A recent controversy arose after Vice President JD Vance relied on a mischaracterization of the concept of ordo amoris in expressing support for “America First” mass deportation policies. The notion derives from the work On Christian Doctrine by Saint Augustine. Vance would have you believe that our moral responsibilities extend outward in concentric circles, weakening at the edges to irrelevance. However, upon closer reading, Saint Augustine wrote nothing of the sort. Rather than supporting a caste system of ethical treatment, he wrote that “we ought to love another man better than our own body” and “all men are to be loved equally.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Pope Francis issued a letter to U.S. bishops to provide clarity on the issue, stating unequivocally that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.” 

Vance described curious reasons for his conversion to Catholicism in 2019, which he detailed in a lengthy missive in 2020. He outlined the change primarily as an intellectual struggle of squaring disputed theological interpretations with scholarly views, along with societal pressure towards atheism in elite academic settings. He even credits a talk from Peter Thiel (of all people) as being instrumental in shaking his conception “that dumb people were Christians.” Ironically, Vance acknowledges one should be “cognizant of the fact that virtue is formed in the context of a broader community” in direct contradiction to his recent claims. 

Vance ostensibly believes his “views on public policy and what the optimal state should look like are pretty aligned with Catholic social teaching.” Reality begs to differ. Some conservatives, including Vance, harangue against abortion while not lifting a finger to provide adequate support for mothers or to end the death penalty. They ship migrants to Guantanamo Bay without providing evidence of criminality and fail to recognize the life and dignity of the human person. They pass tax cuts that benefit the richest members of society most while salivating over the opportunity to cut social services for the elderly and impoverished. Most recently, the work of USAID was halted in an instant, putting millions of lives at risk in war-torn and disease-ravaged countries. This act is not only morally indefensible, but it also opens the doors for China and Russia to fill the gaps for nefarious ends. The Trump Administration attacks and indiscriminately fires career, nonpartisan career civil servants without cause while letting corrupt politicians off the hook, thereby insulting the dignity of work and the rights of workers. While every leading scientific institute in America affirms the reality of climate change, Vance morphed from a green-tech investor to a fossil fuel industry champion, hardly showing concern for care for God’s creation. These logical inconsistencies pile up like a tower built on a foundation of hypocrisy, reaching ever higher in its contradictions until it inevitably collapses under the weight of its own absurdity—its architects left babbling in incoherence as they attempt to justify the unjustifiable.

Perhaps Vance explained his approach to policy best himself by stating: 

“At a fundamental level, being in public life is in part a popularity contest. When you’re trying to do things that make you liked by as many people as possible, you’re not likely to do things that are consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” 

As I foresee an unconscionable cost to the beneficial impact of America’s global leadership, the dignity of the poor and vulnerable, and the health of our environment on behalf of the Trump-Vance administration, I respond: Indeed, Mr. Vice President. Indeed.