FAITH AND POLITICS
In this section of our website, we will discuss the relationship between the contemporary teachings of the Catholic under the guidance of Pope Francis and his reform of the Catholic Church according to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council. Focus will be placed on how this teaching relates to the present political situation in the United States.
A Personal Reflection on the 2024 Election
John R. Connolly
November 6 2024
November 6 2024
Some of you who read this will think that this is a horrible thing to say.
Last night, November 5, 2024, I went to sleep in the United States of America.
When I woke up this morning, November 6, 2024, I felt like I was in Nazi Germany in 1938, the year I was born.
I sincerely hope that my premonition doesn't turn out to be true.
Last night, November 5, 2024, I went to sleep in the United States of America.
When I woke up this morning, November 6, 2024, I felt like I was in Nazi Germany in 1938, the year I was born.
I sincerely hope that my premonition doesn't turn out to be true.
Trump's Two Desecrations of the Capitol Rotunda
Trump’s second desecration of the Capitol Rotunda took place on January 20, 2025, when he was sworn in as president of the United States of America. This is a man who is a convicted felon. His character, temperament, intelligence, personality, mental instability, knowledge of world affairs and U.S. history make him totally unfit to serve as president of a country based upon freedom, equality, and justice. His entire political agenda is based upon lying, hate, violence, creating false narratives, distorting and misrepresenting the views of his opponents. and condemning groups of people as inhuman. He labels those who do not support him, or vote for him, as enemies, and threatens to put them in jail or punish them in other ways. He has surrounded himself with people who totally adhere to his political agenda without any doubts or any questions. Loyalty is the only qualification for serving in Trump’s presidency. Intelligence, professional skills, ethical character, government experience, or the ability to listen to opposing views are not necessary qualifications. This loyalty means accepting an ever-escalating series of lies that began with his false claim, without any evidence, that he won the 2020 presidential election. This has become the foundational lie of his whole political agenda.
Trump himself has no commitment to protecting the Constitution of the United States nor of accepting or following the division of powers between the executive, the legislative, and judicial branches of the United States government. On this very day, he has attempted to overturn the 14th amendment to the constitution through an executive order. This is a power that is not granted to a president. Over and over, he has declared his preference for dictators and indicated that this is how he intends to govern as president of the United States. Politically, he is a self-described nationalist who, under the guise of pseudo populism, is seemingly intent upon establishing a government that will be ruled by an oligarchy of the rich.
It is quite ironic that freezing weather forced the inauguration of this man to be moved into the Capitol Rotunda, the sacred seat and symbol of our democratic and constitutional government which is based upon freedom, equality and justice.
The first desecration of the Capitol Rotunda took place on January 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters, incited by Trump himself, violently stormed the Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump sent them to the Capitol as a quasi- military force in an attempt to intimidate the Vice-president and the members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate into replacing the legitimately elected electors with a group of fraudulent electors in six states. They broke down the barriers protecting the Capitol perimeter, climbed the Capitol steps, and forced their way into the Capitol Rotunda. In the process they beat police with flagpoles, batons, wooden clubs and baseball bats, used stun guns and chemical sprays on them, and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with police officers. This clearly was an insurrection, an attempt to destroy our democracy, and an act of treason. However, their insurrection did not succeed and many of the rioters were legally prosecuted and given prison sentences for their participation in this criminal act. Immediately after the event in 2021, Trump himself, along with several republican politicians said that the insurrectionists should be punished for their crimes. On January 7, 2021, Trump condemned the rioters stating that they defiled the seat of democracy. He went on to say, “To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent the country, and to those who broke the laws, you will pay.” (Videotaped Remarks on the Attack on the United States Capitol).
And then, on January 20, 2025, what does the newly inaugurated president do? He turns the January 6 desecration of the Capitol Rotunda into a sacrilege of lawlessness by granting pardons and commutations of sentences to over 1,500 of the January 6 rioters who were legally charged, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison for their crimes. The hypocrisy of Trump’s presidential citation granting these pardons and commutations is evident to all. This is supposedly a man who supports law and order, wants to protect the police, and take criminals off the street. Yet what has he done? He has put 1,500 more criminals on the streets of our country. Neither a pardon nor a commutation overturns their convictions. They are still criminals. Some pleaded guilty to violent crimes. Many are members of far-right violent extremists’ groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. The fact that these rioters are free does not make our country any safer.
