Pope Francis’ letter rebuking US President Donald Trump for failing to respect the dignity of migrants who move to the United States seeking to escape oppression comes in the wake of questionable theologizing by Vice-President JD Vance.

Vance peddled a view that people should give the most love to members of their family, a little less love to their neighbours, less still to their fellow citizens and little, if any, to foreigners. Hmmm. Although Vance maintains this opinion comes from St. Augustine, he won’t find it supported in Church teaching. 

Moreover, his view strikes at the Christian understanding of God—Jesus Christ, creator of the universe, one in being with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Vance’s musings take us back to the time before the Axial Age, the period before the founding of the world’s great religions when each nation had its own gods locked in combat with the gods of other peoples.

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Jesus repeatedly subverted the notion that we should love those closest to us and ignore those who are distant. He told the crowds, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14.26) This proclamation calls us to relativize our human attachments in light of our relationship with the Divine.

Relativizing these attachments does not mean abandoning them. It was a Samaritan, not any of the Jewish leaders, who was “moved with pity” toward the man beaten and left by the side of the road. The Samaritan lavishly pours oil and wine on the man’s wounds and pays an innkeeper to care for him. The Samaritan acted as a neighbour.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church puts a priority on the family, not because it is an enclave from a heartless world, but because it is the first school of love. The family is “an intimate community of life and love.” It nurtures us to treat all people as persons, not as objects. At its best, the family looks outward to build generous solidarity with all people. This is a far cry from building walls around a nation to save what is ours for ourselves and to keep out the riff-raff.

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We are called to care for people from other nations not primarily because of some commandment but because each person is an image of God. The Catholic Church’s social teachings are rooted in a mystical understanding of creation and the human person. All creation is radiant, filled with the divine presence.

Theologian Anna Rowlands observes, “All basic Christian doctrines – creation, sin, incarnation, resurrection, the Trinity, eschatology, and the communion of the saints – are social concepts.” The essence of Christian teaching points to a relatedness of every being with all others. We are not isolated individuals but persons-in-relation.

Compared with the glorious harmony of the Christian outlook, how debased is the notion of national gods in a frenzied contest with each other. The latter understanding mirrors our world today with its wars, fractiousness, spirit of competition and domination, creation of scapegoats, rejection of outcasts and arrogant belief that our group is better than others.

Jesus calls us to shun self-centredness, to get out of our comfort zones and love those most removed from our families and social milieu. He calls us to insecurity rather than quivering behind walls of privilege and self-protection.

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When we begin to see things through Jesus’ eyes, we soon confront one of the most fundamental concepts of Catholic social teaching, one we may want to ignore – the universal destination of all goods. Pope John Paul II expressed this principle succinctly in his encyclical Centesimus Annus: “God gave the earth to the whole human race for the sustenance of all its members, without excluding or favouring anyone.” This principle does not deny the right to private property but makes that right relative to the needs of those who possess fewer material goods. Wealth in the face of poverty denies others their own right to property. God’s gift of creation bestows on humanity a duty to work toward material equality.

Nations are responsible for providing orderly reception of newcomers, but that right is far from absolute. Migrants should be treated with the same reverence as the Samaritan treated the man at the side of the road. To attempt to legitimize inhumane treatment or scapegoating of immigrants is to put oneself in conflict with the love of Jesus Christ, the Lord of all nations.