Catechist-in-Chief? Vance Introduces Lesser-Known Catholic Moral Principle Into National Discourse| National Catholic Register
Is JD Vance adding Catechism-in-Chief to his myriad of other official duties? Lately, he’s been giving the new administration a “Theology on Tap” vibe, even if not everyone is drinking it up.
The vice president’s use of a lesser-known theological concept to defend the Trump White House’s position on immigration has sparked widespread theological debate, while also suggesting that the Catholic convert’s status as second-in-command may inject Catholic thought into national policy conversations in possibly unprecedented ways.
Vance, who became Catholic in 2019 and has shown atypical familiarity with aspects of the Catholic intellectual tradition for a national politician, cited the ordo amoris to defend the idea that the American government focusing on its own citizens before those from other countries is consistent with Christianity.
The principle, which was developed by influential theologians like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, emphasizes that one’s loves must be rightly ordered according to a hierarchy of obligations, starting with God and flowing outward to others.
“Just google ‘ordo amoris,’ Vance said in a Jan. 30 X (formerly Twitter) response to Rory Stewart, a former British member of Parliament who had criticized Vance’s position that people ought to love those closest to them first as “less Christian and more pagan tribal.”
Just google “ordo amoris.” Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense. Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone? https://t.co/otvv5g1wFN
— JD Vance (@JDVance) January 30, 2025
“Aside from that,” Vance continued, “the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense,” as parents have greater responsibilities to their own children than to strangers in foreign countries.
Vance’s tweet about the ordo amoris has been viewed more than 11 million times. And with the 40-year-old playing such a visible role in the Trump administration just a few weeks into the job, it suggests that catechetical conversations prompted by the vice president may be the norm over the next four years—at least.
‘Spotlight’ on Catholic Teaching
In fact, as Charlie Collins of Crux has already noted, Vance’s willingness to make specialized theological references in the midst of debates about immigration has “certainly put the spotlight on Catholic social teaching.”
The fact that the vice president is also engaged in a very public back-and-forth with the U.S. bishops, who he said have participated in federal refugee-resettlement programs out of concern for “their bottom line,” has likely amplified attention on Catholic principles related to the issue.
Vance, who became Catholic under the guidance of East Coast Dominicans, has previously expressed the impact of St. Augustine’s political theology upon him, and said Catholic social teaching played an important role in his own conversion. A self-described Catholic “postliberal,” he is also close with leaders of the burgeoning Catholic political movement, such as Notre Dame’s Patrick Deneen and The Catholic University of America’s Chad Pecknold.
The fact that the most recent discussion about the application of the ordo amoris to American public life was sparked by such a prominent politician wasn’t lost on the likes of Eduard Habsburg, Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See and a Catholic author.
“Who would have predicted 70% of my [Twitter] timeline heatedly discussing a Christian concept coined by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, all because of the American Vice President?” Habsburg tweeted.
Ordo amoris.
Who would have predicted 70% of my timeline heatedly discussing a Christian concept coined by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, all all because of the 🇺🇸 American Vice President?— Eduard Habsburg (@EduardHabsburg) February 1, 2025
Ordo Amoris Debate
In the debate about Vance’s usage of ordo amoris, there has been little argument that the concept is a helpful one for applying Catholic moral teaching to concrete situations (in one exception, Kat Armas wrote for the National Catholic Reporter that the ordo amoris is consistent with “colonial ideology”).
Instead, conversation has centered over whether or not Vance got the concept right, with some defending the vice president’s usage, while others have offered critiques.
Rusty Reno, the editor of First Things magazine, argued in a recent article in Compact that Vance’s presentation is consistent with Christian teaching’s long-standing emphasis “that we are to love those near with a greater fervor than those far away.”
Rather than downplaying Christ’s call to love all people, Reno said that this teaching takes into account the fact that we are “cast into a world of already existing relationships,” with differing levels of obligation and responsibility.
Eric Sammons of Crisis offered a similar perspective, arguing that Vance provided a defense “against the modern inversion of love where globalism trumps localism,” which is “indeed un-Christian when it leads to the neglect of those we are most directly responsible for.”
Others, however, have critiqued Vance’s presentation for implicitly downplaying the requirement of universal love. Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas, head of the U.S. bishops’ immigration committee, said that appeals to the ordo amoris cannot be used to deny that we are required by Christ to love all people as our neighbor, the central point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
“While we have certainly an even greater responsibility to those who are close to us, it doesn’t mean we can ignore the needs of people who are around us more broadly,” Bishop Seitz said on the Dispatch Faith podcast.
Terence Sweeney, a philosophy professor at Villanova University and Register contributor, suggested that Vance may be missing that the ordo amoris “is supposed to broaden my loves” beyond just one’s own community, so much so that Augustine was opposed to leaving sizable inheritances to one’s children.
“For Augustine, this expansion requires self sacrice in order to supply the needs of the needy,” Sweeney told the Register. “Their needs always trump my superfluous goods.”
The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, a conservative Catholic, approved of Vance’s general description of Christian moral duties, but noted that our primary duty to love God and also the need to care for “those outside your normal circles who present themselves in serious need” can “override the natural duties.”
“The questions of how the latter cashes out in a globalized age and how it shapes the moral obligations of a superpower’s government are not, I think, actually all that easy to answer,” Douthat said in a tweet.
A Welcome Debate?
Some, however, have suggested that Vance’s appeal to Catholic theological principles isn’t aimed at coming to just and reasonable immigration policies, but was actually meant to provide cover for his recent criticisms of the U.S. bishops and groups like Catholic Charities. “’Ordo amoris’ is a bright shiny object being used to distract you from the fact that the vice president of the United States accused US Catholics of enabling child trafficking, and of serving migrants and refugees in order to improve ‘their bottom line,’” tweeted Kim Daniels, director of Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and former spokeswoman for the USCCB.
And while he doesn’t think Vance’s point about the ordo amoris should be controversial among Christians, Stephen White of The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, initially expressed his doubt on X that the vice president’s catechetical tweet would lead to anything worthwhile, given modern society’s overall aversion to rightly ordering things, which requires an openness to God.
However, in follow-up comments to the Register, White expressed his hope that Vance’s reference from deep within the Catholic intellectual tradition could be a jumping-off point for returning to principles and not simply getting caught in partisan policy debates. “If the vice president’s comments help shift our conversation — not just about immigration, but about a great many social challenges — into a more ordered and more humane framework, that would be a very good thing.”