here. Enjoy!