Who is un-Christian? Both JD Vance and I are Roman Catholic. Me by birth, family and choice, Vance by conversion. The Roman Catholic Church is by far the largest Christian denomination in the world.
What its leaders say carry weight.
However, both JD and I have problems with Pope Francis’ hyper-liberal take on social issues and on illegal immigration.
Understand that much of what the pope’s says is simply opinion and while sometimes worthy, oftentimes it is not.
Only when the pope speaks “ex cathedra” (from the chair or from the office) on issues of faith and morals are his words supposed to be infallible. So, Catholics are allowed to disagree with the pope on politics, just not on church dogma.
The most recent political battle with the pope is intensifying over President Donald Trump’s efforts to control our borders, deport millions of foreigners here illegally and remove foreign criminals from our shores, with the pope focusing his ire on Vice President JD Vance.
Francis did this via letter to U.S. bishops where he stressed that the forceful removal of people simply for their immigration status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”
The pope also countered a statement made by Vance earlier.
As Fox News reported:
Vance… has defended the administration’s deportation plans by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as “ordo amoris,” which he has said describes a hierarchy of care: prioritizing the family first, then the neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those from other regions.
However, Francis sought to fact-check Vance’s understanding of the concept.
“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” Francis wrote in his letter. “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.”
And that is all well and good, but I agree with Vance that as Christians, when we must choose, we must prioritize care for our own citizens before foreigners. And requiring all those who want to come to our country to do so via legal and orderly means, or be denied entrance or sent back, is not un- Christian, by any means.
But Francis has been here before, going back to just before Trump’s first term, when Francis said in 2016 that anyone who builds a wall to keep migrants out was “not a Christian.”
I was flabbergasted by the pope’s comments then too.
As Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, also a Catholic, responded to the pope, saying that the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that: “He wants to attack us for securing our border. He’s got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?”
Homan added: “He’s got a wall around that protects his people and himself, but we can’t have a wall around the United States.”
Border Czar Tom Homan fires back at the Pope after he criticized Trump’s mass deportation policies:
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 12, 2025
"He's got a wall around the Vatican, does he not?" pic.twitter.com/CCo1FZT1d3
As Homan noted, the Vatican is a 108-acre city-state inside Rome, surrounded by walls. Significantly, it also recently increased penalties against those entering illegally.
The December 2024 Vatican law calls for violators to face up to four years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.
Sorry, your eminence, Pope Francis, with all due respect, charity begins at home.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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There is such a thing as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I don’t care how devout a Catholic you may be, but I submit that Pope Francis fits that description perfectly.
To be more honest, why isn’t your publication called American Liberty Opinions instead of American Liberty News?
The pope, like other democrats, is all about supporting the poor. Which is why their tithes have made the catholic church the largest land owner in the world.
“Render unto Caesar the thngs that are Caesar’s (obedience to civil laws), and to God, the things that are God’s”
“Render unto Caesar” means to give to the earthly authority (represented by “Caesar”) what is rightfully theirs, typically referring to paying taxes or respecting civil laws, while reserving ultimate allegiance to God;
The pope who can’t even keep his clergy from being gay and/or sexually abusing kids that come to them for guidance and this idiot wants to tell us how to run our country???? The man can go to hell where he belongs.
As far as I’m concerned the Pope can pound salt. Tom Homan cited his hypocrisy when he alluded to the wall surrounding the Vatican and the penalties to anyone who violates those walls. Unbelievable!!!!
Pope Francis’ words are not consistent with Christian doctrine or Biblical truths. I am not Catholic, but as a Christian I can see the rift that this Pope has caused in the Catholic church. Best to look at 2 Peter 2 where it describes false prophets and false teachers introducing destructive heresies. See also 2 Timothy 4:3 which says that people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. I could go on, but I see Pope Francis as one of these false teachers who has caused confusion and destruction within the worldwide Church. Teachers are held to a higher standard, false teachers will receive God’s wrath.
The Pope may be the head of the Catholic Church BUT Donald Trump is the President of the United States and he will decide what is best for the U.S. Has the Pope opened the Vatican to any and all people that want to move in there? I guess he thinks what is good for the goose is NOT good for the gander. He needs to stick to running the Catholic Church and leave running the U.S. to our President.
Every time I hear Tom Homan talk about almost anything, I admire him! He is clearly tough and I believe fair in his assessments of life and borders and fences! Great job Tom, get them all out,but concentrate hard on those that most deserve deportation as a result of some sort of additional criminal activity that they have engaged in first, and then the rest. I have a lot of sympathy for those that come from places that are as bad as Cuba and Venezuela as well as the eastern European countries that are in turmoil constantly as a result of political upheaval, but they should, (most of them), be working on fixing those countries and making them as free as the United States used to be before we had Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Barack Obama do their very best to destroy what was the greatest country on Earth, and still is far far better than most other countries of the world.
Nice article but please forget the apostate catholic church- The best news is that no matter what religion you are you can be ASSURED of going to heaven if you’ll just stop and pray the following to God and mean it.
-Christ died for all of my sins past, present and future and paid for them with His blood (John 3:16)
-good works won’t get me there (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Galatians 2:16)
-now that I’m saved I can never lose my salvation (John 10:28-29)
When anyone enters your home, your business, your country, there is an implicit understanding of mutual respect – I’ll respect your rules, you respect mine. How many of these people busting in to America have respect for our way of life? For Natural Laws of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? It’s like raising a child; if you give everything but demand nothing in return, you get self centered, needy, grumbly children.
There is NOTHING Christian about this man called Frances, in fact just the opposite the thing is as Evil as Hell. He fits perfectly with the description of the anti-Christ.
Shame we can’t give the Communist Pope a few million of our illegal aliens!
Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, the first South American pope, the first Communist pope, I guess you would say, the first holy Communist pope! He defended the Russian invasion of Ukraine and never misses a chance to diss our USA. My dear Holy Roman Communist Pontiff I pray that the Almighty enlightens your vision of a free USA- filled with every race, creed and ethnicity not just with a few hundred Cardinals but with millions of good faith Americans. This is my prayer for your enlightenment!
Every Catholic should read the History of the Popes and be aware of the many wicked, sinful, even some murdering popes and many with their own armies- in times of old!
Paul, Always enjoy your insight on national security issues. I am also Catholic “by birth, family and choice”. I believe this Pope has some flawed ideas about the Church’s role in government and politics. And the first role of a government should be to protect its citizens. That becomes impossible with millions of un-vetted (spell check doesn’t like that but I think my meaning is clear), undocumented arrivals overwhelming our ability to care for and protect not only our citizens but many of the new arrivals, who are then preyed upon by the criminal element of new entries. NGO’s (including Catholic affiliates) are also a big part of the problem.
Thanks for allowing me to vent.
Byron