Some stories are so stupidly simple they virtually write themselves. This is one such article. But bear with me a moment, please, for just a splash of embellishment.
Mark Wingfield
Here’s the stupidly simple part: U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who speaks for the most morally corrupt presidential administration in U.S. history, is lecturing the pope to “stick to matters of morality” and not politics.
What the vice president doesn’t seem to comprehend is if Pope Leo stuck only to “matters of morality,” he and his boss already would be condemned straight to hell.
The politician pretending to be a Catholic is lecturing the Catholic he finds too political. That’s rich.
Remember the second coming of the Trump administration has been responsible for:
“The politician pretending to be a Catholic is lecturing the Catholic he finds too political.”
- Unprecedented presidential profiteering and conflicts of interest
- Systematic attacks on the rule of law and institutions
- Cruel immigration policies and mass deportations
- Erosion of human and civil rights
- Authoritarian tactics and rank retribution
- Environmental and public health disasters
- Elevating a politician to God-like status worthy of worship
The immorality of the Trump administration — all of it — is staggering.
Seemingly unaware of that, Vance on Monday told Fox News the pope should stay out of American affairs and stick to moral concerns. That was in response to President Donald Trump lambasting the pope for not supporting his immoral agenda and then posting a social media image of him as Jesus healing people.
Vance shrugged off that inconvenience as a “joke” people just weren’t smart enough to get. Right.
Of the pope’s declarations against war and the mistreatment of immigrants, Vance said: “In some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality. Stick to matters of, you know, what’s going on in the Catholic Church.”
And, he added, the pope should “let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy. When they are in conflict, they are in conflict. I don’t worry about it too much.”
Such moral conflicts between Catholic teaching — let’s use the word “doctrine” — and Trump’s political policies are “a natural thing,” the veep said. “I’m sure it will happen in the future and it’s not that big of a deal that it happened in the past.”
If you wondered how Vance sleeps at night knowing what the Trump administration is doing at home and abroad, fret no more. He’s clearly had a spiritual lobotomy and severed the spheres of his brain that are supposed to talk to each other.
“He’s clearly had a spiritual lobotomy and severed the spheres of his brain that are supposed to talk to each other.”
Vance famously converted to Catholicism in 2019 as a 35-year-old, but he lacks education in Catholic moral teaching. He’s part of a sect of conservative Catholics who might as well be evangelicals dressed in Catholic liturgy. They omit the Catholic mandates to follow the teaching and example of Jesus.
That’s why Vance’s newfound cruel views on immigration are opposed to Catholic moral teaching. That’s why his cruel views on masculinity and war are opposed to Catholic moral teaching.
Vance also doesn’t seem to comprehend another key tenet of Catholicism: Papal authority. Faithful Catholics do not merely “disagree” with the pope, who in Catholic theology speaks with the authority of God. Vance demands more fealty to Trump than he does to the pope.
What Vance seems to be confessing is that his politics will not be influenced by morality. That’s been obvious for some time. At least now he’s telling us the truth about it.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global.
Related articles:
Pope v. Trump is about the value of a moral tradition | Opinion by David Gushee