EWTN News portal reports that U.S. Vice President JD Vance stated he could have spoken “more carefully” when he suggested in January 2025 that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was more concerned with “their bottom line” than with immigrants amid the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Cardinal Timothy Dolan had claimed Vance apologized for the remarks, though Vance told The Washington Post he did “not recall exactly what he said” but admitted he “could have made that comment more carefully without going too hard.” Vance emphasized his duty to ensure American safety and prosperity, stating, “I have a different job” than Church leadership, and that he must ask if immigrants “have come into our country legally.” Dolan responded that despite disagreements, Vance is “a very good guy” whom he “enjoys… a lot.” The article presents this exchange as a matter of rhetorical tone and policy conflict within a framework where a government official and a post-conciliar bishops’ conference negotiate their respective roles in a secular society.
Thus, the entire debate is a modernist charade that perpetuates the condemned separation of Church and State, with both parties accepting the false premise that the civil power and the ecclesial body operate in distinct, parallel spheres—a premise that directly contradicts the integral Catholic doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King.
The Heresy of Separation Between Church and State
The foundational error underlying this entire exchange is the tacit acceptance of the separation of Church and State, a heresy solemnly condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors. The article frames the discussion as a policy disagreement between two legitimate, coexisting authorities: the U.S. government and the USCCB. This framing is a direct embrace of Error #55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” The USCCB, as a post-conciliar national bishops’ conference, has no canonical standing in the pre-1958 Church and is a product of the conciliar revolution that dismantled the Church’s hierarchical, universal structure. Its very existence as a political lobbying group that accepts government grants for refugee resettlement violates the Church’s innate right to freedom and independence from secular authority, defined by Pius IX in Errors #19-27. The USCCB’s participation in federal funding programs makes it a subsidiary of the civil power, precisely the “indirect negative power” over religious affairs condemned in Error #41. Vance, by engaging with this body as if it were a legitimate Catholic authority, acknowledges the conciliar sect’s claim to represent Catholicism, thereby participating in the apostasy.
The Denial of Christ’s Social Kingship
Both Vance and Dolan operate within a thoroughly naturalistic framework that excludes the absolute primacy of God’s law and the Social Kingship of Christ. Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas, promulgated in 1925, is unequivocal: “the State must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… the annual celebration of this solemnity will also remind states that not only private individuals, but also rulers and governments have the duty to publicly honor Christ and obey Him.” The encyclical condemns the secularism that “denied Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations” and subjected the Church to secular power. Vance’s statement that he “has a different job” than the Church and must prioritize “the American people” over the “very good people” the Church ministers to is a pure expression of the liberal, secular state’s ideology, where the common good is defined by national interest rather than by the law of Christ. There is no mention of the duty of the State to recognize the Catholic Church as the sole true religion and to mold its laws according to the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Church, as demanded by Quas Primas and the Syllabus (Errors #77-80). Dolan’s focus on “Christian charity” without any reference to the necessity of a state ordered to Christ is a reduction of the Church’s mission to mere philanthropy, a hallmark of Modernism condemned by St. Pius X in Lamentabili sane exitu (Propositions #57-65), which attacks the evolution of doctrine and the subordination of faith to naturalistic progress.
The USCCB as an Instrument of the Conciliar Revolution
The USCCB is not a Catholic body but a key component of the post-conciliar “abomination of desolation.” Its very structure—a democratic, collegial assembly of bishops—embodies the conciliar error of episcopal collegiality, which undermines the papal monarchy and the hierarchical nature of the Church. The USCCB’s engagement in lobbying for immigration policies based on “humanitarian” grounds, while accepting federal funds, is a perfect manifestation of the “Church of the New Advent” that has become an NGO. This aligns with the errors of “modernist clerics” who, as per the analysis criteria, are guilty of apostasy. The USCCB’s silence on the supernatural end of the State—the salvation of souls—and its focus on temporal welfare is a direct betrayal of the Church’s mission to teach, govern, and lead all to eternal happiness, as defined in Quas Primas. The article’s portrayal of this as a simple policy dispute ignores the doctrinal chasm: the true Catholic State would not have an “immigration dispute” with the Church because it would already be bound to enact laws in conformity with the divine law, which requires order, justice, and the protection of the common good, not the relativistic “human rights” discourse that pervades the debate.
The Naturalism of Vance’s Position and Its Incompatibility with Catholic Doctrine
Vance’s position, while nationalist, is fundamentally naturalistic and therefore incompatible with integral Catholicism. His emphasis on “safety and prosperity” for the American people, divorced from the supernatural order, echoes the errors of the Syllabus concerning civil society. Error #58 states: “All the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.” Vance’s concern for “bottom line” and legal status reflects this materialist calculus. More gravely, his acceptance of the USCCB as a moral authority to be “careful” with shows he does not recognize that the true Catholic Church, which subsists in the faithful who profess the integral faith and are led by valid bishops, has no communion with the conciliar sect. A Catholic ruler, according to pre-1958 doctrine, would not “disagree” with Church teaching on immigration; he would enforce it as law, because the Church’s authority to govern nations comes from Christ. The article’s complete silence on the necessity of the State to be Catholic—to recognize the Church’s authority and protect the Catholic faith exclusively—is the gravest accusation. This silence is the hallmark of the “abomination of desolation,” where supernatural matters are systematically excluded from public discourse.
The Symptomatic Collapse of Catholic Language
The vocabulary used in the article—“spirit of charity,” “conflict,” “different job,” “bottom line”—reveals the theological decay of the conciliar epoch. “Charity” is emptied of its supernatural content (the love of God above all, and neighbor for God’s sake) and reduced to natural benevolence. The “conflict” between Church and State is presented as an inevitable, almost desirable, feature of pluralistic societies, whereas in Catholic doctrine, there is no conflict where both powers fulfill their God-given roles: the State subordinates itself to the Church in matters of morality and religion, and the Church prays for and supports the State in its temporal duties. The phrase “different job” is a modernistic denial of the doctrine that all authority comes from God (Rom. 13:1) and that the State’s primary duty is to be an instrument of the Church in leading souls to heaven. This language is symptomatic of the “hermeneutics of continuity” that tries to blend Catholic truth with liberal democracy, a synthesis Pius X condemned as the “synthesis of all errors” in Pascendi Dominici gregis.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject the Modernist Pageant
This article documents nothing less than a pageant of apostasy. Vance, a professed Catholic, engages with the USCCB as if it were the Catholic Church, while Dolan, an archbishop of the conciliar sect, treats Vance as a fellow moral actor in a secular arena. Both ignore the non-negotiable truth that there is no salvation outside the Catholic Church and that the Social Reign of Christ demands the total subjection of all human societies to His law. The true Catholic, adhering to the faith before the revolution of 1958, must reject both the USCCB’s modernist, naturalistic “pastoral” approach and Vance’s secular nationalism. The only solution is the restoration of the Catholic State and the triumph of Christ the King, as foretold in Quas Primas and demanded by the Syllabus. Until the conciliar sect is repudiated and the true Church—suffering in the catacombs—is recognized, such debates will remain futile exercises in the dialectic of apostasy, leading souls further from the unum necessarium: the salvation of their immortal souls in the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
Source:
Vance says he could have spoken ‘more carefully’ about U.S. bishops amid immigration dispute (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 04.03.2026