Post by George Niles Mekeel

Vice President JD Vance asked the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality” amid Pope Leo XIV’s Iran war concerns. Catholic theologians say war and other public policies are “matters of morality.” Joseph Capizzi, dean and ordinary professor of moral theology and ethics at The Catholic University of America, told EWTN News that Vance is “just wrong” to draw a line between matters of morality and matters of public policy. “For people to be moral, they need a good, healthy, stable political community,” he said. “All of us, men, women, children, priest and religious, lay, and so on have a stake in the moral good of the political communities we inhabit.” The Church, Capizzi said, has been around for more than 2,000 years, and “her experience, her wisdom, her tradition are critical resources for helping us live in good communities.” “The plea that bishops and popes and priests should ‘stick to morals and avoid politics’ is old, and rightly rejected by all Catholics, lay or otherwise,” he said. “Itʼs what many relied on in the past to try to quiet Catholics about immigration, abortion, poverty, and many other issues. The overlap of politics and morality is expansive.” Taylor Patrick O’Neill, theology professor at Thomas Aquinas College, told EWTN News he thinks Vance’s comment “was very uncareful.” “There is no amoral arena,” he said. “There’s no aspect to our … life where moral aspects don’t come into play.” O’Neill said the pope’s role to speak on matters of faith and morals “includes politics,” adding: “It would be a mistake to think that public policy does not touch upon the moral.” The Holy Father’s statements, he said, are part of his role “to guide and to teach,” and if Leo were to avoid the Iran war, “it would be quite odd … and not in step with the tradition of the papacy” because it touches on “the faith and the morals of believing people worldwide.” O’Neill said the pope’s role is not to “dictate public policy” like “directing the [government] in regard to what sort of military formations to use.” But he said the pope’s role is to explain that “certain policies are intrinsically contrary to human flourishing and dignity” and to comment on “moral truths that should affect policy.” Ron Bolster, dean of the School of Theology and Philosophy at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, told EWTN News he wishes Vance “hadn’t taken his disagreement with the Holy Father publicly” and said it is not helpful to set up a dichotomy between the moral realm and the public policy realm. “One would certainly hope that you would bring the Gospel to bear on public policy,” he said. “I would like to think [Vance] knows better than that, but his position is not very uncommon.” A role of the pope, Bolster said, is to “try to bring public servants to a better appreciation for how the Gospel would be advanced in their policies” and to help and guide them “when they’re out of line in that regard.”