The Rev. Greg Morgan offers one in a series of articles on contemporary trends in America for people of faith.
J.D. Vance, Pope Leo and St. Augustine: in conversation
(Based on Randy Boyagoda, “Inspiring a Pope and a Politician: What can a fifth-century text by St. Augustine tell us about the two most powerful American Catholics?” The New York Times Book Review, p. 18, August 31, 2025)
There’s something intriguing about the idea of our Vice President discussing Augustinian theology with Pope Leo. Vance must surely have looked forward to having a new pope who actually represented the United States as the first American to occupy the position. But sometimes one’s enthusiasm for a new experience can lead to a posture which almost guarantees misunderstanding or even conflict. In this instance, Vance had chosen to debate a theological topic with the supreme head of the Roman church —- this made the encounter doubly difficult. Nevertheless, here is the gist of their encounter.
The theology of St. Augustine is well known; it has played a critical role in defining the mission of the Christian church in the west. Pope Leo not only comes to the papacy from an order of priests whose work was outlined from the beginning by Augustine but also includes extensive mission work with Peruvian communities as an outgrowth of the original mission of the order. Vance, of course, is not a cleric or an expert on theology but is, interestingly, a recent yet genuine convert to Catholicism which naturally accounts for his insistence upon speaking directly to the pope. However, he chose to use the opportunity to present the case for the Trump doctrine as a modern-day version of the overall teaching of Jesus on the mission he had been sent to fulfill in the world. In other words, he retained his stance as a campaigner as well as his position as spokesperson and apologist for the President in taking the concept of ordo amoris (“ordered loves”) in the work of St. Augustine and using it to justify his own interpretation which emphasized prioritizing commitments to family and nation over more distant entities such as migrants and people in other countries generally. When Vance articulated this view back in February, Pope Francis admonished Vance in a letter to U.S. Catholic Bishops and Leo actually rebuked him directly (“J.D. Vance is wrong. Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”)
Augustine’s masterpiece, City of God, is the highly esteemed work of a 5th century cleric which concerns the question of why the Roman Empire was falling apart at the time he was writing the famous book; City of God has been as influential as the Bible, St. Paul and the works of Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas, in defining what constitutes the obligation Christians have in light of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Augustine criticizes those who seek and use power in this world “absent any genuine Christian sense of what to do with it.” Despite the fact that people in subsequent ages have looked back with awe and amazement at Rome’s great accomplishments, Augustine, from the perspective of the fifth century’s upheavals, saw little to inspire or emulate in the empire’s long history. In his view, Rome was never great in the first place, so why would anyone wish to revive its legacy? He saw civil wars, murderous factionalizing, political instability, and perpetual immiseration of the masses, rather than a great imperial monument to service and other values that support communal life. He saw the leaders of Rome “abusing their untrammeled power”; they sought public acclaim and private gain “while claiming it was about gods and national greatness.”
Out of a Christian vision of purpose, free will, and fallibility Augustine saw the outline of the City of God. Christians can never fully be the citizens they are created to be until they reach the actual City of God in heaven. In the meantime, they live in the City of Man. He argued that those who believe life ends here and does not continue beyond death want to maximize the goods available to them in this world while also avoiding harm whenever possible in order to enjoy their bounty. By contrast, Christianity discourages domination for its own sake and encourages a more detached disposition while living in the City of Man. Christians understand that they are aways-ready pilgrims who must journey toward an eternal end and citizens who must respond to the immediate demands of a messy, fallen world. Augustine establishes a hierarchy of human associations to further the imperative of loving others: home, citizenry and the larger world being the three key categories. Vance’s take on the President’s roadmap emphasizes the first two, to the diminishment if not exclusion of the third (the globe or the larger world). It was in this context that Leo and Francis objected to the priorities which appeared to leave out of consideration most of the world and its people, admittedly a fairly significant share of the reality we all share.
Today, in a very divided America, most citizens would likely have a strong preference for one or the other of two starkly contrasting visions (the emphasis on home and fellow citizens at the expense of the larger world or equal emphasis on all three), in part because City of God can be used in the service of either view. But Vance has made clear his preference which differs markedly from that of Augustine. It is also clear that the current pope (along with his immediate predecessor) much prefers the option of emphasizing all three of the associations as delineated by Augustine. It’s a pretty startling contrast, as we should have come to expect at this point in our divided nation, a powerful contrast because either course of action has consequences, some of which are quite serious. And it is extraordinary to note that 1600 years after the publication of City of God, the alternatives do not seem to have changed, nor have the implications been clearer. It certainly makes for an intriguing debate from the safe distance of 1600 years for America’s two most powerful and influential Catholics and the sainted Augustine.
Fr. Greg