John R. Connolly
January 20, 2025
Trump's Mass Deportation: A Violation
of Catholic Faith
Donald Trump’s attack on the migrant population of the United States began in his first term as president (2016-2020) and continued to escalate and become more violent and extreme in the following four years (2020-2024). When he began his run for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, his anti-migrant policy became one the major elements of the Republican Party platform. The first two points in the Republican 2024 political platform are 1 “Seal the Border, and Stop the Migrant Invasion” and 2 “Carry out the Largest Deportation in American History.” From the very beginning Trump’s anti-migrant attacks have been grounded in hatred, lies and false narratives, and cruel attacks upon the person and human dignity of migrants.
Trump’s refusal to address the question of migrants in a reasonable and bipartisan manner became evident when, in February 2024, he deliberately sabotaged a bipartisan bill to solve the border crisis. The Republicans in the House of Representatives had demanded passing a bill on securing the border as a condition for considering legislative action on the budget. It appeared that there was enough bipartisan support to pass the bill, and Joe Biden had said that he would sign it. Then, Trump stepped in and demanded that the Republicans in the House and Senate should reject the bill. Trump’s rationale was that if the bill were to pass, President Biden would get credit for solving the crisis at the border. The sting would be taken out of one of Trump’s major political criticisms of Biden and the Democrats. In the face of Trump’s pressure, the leadership of the Senate withdrew the bill and did not bring it to a vote. Trump took credit for killing the bill and admitted that his motive was political, to hurt Biden and the Democrats. Mitt Romney, a Republican Senator from Utah, condemned Trump’s strategy of using the border as a political weapon rather than seeking to resolve the issue. Instead of doing something good and contributing to the resolution of some of the issues with migrants and the border, Trump decided to continue his vehement and violent attack against migrants in the United States.
Trump and the Maga Republican’s claim that undocumented migrants pose a serious threat and danger for America society is based upon spurious evidence. It is a fabricated ideology based on a conglomeration of lies and false narratives. As a collective body migrants are condemned as inhuman, as violent criminals, and threats to the jobs of U.S. citizens. The acceptance of this false narrative has become part of the loyalty test for Maga Republicans. It is considered to be beyond question and doubt, an absolute truth beyond critique and rational analysis. You either accept it or you are considered to be the enemy. On the issue of the relationship between immigration and crime, Brett Hoover, a Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, points out in a recent article in Commonweal Magazine that immigration, including illegal immigration, does not lead to an increase in violent crime. In fact, he states, that “during our recent era of higher immigration, crime has been decreasing.” (Brett C. Hoover, The Suffering to Come: Lying about Immigration lays the Groundwork for Mass Deportation, Commonweal, January 23, 2025). Here is a more extensive quote from this article.
The research is clear. In one study of forty cities over
four decades, increased immigration was associated with
less crime. A 2018 study found that a greater number of
undocumented immigrants tends to lower crime rates. A 2020
study from Texas state records found that native-born citizens
and legal immigrants have a significantly higher propensity for
crime than undocumented immigrants. All of this makes sense.
Immigrants, especially those without authorization, wish to avoid
entanglements with the law. The reality is that a slim plurality of
Americans who voted for Donald Trump have entrusted him with
stopping an immigrant crime wave that does not exist. (Hoover,
The Suffering to Come).
Addressing the false claim that immigrants are taking jobs away from U.S. citizens, Professor Kristin Heyer, Theology Department: Boston College, points out that “studies show that immigrant laborers provide a net benefit to the U.S. economy and have helped to increase jobs in recent years.” (Heyer, A Catholic Guide to Immigration Ethics in the Trump Era, America Magazine, December 12, 2024).
