(RNS) — Vice President J.D. Vance has done what the U.S. bishops have been incapable of doing: He has made their position on migrants and refugees national news.
I have not seen such a fortuitous political blunder since General Alexander Haig, the Catholic chief of staff to President Nixon, attacked the bishops for their pastoral letter on peace, which brought it to national attention.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President!
In an interview on “Face the Nation,” Vice President Vance expressed disappointment as a Catholic that the U.S. Catholic bishops are not supporting the new administration’s actions against migrants and refugees. He said the bishops’ support for refugees was motivated by their desire to get money from federal programs aimed at helping refugees.
“I think that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to actually look in the mirror a little bit and recognize that when they receive over $100 million to help resettle illegal immigrants, are they worried about humanitarian concerns? Or are they actually worried about their bottom line? We’re going to enforce immigration law. We’re going to protect the American people,” Vance told host Margaret Brennan, before going on to imply that the bishops did not care about children being trafficked for sex.
“I believe the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, if they’re worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden,” he said.
Within the day, the bishops released a statement saying that federal funds do not cover the full costs of their programs helping refugees, let alone show a profit.
Thanks to the vice president, the national press may finally realize the Catholic bishops care about something other than abortion.
In the past, when Democrats were in the White House, a favorite religion story was the conflict over abortion between the U.S. Catholic bishops and the Democratic administration.
Ignored were all the areas where the bishops agree with or are more liberal than Democratic politicians, such as on expanding health care, education, housing and social services to help the poor and marginalized.
For example, the bishops support universal health care, even for migrants in the U.S. without legal status. No Democratic politician would say this.
The fights over abortion led many Americans, including reporters, to see the Catholic bishops as partisan advocates for Republicans like so many evangelical ministers. But the Catholic bishops advocate on a wide range of public policies and do not endorse political candidates or parties.
True, some bishops say abortion is the only issue that should guide Catholic voters, but that has never been the position of the Vatican or of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Most bishops avoid the appearance of endorsing parties or candidates.
The next four years are going to be a rocky time between the Catholic bishops and the Trump administration.