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To: Strict9
I see suffering, the suffering of the citizens of this country at the hands of invaders. Why can you not Cardinal?

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/thomas-aquinas-was-no-citizen-of-the-world/

"snip....."Medieval theologian and philosopher Thomas Aquinas—building upon certain Aristotelian precepts—called these concentric circles of responsibilities the “Order of Charity.” The explication for this can be found in Question 26 of the Secunda Secundae of his Summa Theologiae. By “charity,” Aquinas means love, understood not in a romantic sense, but in the broader, transcendent senses of devotion, duty, and self-gift. There must be a hierarchy of how one expresses these manifold qualities of love, says Aquinas, because “wherever there is a principle, there must necessarily also be order of some kind…. Consequently there must necessarily be some order in things loved out of charity.”

As a Catholic theologian, Aquinas unsurprisingly identifies God as the preeminent object of man’s love. But this hierarchy also has broad implications for the ordering of society, beginning with the family and working outwards. Aquinas proposes two general principles for making determinations in reference to charity: from the object loved and from the union caused. He writes: “a thing is loved more in two ways: first because it has the character of a more excellent good, secondly by reason of a closer connection.” In other words, we love certain persons more either because of the nature of who or what they are, or because we enjoy with them some deeper union. We love the virtuous person more than the scoundrel, and we love our parents, our spouses, and our children over strangers, because we share deep, close bonds with them."

From the family, we can apply the Order of Charity outwards. Aristotle observes: “it is our duty to render to each class of people such respect as is natural and appropriate.” Aquinas assents: “we ought to love some neighbors more than others.” For example, “some neighbors are connected with us by their natural origin, a connection which cannot be severed, since that origin makes them to be what they are.” Just as there is an indelible givenness to our family, so there is with members of our communities and our nation that require the prioritization of our affections. Aquinas says, “Since our neighbor is more visible to us, he is the first lovable object we meet with.” In other words, because of his proximity to us in time and space, we love our fellow countryman before citizens of other nations. Thus, “in matters concerning relations between citizens, we should prefer our fellow-citizens, and on the battlefield our fellow-soldiers.”

I think that this is actually something that J.D. Vance Believes and has discussed. I'll go with Aquinas rather than Liberation Theology and Globalism.

81 posted on 05/08/2025 12:28:04 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Thanks, Pete.


87 posted on 05/08/2025 12:39:00 PM PDT by PsyCon
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