One of the most dehumanizing aspects of Trump’s mass deportation agenda is that he has demonized immigrants lumping them into one collective group of people whom he classifies as unhuman, violent criminals, rapists, child traffickers, and drug dealers. There is no doubt that some immigrants have committed such crimes. Certainly, immigrants who commit these types of crimes should be deported. However, only a very few of the migrants that Trump wants to deport have been convicted of serious violent crimes. The reality is that there are many distinct types of migrants in the United States. Some have crossed into the U.S. illegally; some have overstayed their visas and have not returned to their homeland. According to U.S. immigration law, the situation of neither of these two types of undocumented immigrants constitutes the commission of a crime. Both are guilty of committing a civil offense. However, it is a crime to re-enter the U.S. without permission after being deported. There are a sizable number of migrants who have been granted temporary legal status in the U.S. like those seeking asylum in the Refugee Admissions Program, the DACA Program, and the Temporary Protected Status Program. In an effort to add even more immigrants who would become victims of his deportation plan, Trump has issued an unconstitutional executive order to end birthright citizenship. This list is presented as an example of the diverse status of the many diverse types of migrants in the United States. I do not claim that it is exhaustive.
In addition to this, Trump has unilaterally issued numerous executive orders in an effort to fast track his mass deportation program. These orders allow arrests without a legal warrant, deportation without a hearing, allowing ICE agents to make arrests in churches, schools, and hospitals, deputizing state and local enforcement officers to arrest immigrants, threatening local officials with investigation and prosecution if they do not comply with Trump’s deportation policy. Since the arrests will proceed more quickly than the administration’s capacity to deport them, detention camps will be established to hold the migrants until they can be deported. The Republican house has already passed a law allowing the government to set up these camps.
Many of these actions are based upon questionable and unlawful executive orders, some illegally attempt to extend the authority of the executive branch, some violate present immigration laws. Many of the actions taken to implement Trump’s mass deportation plan violate the basic democratic principles of freedom, equality, due process, fairness, and justice upon which our country is based. There are also numerous ethical and moral violations in the Maga mass deportation plan. The philosophical and political foundations of the program itself are rooted in a campaign of hate, lies and misinformation, a dehumanization and demonization of a whole group of people. In addition to this, the method and tactics being employed to execute and enforce the program violate the human dignity and the fundamental civil, legal, and moral rights of the migrants.
As a Catholic for eighty-seven years, raised in the fundamental beliefs and values of the Catholic Church, trained in Catholic schools and universities, a professor of Theology for Forty-two years, one of the things that I find difficult to understand is how a significant number of Catholics, some cardinals and bishops, priests, and laity can support the Maga Republican agenda including its mass deportation plan. I, however, would like to suggest the Maga mass deportation plan violates many of the basic beliefs and moral teachings of the Catholic Church, particularly its teaching on social justice. The two fundamental commandments of the Catholic Church are to love God and your neighbor as yourself. Based upon creation Catholics believe in the universal dignity of all human persons which cannot be taken away by any human organization. Catholics believe that all creation was made in the image and likeness of God, and that God is present in all things. He dwells in the being of everything, like the Ground of our Being. Catholics believe that God became human in Jesus and lived on earth, suffered, died, rose from the dead in an incorruptible bodily form, and sent the Holy Spirit into the world for the salvation of all human beings and the world itself. God sent Jesus to love and to serve others. In the book of Galatians St. Paul teaches that Christians live according to the Spirit and are known by their actions which are love, joy, peace, patience, endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness, and chastity. Those who do not live according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh, produce such actions as idolatry, hostilities, bickering, jealousy, outbursts of rage, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, and envy. (Gal 5:16-23).
The teaching of the Catholic Church, and of all Christians, which is violated the most in the Maga Republican mass deportation plan is the eighth commandment which states that “you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that this commandment forbids misrepresenting the truth in our relations with others. (Catholic Catechism, CC, 2464). It speaks of Jesus as “the Truth.” (CC, 2465). Truth is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words.” (CC, 2468). The Catholic Catechism goes on to state that the disciples of Christ consent to “live in the truth.” (CC, 2470). As has been pointed out, the entire Maga deportation plan is a fabricated ideology based upon a conglomeration of lies and false narratives.
