The Catholic Church can stop ICE (also the Pope should excommunicate JD Vance).

JD Vance is a heretic. He follows (misinterprets) a medieval Catholic idea known as ordo amoris, or “order of love.” Vance believes that moral obligation is ranked by hierarchy—family first, then countrymen and Nation, and only then the rest of the world (in other words refugees can go fuck themselves.)¹

On its face, Vance’s “doctrine” is common sense. Yes, you’re morally obligated to make sure your young, dependent children stay alive, before you go worry about global affairs. But Vance villainously distorts this common sense to suggest that a true Catholic faith is nationalistic at its core. The foreign “other” is an afterthought, or more closely hewing to administration policy, a vermin enemy to be purged from the white Christian body politic.

Pope Francis, before his brief meeting with Vance led to his death, was like, “Um, no.”

"Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups," he wrote in a nicely passive-aggressive response that didn’t name Vance, but was clearly pointed at him. "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the 'Good Samaritan'

“The act of deporting people … damages the dignity of many men and women … and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” the Pope has also said.

Pope Leo has also spoken out against deportations.

If Pope Leo excommunicated JD Vance for being a heretic, it would be such a killer “take-that-you-retarded-little-bitch” manosphere move that it might land him a spot on Joe Rogan.

***

On Friday, the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Michael Pham, marched to a federal courthouse to protest an ICE raid. “We know that migrants and refugees find themselves in the difficult predicament of being called to appear, which is what the government asks of them, and then being given orders for expedited removal from our country,” he said. Pham was appointed by Pope Leo.

“It has been experienced that the presence of faith leaders makes a difference in how the migrants are treated,” Pham added. 15 other priests accompanied him.

“Unfortunately, it will most likely not change the outcome,' he said.

But it did.

The ICE agents retreated when they saw the priests. No arrests were made. The asylum seekers who had hearings that day scheduled their next appointments.

A shocking number of lawmakers have been manhandled and arrested at protests. The “not jailing your political opponents” part of Democracy was tossed aside with little fuss. Vance, charmingly, who had worked with one of the lawmakers who was arrested, Alex Padilla, smirkingly called him “Jose Padilla.” He dismissed his interruption of Botox Nazi (Botoxi?) Kristi Noem’s speech as an empty stunt. And ICE certainly doesn’t mind man-handling U.S. citizens, with an apparent zeal for throwing tiny women around.

But Catholic priests in their full religious regalia? I think if a nationwide campaign of Priests and pastors and Rabbis and other religious leaders kept showing up to court houses it might really alter the dynamic of masked ICE thugs snatching people from their scheduled, legal court appearances.

The largest minority group working for ICE is Hispanic. Roughly 19 percent. A large proportion of Latinos are Catholic. 43%. That number is down from 67% in 2010, reflecting the cross-faith trend of young people losing their religion. But that doesn’t mean the role of Catholicism has nosedived in communities overall—older people still tend to be religious.

Let’s say you, ICE agent, doesn’t go to church every Sunday. You still might think twice about grinding a Priest’s face into the sidewalk, given what would happen if your grandmother knew (she’d die, like the Pope did after meeting Vance). And 43% is still a high number. Whatever. I’m wildly speculating, I know. But the fact remains that some Catholic priests showed up and for the first time it worked and ICE retreated and didn’t make arrests.

I’ve written before about how the Bulgarian Orthodox Church helped save Bulgaria’s Jews. Check it out.