When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
I’m posting this now instead of when it came out for the simple reason that I had so much to write about that I couldn’t get it in before now.
JD Vance responded to Trump’s mockery of Christ and his attacks on Pope Leo by siding with Trump. He attempted to redefine what a pontiff may or may not teach and preach by admonishing Pope Leo that he should be careful about what he said about matters of theology.
Pope Leo is the pope. Applying Church teaching and theology to world happenings in a way that faithful Catholics can understand is a huge part of his job. Teaching us how Church teaching and theology apply to the way we live our lives in this world today is, along with the sacraments, the main part of why God gave us a pope in the first place.
The Pope gets to tell Catholics what the Church teaches. He doesn’t have to change 2,000 years of Church teaching to flatter a psychopathic bully who’s running the world’s greatest super power into the dirt.
If Pope Leo edited Church teaching in order to make politicians happy, he would be betraying Christ. Popes, bishops, priests and faithful Christians from every walk of life have been beheaded, flayed, raped, burnt alive, fed to animals, hung, shot down in the streets and while saying mass and gassed in concentration camps because they would not do that.
I’m not going to comment on JD Vance’s personal faith, or the sincerity of his Catholic conversion, or any of the rest of that nonsense. If he’s a sincere idiot, God will forgive him and school him. If he’s just using his faith to position himself for a run for the presidency, he’s in a lot more trouble than anything politics can throw at him.
I will say that JD Vance was confronted with the choice of Christ or Trump. By posting those photos of himself as Christ and then as Christ’s buddy, Trump openly and deliberately mocked Our Lord. JD had a choice: Christ or Trump. He chose Trump.
He certainly wasn’t alone. Franklin Graham chose Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson chose Trump. Hannity chose Trump. A plethora of right wing podcasters chose Trump.
That’s the way it is. It’s the way it has always been. Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Satan showed Him all the kingdoms of this world and said, “I will give you these if you fall down and worship me.” Jesus told Satan to get lost.
Christians in every walk of life have been telling Satan to get lost like that for 2,000 years. But other Christians say “yes.” They fail. Some of them repent and change in time. But the deeper they get into the money and power, the harder it is for them to do that.
JD Vance is very deep into the money and power. I won’t go into his resume at this time, but he’s very deep. It would have taken a lot of guts and a lot of faith for those who have placed themselves under Trump’s thumb to choose Christ over Trump this week. JD Vance didn’t have the faith and the guts to do it.
The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops doesn’t ordinarily go around correcting the laity for their — our — many misspeaks in matters of faith. We get things wrong all the time, and even when the Catholic in question has a big platform, they just let it go.
Contrary to some of the garbage I’ve heard on anti-Catholic right wing podcasts this week, Catholics aren’t afraid of their bishops or the pope. We don’t follow the pope because we’re scared of the pope. We follow the pope because he is our shepherd.
The Holy Spirit put Pope Leo on the throne of Peter to show us the Way to eternal life. He is there to teach us what it means to be a follower of Christ in the real world.
When Pope Leo says a war is unjust, he’s not speaking from the vague inconsistency of a politician who’s taking his or her best guess. He’s speaking from 2,000 years of consistent Church teaching that goes all the way back to the Upper Room.
He is Peter. He stands at the front of an unbroken line of popes that leads straight to the big fisherman.
We’ve had some bad popes. We’ve had popes who were martyrs. But we’ve never had a pope who taught a different faith than that which is found in the Creeds and in the Gospels.
So you don’t tell the pope that he needs to change what he teaches and edit the 2,000 year teachings of the Catholic Church to suit Donald Trump. Or you shouldn’t.
JD Vance’s statement wasn’t just another Catholic politician trying to get out of a tough spot by making a weasel statement. He challenged the teaching authority of the pope.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — which ignores nutty statements by Catholic politicians all day, every day — responded immediately. As I said, it’s taken me a couple of days to get around to writing about this. But the USCCB published their response within hours of Vance’s statement.
They were actually pretty circumspect. They didn’t call JD out by name. But they did take the boy the school, just the same. Here is their statement.
From the USCCB:
Doctrine Issues Clarification on Just War Theory
WASHINGTON – In light of recent public comments regarding the Catholic Church’s teaching on war and peace, Bishop James Massa, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, issued the following statement:
“For over a thousand years, the Catholic Church has taught just war theory and it is that long tradition the Holy Father carefully references in his comments on war. A constant tenet of that thousand-year tradition is a nation can only legitimately take up the sword ‘in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2308). That is, to be a just war it must be a defense against another who actively wages war, which is what the Holy Father actually said: ‘He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.’
“When Pope Leo XIV speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ. The consistent teaching of the Church is insistent that all people of good will must pray and work toward lasting peace while avoiding the evils and injustices that accompany all wars.”
Note: You can read the story of Satan, tempting Jesus in Matthew 4:9 and Luke 4:6-7.
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