However, the area in which Trump’s mass deportation plan most directly violates the teachings of the Catholic faith is the church’s long standing social justice tradition. Professor Heyer writes, the Catholic social tradition champions robust rights for immigrants in its documents, outreach and advocacy.” (Heyer, Catholic Guide Immigration Ethics). She adds, “Catholic social teaching is grounded in a vision of the person as inherently sacred and made for community. All persons are created in the image of God and therefore worthy of inherent dignity and respect.” (Heyer, Catholic Guide Immigration Ethics). In their statement on the Catholic Social teaching on immigration the U.S. bishop's state.
The Catholic Church in the United States is an immigrant
Church with a long history of embracing diverse newcomers
and providing assistance and pastoral care to immigrants,
migrants, refugees, and people on the move. Our Church has
responded to Christ’s call for us to “welcome the stranger
among us,” for in this encounter with the immigrant, the migrant,
and the refugee in our midst, we encounter Christ.
(USCCB website).
The U.S. bishops’ statement goes on to affirm that “A rich body of Church teaching, including Papal encyclicals, Bishops’ statements and pastoral letters, has consistently reinforced our moral obligation to treat the stranger as we would treat Christ himself.” (USCCB). In their 2001 pastoral statement, Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, the Bishops called all Catholics to a conversion of mind and heart, urging them to join in communion and solidarity with diverse newcomers and to find new and meaningful ways to welcome our immigrant sisters and brothers into our parishes, schools and communities.
Here are the words of a pastor to his congregation this past Sunday, February 2, 2025. “As Catholics, we are called to care for the marginalized, just as Christ cared for the outcast and vulnerable. In today’s world, immigrants and refugees are among the most marginalized, seeking safety, dignity, and hope. Our response to their needs is not a political or partisan issue – it is a deeply Catholic issue, rooted in the Gospel and the Church’s teaching on human dignity and compassion.” (Father Francis Kim).
On January 22, 2025, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, President of the USCCB, in response to some of Trump’s recent Executive Orders made the following comment, “Many of the issues President Trump addresses in his recent Executive Orders, along with what may be issued in the coming days, are matters on which the Church has much to offer. Some provisions contained in the Executive Orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us.” (USCCB). The archbishop urges that “the leadership of our Country will reconsider those actions which disregard not only the human dignity of a few, but of us all.” (USCCB).
Following Archbishop Broglio’s earlier statement, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration presented an even stronger criticism of Trump’s mass deportation plan. He issued the following statement.
The Catholic Church is committed to defending
the sanctity of every human life and the God-given
dignity of each person, regardless of nationality or
immigration status. Church teaching recognizes a
country’s right and responsibility to promote public
order, safety, and security through well-regulated
borders and just limits on immigration. However,
as shepherds, we cannot abide injustice, and we
stress that national self-interest does not justify
policies with consequences that are contrary to the
moral law. The use of sweeping generalizations to
denigrate any group, such as describing all
undocumented immigrants as ‘criminals’ or ‘invaders,’
to deprive them of protection under the law, is an
affront to God, who has created each of us in his own
image. (USCCB).
The bishop goes on to question the justification of Trump’s cessation of the refugee and protection programs, the halting of refugee resettlement, the effort to end birthright citizenship. He points out that “Even legal immigration and naturalized persons are targeted by these policies in support of a so-called ‘unified American identity’.” (USCCB)
.
The Maga Republicans appeared to have been caught off-guard, thinking perhaps that they had the backing of the U.S. bishops since the majority of Catholics voted for Trump. Also, the U.S. bishops were aware of Trump’s anti-Catholic views on immigration and never spoke out against it before the election. Maga Republicans certainly did not appreciate the U.S. bishops straight forward criticism of their mass deportation plan. How did they respond? They responded the way they always do. They attacked the integrity and the motives of those who disagreed with them. On January 26, 2025, Vice-President J.D. Vance, referring to himself as a fervent Catholic, blasted the U.S. bishops’ statements criticizing the Maga Republican mass deportation plan. His basic response was a crude, disrespectful, un-Christian attack upon the persons of the bishops and their motives. The Vice-President accused the U.S. bishops of being more concerned with “their bottom line” than with humanitarian causes, referring to the funding the US. Dioceses receive to help resettle immigrants.
