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Trump’s Nationalism Is Consistent With Catholic Social Doctrine
The American Spectator ^ | June 21, 2017 | Robert C. Koons

Posted on 06/21/2017 1:38:10 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Catholic voters know better than their bishops, it would seem.

Leading American bishops have complained about the “harshness” of Trump’s campaign rhetoric and called for an end to deportation of aliens until the “broken” system can be fixed. Yet, despite this opposition from the Church’s hierarchy, Trump won 52% of the Catholic vote (to Hillary’s 45%), a historic margin for a Republican. How to explain this contradiction?

Real simple. The laity get it better than the bishops. Trump’s nationalism is fully consistent with Catholic social doctrine as it has developed in the last 126 years. It is the leaders of the Church who have disregarded key features of that doctrine in order to sign on to American progressivism, including an unqualified hostility to immigration law enforcement.

Under Catholic doctrine, the leaders of each state have the sacred responsibility to promote the common good, which can be defined as providing the conditions necessary for a people to live together justly and prosperously. And whose well-being are we talking about? The citizens of the state. That’s what Pope Leo XIII said in Rerum Novarum and Pope John XXIII in Pacem in Terris.

The great theologian of the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas, explained that our duties are positional and depend for their intensity on the person to whom they’re owed. In Summa Theologiae, in Part II-II, Question 26, article 6, Aquinas teaches that we “ought to love one neighbor more than another.” It is right and proper that we should love our family members more than unrelated people, and fellow-citizens of our country more than aliens (Question 31, article 3).

The Church has long recognized that this implies the state’s right to regulate immigration for the sake of national security. Civic authority “should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1909.) “Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions…” (Paragraph 2241) Trump’s executive order, focused on seven countries recognized as stateless regions without adequate safeguards against the movement of terrorists, falls well within these bounds.

The Church also teaches that the state has a special responsibility, as Pope Leo put it, “to promote to the utmost the interest of the poor.” Unskilled, working-class citizens are vulnerable to the loss of income and dignity from unbridled competition provided by unauthorized immigrants. In Quadragesimo Anno (1931), Pope Pius XI insisted that, “the right ordering of immigration is essential if we are to promote job opportunities for citizens that pay a living wage under conditions of dignity, and if we are to sustain a generous welfare system.

Finally, a nation has the right to protect its own civic institutions. As Aquinas recognized in De Regno, “Intercourse with foreigners, according to Aristotle’s Politics, is particularly harmful to civic custom. For it is inevitable that strangers, brought up under other laws and customs, will in many cases act as the citizens are not wont to act and thus, since the citizens are drawn by their example to act likewise, their own civic life is upset.” For Aquinas, it is political habits that matter, not merely approval of abstract principles. Unbridled immigration threatens the continuity of political habits that is essential to the survival of a nation.

Catholic thought recognizes the responsibility of rich countries to be compassionate toward refugees and toward those without access to sufficient natural resources. And the United States has indeed been generous, accepting 10 million refugees in the last thirty years, and tens of millions of additional legal immigrants. But this responsibility has limits. Pope John XXIII noted that the duty of the state to admit needy immigrants should be limited “as the good of their own community, rightly considered, permits.”

All sides in the current debate recognize the same principles — that we have obligations to be generous to refugees and others in desperate straits, and that these obligations are limited by leaders’ responsibility to give primary weight to the well-being of their own citizens. And the lay Catholics who voted for Trump seem to understand their Church’s teaching better than their bishops.


TOPICS: Government; Politics; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: bishops; catholics; nationalism; trump
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1 posted on 06/21/2017 1:38:11 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Speaking as a Third Degree Knight of Columbus, one of the core values of the K of C is patriotism.


2 posted on 06/21/2017 1:41:37 AM PDT by mkmensinger
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Not just the bishops. The Pope. I haven’t seen Trump kissing any gay couples, or posing with any tranny couples or abortionists. Also, the Pope is appointing abortion and euthanasia enthusiasts, while Trump appoints pro-lifers.


3 posted on 06/21/2017 2:02:29 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: mkmensinger

In the catholic schools I attended, not only did the nuns teach us patriotism, they taught us the meaning of “legal” vs “illegal”. They also taught us consequences & both lessons were re-enforced at home.


4 posted on 06/21/2017 2:12:04 AM PDT by FES0844 (G)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The bishops are raking in $100,000,000/year In government money to “resettle” Muslim and Mexican invaders.

Or were, under Obama.


5 posted on 06/21/2017 2:20:47 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Excellent, informative article.


6 posted on 06/21/2017 2:45:47 AM PDT by sneakers (It's DEMOCRAT - and not DemocratIC. There's nothing Democratic about the DEMOCRAT party)
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To: Arthur McGowan

I’m convinced Catholic Charities has become just another alynskyite, left wing political agitation group


7 posted on 06/21/2017 2:49:47 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: mkmensinger
I was raised a Catholic (baptized, first communion, Catholic CCD, confirmed, altar boy, said rosary every day, visited seminaries in high school while thinking of becoming a priest, married in the church, Mass every week, Catholic retreats, Catholic adult education, etc).

