Since his nomination because the Republican candidate for Vice President, the main focus has increasingly shifted to JD Vance’s religious views And how they connect to his politics.
Vance has converted to Catholicism and seems to have the identical political positions which many American Catholic conservatives represent: they oppose abortion, support the normal family, are skeptical of liberal immigration policies and efforts to combat climate change, and support economic tariffs.
Some news reports have also highlighted Vance’s obvious reference to Catholic Integralismalthough Vance himself has not addressed the problem publicly.
So now may be a very good time to ask: What is Catholic integralism?
What is Catholic Integralism?
The initial position of Catholic integralism is that there are two spheres of human life: the spiritual and the secular or worldly. Catholic integralists argue that the spiritual and the secular needs to be integrated – with the spiritual being the dominant partner. This signifies that religious values, especially Christian ones, should guide government policy.
Catholic integralists disagree about how this integration between the spiritual and the secular might be achieved. Some argue that Christians, especially Catholics, must have an advisory role in government and lead by exampleOther Catholic integralists need a understandable approach to prepare society in response to Christian principles.
Catholic integralists share a Opposition to liberalism. In general, liberalism is known as a political philosophy that supports the limitation of presidency authority and the constitutional protection of the rights of people and minorities. But Catholic integralists argue that liberalism is unable to deep types of human community since it values individualism and freedom above all else.
The irony from the attitude of Catholic integralism is that liberalism shouldn’t be really that liberal. Instead, liberalism demands and enforces Compliance with a certain value systemHow Tolerance and pluralismwhich prevents the emergence of a social order during which people can realize a greater, God-given meaning for his or her lives.
Catholic criticism
There are strong criticism from Catholic Integralism coming from each inside the Catholic Church and beyond.
The document of the Second Vatican Council:human dignity“, affirms that the State Protection of non secular freedom for everybody, not only Catholics. This is a position that some Catholic integralists see as problematic.
Other critics argued that Catholic integralism is “unreasonable“ and impracticable because society will depend on the cooperation of people who inevitably have different ideas and values.
Vance and the views of the integralists
Looking at Vance's current political opinions, a few of them appear to be quite consistent with the views of Catholic integralists. For example, Catholic integralists might justify their opposition to immigration and migration by believing that society must be more homogeneous so as to have a typical value system.
In addition, Vance recently called to criminalize gender-affirming look after minors. In a way, Vance expresses the overall Catholic belief that sex and gender differences are willed by God – a degree that Pope Francis has done so too. But the enforcement of this religious belief by law might be a Catholic-integralist position that society must respect”Natural law“ or the order of the universe as supposedly created by God.
Catholic integralism is currently fascinated by clear minority by Catholic academics and political conservatives within the English-speaking world. But if Vance is elected vice chairman, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when he clarifies – or expands – his obvious ties to Catholic integralism.
image credit : theconversation.com