Tom Homan, the so-called border czar for the Trump administration, in defense of the Maga Republican mass deportation, attacked Pope Francis for his criticism of the policy. During a recent interview Pope Francis described the mass deportation plan as a disgrace, “because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill for the imbalance. This is not the way to solve things.” Tom Homan, described as a lifelong Catholic, responded in the same crude, disrespectful, un-Christian manner as Vance. Homan criticized the Pope stating that “The pope ought to stick to the Catholic Church and fix that. That’s a mess.”
The foundation for this remark was Homan’s suggestion that the wall around the Vatican was equivalent to the Maga Republican mass deportation plan.
Neither Vance nor Homan actually responded to any of the Catholic Church’s moral concerns expressed by the Pope and the U.S. bishops. Neither attempted to explain how Trump’s policy on immigration was compatible with the Catholic Church’s social teaching. Neither cited any biblical references or statements of Jesus to support the Maga deportation. Neither referenced any teachings of the Catholic Church that would support their anti-immigration policies. In fact, neither even seemed to know anything at all about the Catholic Church’s social teaching. Yet, one boastfully described himself as a fervent Catholic, and the other was identified as a lifelong Catholic. Neither seemed to be aware that most of the immigrants being deported in the first wave are from Mexico and Latin American countries. It is reasonable to think that many of these migrants are Catholics. As such, they are Vance and Homan’s fellow Catholics, members of the one body of Christ. Did they hear the words in the 2nd Reading from St. Paul in the Eucharistic celebration for Sunday, January 26. Once again, listen to the words of Father Francis Kim. “In today’s 2nd Reading from St. Paul, he reminds us that we are one body in Christ, with each member equally important: ‘If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.’ When we see immigrants and refugees suffering, we must recognize their pain as the pain of the Body of Christ. Their struggles are not distant or unrelated to us – they are ours, because we are one in Christ.” (Fr. Kim).
What these episodes illustrate is that there are Catholics in the United States today whose faith has not been formed by the Catholic Church’s Social teaching. It is sad to say but in the last eight years there has been a de-emphasis on the Catholic Church’s social justice ministry. In a recent article in America Magazine Dylan Corbett wrote that “declining church attendance and giving, the ongoing financial impact of the abuse crisis, the sidelining of Catholic social teaching in formation programs, fewer religious vocations and the politicalization of the U.S. church have all taken a toll and contributed to the atrophy of social ministry.” (America, February 6, 2025). These trends, Corbett states, “have been reflected at the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops which just last year reduced grantmaking to local social action organizations, including many immigrant-led organizations.” (America, 2/6/25). It is unfortunate that the U.S. Bishop’s teaching on the “preeminent priority” of abortion resulted in a de-emphasis on the U.S. church’s mission to preach the Catholic Church’s social teaching on the other life issues like racism, sexual discrimination, human trafficking, violence against women, the dehumanization of immigrants, care for the environment, homelessness and poverty. (USCCB, 2024 Voting Guide Document). In order to adequately address the threats to our immigrant population, the Catholic Church in the United States needs to revitalize its social teaching ministry. Dylan Corbett suggests that Pope Francis’ “invitation to rethink ministry in a synodal key may represent a path forward.” (America, 2/6/25). He cites the following quote from Pope Francis at the conclusion of the 2024 synod, ‘we do not need a sedentary and defeatist church, but a church that hears the cry of the world – I wish to say this even if some might be scandalized – a church that gets its hands dirty in serving.” In addition to speaking out against the injustices of the Maga mass deportation plan, the church “must renew and rebuild its practice of the social Gospel by taking Pope Francis’ challenge to walk alongside and with those who will be affected.” (Corbett, America, 2/6/25). Corbett adds that, “in practice, this will require visible, concrete action by church leaders at the local level in defense of migrants.” (America, 2/6/25). Catholics must continue to speak out, but we must also learn to walk alongside and with those who are suffering.
John R. Connolly
February 20, 2025