VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In a letter to U.S. Bishops published on Tuesday (Feb. 11), Pope Francis seemed to criticize recent comments by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, who accused Democrats of prioritizing the needs of migrants over those of US citizens, citing the Catholic concept of “ordo amoris.”
“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,” Francis wrote in the letter.
The pope explained that Catholic charity isn’t just a series of concentric circles extending from the individual to family, friends and fellow citizens and ultimately the world, but it is centered on human dignity with a special concern for the poorest. Francis condemned ideologies that are first concerned with personal, community and national identity.
In the letter, Francis said he has “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” referring to the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, which he said “damages the dignity of many men and women and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
Asked for comment on the pope’s letter, a White House official directed RNS to a Newsmax interview with Tom Homan, Border Czar and also a Catholic, who said that Pope Francis has “got to get out of the business of our national security and border enforcement work and concentrate on the Catholic Church.
“He’s got a lot of problems in the Catholic Church. He’s got enough to fix in his own home, leave the border stuff to us. We know what we are doing… plus he’s got a border wall around the Vatican!” he said, adding that the walls protecting the US are ensuring the safety of children and preventing human and drug trafficking.
“We are saving lives, and that’s what the pope ought to be paying attention to,” he added.
The pope’s letter came shortly after Vance spoke about his understanding of “ordo amoris” in an interview with Fox News. “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, 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 prioritize the rest of the world,” the vice president said. According to Vance, Democrats and liberals had inverted that order of relationships.
After receiving backlash, Vance expanded on his remarks, urging his followers on X to “just google ordo amoris,” in a post on Jan. 30. The Rev. James Martin, editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America and Pope Francis’ adviser on LGBTQ+ Catholic outreach, also weighed in on Vance’s comments in a post on X (formerly Twitter), underlining Jesus’ message “that everyone is your neighbor.”
Ordo amoris, sometimes referred to as “order of charity” or “order of love,” was first articulated by the fourth-century theologian St. Augustine, who in his books on Christian doctrine spoke of the need for Christians to love everything in the appropriately ordered way, based on Jesus’ commandment to love God, one’s self and your neighbor.
“But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you,” the ancient philosopher explained.
In the 13th century, another great Catholic theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, expanded on the ordo amoris, emphasizing the need to love those who are closest and most connected to you. For the two church fathers, concretely loving those who are in the immediate vicinity was a way to express God’s love and a much easier task than loving something as abstract as humanity or the world.
This ordering isn’t meant to be exclusive, said theologian Timothy O’Malley, director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy in the McGrath Institute for Church Life and a concurrent assistant professional specialist in the Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, in an interview with RNS on Tuesday.
Catholics are called to love their neighbor, O’Malley explained, meaning “those who come to me face to face, look into my eyes, ask for that cup of cold water, need that assistance. That is whom I am called to love. That’s what Pope Francis meant today by referring to the Good Samaritan as an expansive vision that’s growing.”
According to the theologian, Vance “is wrong about the meaning of ordo amoris” and his “is a convenient interpretation” of Catholic teaching. “It seems like Catholics have a harder time these days, letting the church define what we mean when it comes to politics or what political engagement ought to be — than the other way around, which is political engagement tends to define church doctrine,” he said.
“That is a thing that is really consonant with Christian teaching: The more I have power to do good, the more incumbent it is on me to use my power well and wisely to do good, because so many people are depending upon that,” he told RNS.
Through the centuries, popes and Vatican departments have evolved and expanded the church’s understanding of ordo amoris and the duties and responsibilities that Catholics have toward society and especially those in need.
“I think Pope Francis’ application of that idea and his teaching as a whole is a constant reminder to Christians that the vulnerable, the poor, the marginalized have a particular claim on our charity,” Grabowski said.