VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In a letter to U.S. Bishops published on Tuesday (Feb. 11), Pope Francis seemed to criticize recent comments by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, who accused Democrats of prioritizing the needs of migrants over those of US citizens, citing the Catholic concept of “ordo amoris.”
“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,” Francis wrote in the letter.
The pope explained that Catholic charity isn’t just a series of concentric circles extending from the individual to family, friends and fellow citizens and ultimately the world, but it is centered on human dignity with a special concern for the poorest. Francis condemned ideologies that are first concerned with personal, community and national identity.
In the letter, Francis said he has “followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations,” referring to the Trump administration’s mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, which he said “damages the dignity of many men and women and of entire …