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Monica Doumit: VP Vance wrong, disingenuous

Monica Doumit
Monica Doumit
Monica Doumit is the Director, Public Affairs and Engagement for the Archdiocese of Sydney and a columnist with The Catholic Weekly.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during the swearing in ceremony of CIA Director John Ratcliffe Jan. 23, 2025. In an interview on Face the Nation Jan. 26, Vance criticized USCCB’s response to Trump’s executive orders on immigration. (OSV News photo/Nathan Howard, Reuters)

My excitement that JD Vance is Catholic, he who – if he doesn’t replace Donald Trump as US President during this term of office – will be his party’s presumptive nominee for the next US election, faded pretty quickly this week. That’s because he used part of his first television interview as Vice President to crap all over the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and its statements on immigration law enforcement. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. Beating up on the bishops is a favourite pastime of many Catholics and, ironically, is the one thing that brings a real sense of unity in the church. Far-right conservative “rad trads” and far-left liberal “Susans from parish council” may not be able to agree on liturgy or doctrine, but they can agree that the bishops are the problem. 

There were many problems with Vance’s spray at the bishops, but I want to name just three of them. 

First, Vance was plain wrong. He claimed that the bishops’ interest in advocating for immigrants currently in the United States had less to do with humanitarian concerns and more to do with the US$100 million the church in the US receives annually.  

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a press briefing in Damascus, Va., Jan. 27, 2025. Vance, a Catholic, questioned the motives of the U.S. bishops’ criticism of President Donald Trump’s new immigration policies in a Jan. 26 interview, suggesting they were more concerned about padding “their bottom line” by resettling refugees. The U.S. bishops’ conference pointed to audited financials showing the church spent more on those services than the government would cover, using private funds to cover the difference. (OSV News photo/Ben Curtis, pool via Reuters)

“Are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line?” Vance asked. It is easily demonstrated that the church in the US spends more money than it receives through government funding to assist refugees and other migrants and so – like pretty much everything the church does – this isn’t a commercial endeavour for the bishops, it is a work of mercy. Vance was wrong. 

Second, he mischaracterised the bishops’ statement in order to paint the bishops as unreasonable.  

The specific objection of the bishops was to the signing of an executive order that would allow immigration enforcement officials to enter churches, schools and health facilities in non-emergency situations.  

“We recognise the need for just immigration enforcement and affirm the government’s obligation to carry it out in a targeted, proportional, and humane way,” the bishops wrote.  

“However, non-emergency immigration enforcement in schools, places of worship, social service agencies, healthcare facilities, or other sensitive settings where people receive essential services would be contrary to the common good.  

“With the mere rescission of the protected areas guidance, we are already witnessing reticence among immigrants to engage in daily life, including sending children to school and attending religious services.”  

The badge and gun of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent is seen during an operation with migrants being transferred to a plane to be expelled under U.S. Title 42 from the United States to their home country by ICE and Border Patrol agents, at the airport in El Paso, Texas, May 10, 2023. (OSV News photo/Jose Luis Gonzalez, Reuters)

Essentially, the bishops are saying that enforcing the law against those who might have entered the country illegally but who are otherwise law-abiding should not occur in places where they worship or access essential services because it will undermine their education and health care. 

Vance’s response to this was about the need to enter churches and schools to apprehend violent criminals.  

“If you had a violent murderer in a school, of course I want law enforcement … to go and get that person out,” he said.  

But this was disingenuous, because it would be an “emergency” situation, and this wasn’t what the bishops were saying. While politicians are adept at avoiding the question asked and providing the answer they want, doing so at the expense of the Catholic bishops not only lacked charity; it lacked truth. 

Third, Vance presented the false dichotomy so often used by the progressives he dislikes so much.  

He said of the US bishops: “If they’re worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex-trafficked because of the wide-open border of Joe Biden.”  

VP Vance
VP JD Vance. (photo OSV News/Evelyn Hockstein, Reuters)

It sounds a lot like: “If they’re worried about abortion, let them talk about support of pregnant women and cost of living and housing and education.”  

When VP Vance, a recent Catholic convert, spends a little more time in the Barque of Peter, he will realise that we can not only walk and chew gum at the same time, but we can simultaneously spin a basketball on our finger to boot. We can care about victims of human trafficking and about migrants, legal and illegal, all at the same time and back up that care with practical supports that far exceed those that are government-funded. 

As someone who was dismayed by, and critical of, former President Joe Biden’s declaration of his Catholicism while he supported laws and policies that contradict Catholic teaching; I am similarly dismayed by what appears to be a willingness of the new Vice President to instrumentalise his Catholicism to score political points. 

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