J. D. Vance and the Pursuit of American Happiness

C.C. Pecknold is interviewed by Peter Jamison of The Washington Post on Vice President Vance as Christian statesman, and the meaning of disputes over Ordo Amoris, Immigration Reform, and the USCCB.

Generally, what are your thoughts on Vice President Vance's public profile so far as a Catholic in the White House, and his Christian witness as a prominent, national elected official?

I am very biased, but it strikes me as obvious and reasonable to state that we have never had a more compelling Catholic statesman in the White House. We will be comparing J.D. Vance to John F. Kennedy for many years, not only for their similarities but also for their deep differences as Catholic statesmen. They share, of course, manly vigor and rhetorical power. But where JFK held his faith in abeyance, with Catholic principles subordinated to the rules of liberal order, JDV takes a much more traditional approach which understands that the duties of a Christian statesman are duties which require Catholic principles to inform good governance, and not to be separated from it. To win high office in America at the peak liberalism’s power meant conformity to the liberal arrangement in which Christian faith belonged to a private and personal realm, and religion played no role in public decision-making. Octagenarian Catholic politicians like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi exemplified the weakness of this approach as they showed up at Mass as private persons, but voted against the Church’s moral code in public. The Vice President represents the opposite of this liberal standard. He has stated very clearly that religious liberty is not just about legal safeguards, but it’s about supporting and encouraging faith in God. And he’s not been shy about expressing that faith in a way which actually illuminates government policies such as we have seen in his appeal to the ordo amoris for explaining immigration policy.