It feels a bit facile and tasteless to say that the first American Pope, Leo XIV, has been elected to counter the influence of Trumpism. Popes often change in the role and, since Catholicism is a religion and not an electoral party, the servants of the servants of God tend to defy political caricature.
Consider the limited evidence, however. Following an unusual social media spat between, of all people, the podcaster Rory Stewart and Vice President J.D. Vance about the Christian obligation to love (ordo amoris), in relation to the subject of immigration, the then Cardinal Robert Prevost posted an article entitled ‘J.D. Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others’. The article, by a woman called Kat Armas, attempts to dismantle Vance’s argument that Christians should ‘love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus and prioritise the rest of the world.
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