I became a born again evangelical Christian in my 30s when I asked Jesus into my heart. It was the most profound encounter in my life.

Today, the thought of filtering what is "right" vs. "wrong" or "legal" vs. "illegal" through the lens of Pope Francis, the Vatican, and Catholicism in general is unthinkable to me. It would be akin to asking the DNC to give me moral advice and guidance.

God's Word through the Bible is probably on the shelves of many Catholic homes, gathering dust. That book is God's living source of truth, wisdom, and salvation. And Jesus is alive and accessible to anyone who knocks on the door.

8 posted on 06/21/2017 2:54:07 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: PGR88

The USCCB is an Alinskyite agitation group. Their staffers are repeatedly caught with their hands in the abortion cookie jar. They just can’t help themselves. CCHD, Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services, etc.

The staff of the USCCB comes from Democrat offices on Capitol Hill.

It’s a cesspool.

The next Catholic Pope (not likely to be the next Pope) will abolish national bishops’ conference. Our own was created (The National Catholic Warfare Conference!) to support Wilson, the draft, and getting into WWI. All in open defiance of Pope Benedict XV.


9 posted on 06/21/2017 2:56:47 AM PDT by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: SkyPilot

I rejoice with you that you have found your path, my FRiend. I agree with you about Francis. As far as I’m concerned, Benedict is the Pope. I don’t know who the other guy is. I ignore him. But for me, the Catholic Church remains the path for me. God Bless.


10 posted on 06/21/2017 3:19:06 AM PDT by mkmensinger
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To: mkmensinger

And you as well.


11 posted on 06/21/2017 3:29:27 AM PDT by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: PGR88
has become

Catholic Charities, and Campaign for Human Development, have been Alinskyite since the 60s. Outside of the taxpayers, the Catholic Church has been the source of the most Alinsky Organizers ... always... in any decade since the 1930s.

12 posted on 06/21/2017 4:20:44 AM PDT by spintreebob
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The great theologian of the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas, explained that our duties are positional and depend for their intensity on the person to whom they’re owed. In Summa Theologiae, in Part II-II, Question 26, article 6, Aquinas teaches that we “ought to love one neighbor more than another.” It is right and proper that we should love our family members more than unrelated people, and fellow-citizens of our country more than aliens (Question 31, article 3).


13 posted on 06/21/2017 4:56:26 AM PDT by Mercat (Everytime an old man farts, a butterfly dies.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Pope Pius XI stated in the 1930’s that “no one can at the same time be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true socialist”.

Ultimately this is because we each as individuals are responsible for our own actions, including almsgiving that is required (sermon on the mount) by Christians and Jews.

Shared goods within a religious order in the name of Christ is not the same thing as having an elite powerful government redistributing wealth using its own secular atheist criteria.

By the way, the word nationalism is a suspect word and the word patriotism is a far better description. Nationalism implies Hitler who wanted to take over the world. Patriotism means one loves ones own country and wants the best for it without the connotation that a country feels the need to take over others.


14 posted on 06/21/2017 5:11:19 AM PDT by stonehouse01
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The Catholic vote for Trump could also be explained by Shillary's negative comments toward religion on the campaign trail as revealed by wikileaks.

That as many Catholics voted for Shillary is still alarming though.

15 posted on 06/21/2017 7:20:03 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; SkyPilot

Most decent people of any religion agree, or at least see the point -— I’ve noticed -— when I say that the world would be a MUCH better place if the Catholics acted like Catholics.


16 posted on 06/21/2017 7:33:35 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Aquinas teaches that we “ought to love one neighbor more than another.” It is right and proper that we should love our family members more than unrelated people, and fellow-citizens of our country more than aliens (Question 31, article 3).

This points out an important point about the whole "love thy neighbor" statement, in that it's often taken out of context. Here's the context:

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

You neighbors whom you are commanded to love, in this context, are not the people who happen to live near you. Your neighbors are the people who you can rely upon when you are in peril.
17 posted on 06/21/2017 12:26:37 PM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Big government is attractive to those who think that THEY will be in control of it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; ...

Catholic ping!


18 posted on 06/24/2017 3:15:17 PM PDT by NYer ("You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears." James 4:14)
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To: mkmensinger
#2 mkmensinger wrote: "Speaking as a Third Degree Knight of Columbus, one of the core values of the K of C is patriotism." I am proud to say that I too, I have been Knighted KOC 3RD. Of course, you are correct, Patriotism these days is a thing of the past for most Americans. It will be an uphill battle to convince even one. You are obligated to pass on your knowledge to the young'uns. Win, Lose, or Draw...
19 posted on 06/24/2017 3:47:21 PM PDT by heterosupremacist (Domine Iesu Christe, Filius Dei, miserere me peccatorem!)
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To: SkyPilot

You are still a Catholic since you were baptized a Catholic. Just not an active one.


20 posted on 06/24/2017 4:11:50 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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