What is ‘ordo amoris?’ Vice President JD Vance invokes this medieval Catholic concept

Vice President JD Vance recently cited medieval Catholic theology in justifying the immigration crackdown under President Donald Trump.

“Just google ‘ordo amoris,’” he posted Jan. 30 on the social media platform X.

He posted this in reply to criticism over statements he made in a Fox News interview: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, 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 prioritize the rest of the world.” He claimed that the “far left” has inverted that.

Vance posted that the concept is “basic common sense” because one’s moral duties to one’s children outweigh those “to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away.”

What is ‘ordo amoris’?

It’s been translated as “order of love” or “order of charity.” It’s a concept discussed by St. Augustine, an ancient theologian, who said everyone and everything should be loved in its own proper way.

“Now he is a man of just and holy life who … neither loves what he ought not to love, nor fails to love what he ought to love, nor loves that more which ought to be loved less, nor loves that equally which ought to be loved either less or more, nor loves that less or more which ought to be loved equally,” Augustine wrote.

“Further, all men are to be loved equally,” Augustine wrote. “But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.”

St. Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th century, expounded on this theme while also noting it depends on circumstances.

“We ought to be most beneficent towards those who are most closely connected with us,” he wrote. “And yet this may vary according to the various requirements of time, place, or matter in hand: because in certain cases one ought, for instance, to succor a stranger, in extreme necessity, rather than one’s own father, if he is not in such urgent need.”

The modern catechism of the Catholic Church briefly refers to the “order of charity” where it cites obligations to honor one’s parents and be good citizens.

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