在底特律最近的一场市政厅会议上，副总统JD·万斯面对一个直击他自称信奉的天主教信仰核心的问题：他如何能将移民与海关执法局（ICE）对待家庭的方式与福音相协调？
At a recent town hall in Detroit, Vice President JD Vance faced a question that went to the heart of the Catholic faith he says guides him: How can he reconcile the treatment of families by Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the Gospel?
圣母圣心仆人修女会的南希·西尔维斯特修女描述了她们在南部边境的工作，以及孩子们回家发现父母不见了所承受的创伤。随后她询问万斯，如何能从“我们想要遵循的那种价值观”出发，为ICE官员的行为辩护。万斯赞扬ICE特工是爱国者。他仅略略承认“搞砸了”的官员应受调查和起诉，却未正视被ICE特工杀害的美国人，或死于ICE羁押中的被拘留者。
Sister Nancy Sylvester of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, described her group’s work at the southern border and the trauma children endure when they come home to find their parents gone. Then she asked Vance how he could justify ICE officers’ conduct “in terms of the kind of values we want to live by.”Vance praised ICE agents as patriots. He offered only a passing acknowledgment that officers who “screw up” should be investigated and prosecuted, without grappling with the Americans killed by ICE agents or the detainees who have died in ICE custody.
这场市政厅会议因万斯在特朗普腐败问题和伊朗战争中美军阵亡问题上的支支吾吾而引发更多关注。但他对西尔维斯特修女的回答尤为耐人寻味：当政府的行动与他频繁援引的天主教教义发生冲突时，万斯愿意将那些教义搁置一旁。
The town hall drew more attention for the way in which Vance stumbled over questions about Trump’s corruption and the deaths of service members in the war in Iran. But his answer to Sister Sylvester was especially revealing: When the administration’s actions collide with the Catholic teachings he frequently invokes, Vance is willing to set those teachings aside.
作为一名前神学院学生，我发现她的提问与他的回答之间的鸿沟令人深感不安。
As a former seminarian, I found the gap between her question and his answer deeply troubling.
首先，万斯在其政治生涯中屡屡将其天主教信仰置于核心位置。仅今年，他就出版了第二部回忆录《共融》，详述了他皈依天主教的过程以及信仰如何塑造其世界观。然而，今年早些时候，当特朗普莫名其妙地与首位美国籍教皇发生争执时，这位副总统竟厚颜无耻地表示，“最好让梵蒂冈专注于道德事务”，“让美国总统专心制定美国公共政策”。
First of all, Vance has frequently centered his Catholic faith throughout his political career. Just this year, he published his second memoir,“Communion,”detailing his conversion to Catholicism and how it informs his worldview. And yet earlier this year, when Trump was inexplicably feuding with the first American pope, the vice president had the gall to say that “it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality,” and “let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.”
尽管该政府一再把信仰事务与政府事务描述为不可分割地交织在一起。就在几个月前，万斯在“转折点美国”组织的一次活动中哀叹最高法院维护政教分离，称“我认为这是一个可怕的错误，我们至今仍在为此承担后果”。尽管该政府大肆宣扬保护宗教自由，实际上却将锋芒对准了像西尔维斯特修女这样的虔诚侍奉者。白宫急于以非司法手段将无证移民驱逐出境，使其直接与信仰人士发生对抗。
That’s despite this administration repeatedly presenting matters of faith and matters of government as irrevocably entwined. Just months earlier, Vance lamented the Supreme Court upholding the separation of church and state, saying at a Turning Point USA event“I think it was a terrible mistake, and we’re still paying for the consequences of it today.”For all its bluster about protecting religious freedom, this administration has actually targeted faithful servants like Sister Sylvester. The haste of this White House to extrajudicially purge the country of undocumented immigrants has put it in direct confrontation with people of faith.
这让人想起万斯本该多花些时间研读的另一本书。在《马太福音》第25章中，耶稣说在审判日，欢迎陌生人的人将被迎入上帝的国度。他将自己与那些需要食物、住所、照料和陪伴的人认同。我们对他们脆弱性的回应，便成为我们对祂回应的衡量标准。
Which brings to mind another book Vance should have spent a bit more time with. In Matthew 25, Jesus says that on Judgment Day, those who welcomed the stranger will be welcomed into the kingdom of God. He identifies Himself with people who need food, shelter, care and companionship. Our response to their vulnerability becomes a measure of our response to Him.
去年在芝加哥，天主教团体起诉政府，要求获得在布罗德维尤移民与海关执法局设施为被拘留者提供牧灵关怀的权利。在新泽西州，年长的天主教修女们在德莱尼大厅外组织抗议，反对移民与海关执法局拘留者的死亡。修女们也在万斯的家乡俄亥俄州抗议，因为这个白宫反复将海地移民非人化，并剥夺他们的合法身份。
Last year in Chicago, Catholic groups sued the administration for the right to minister to detainees at a Broadview ICE facility. In New Jersey, elderly Catholic nuns have organized protests outside of Delaney Hall against the deaths of ICE detainees. Nuns have also been protesting in Vance’s home state of Ohio, as Haitian immigrants repeatedly dehumanized by this White House see their legal status ripped away.
这些抗议之所以如此广泛，是因为天主教会在接待移民、关怀穷人和拥抱陌生人方面的教义是明确无误的。
These protests are so widespread because the Catholic Church is unequivocal in its teachings about hospitality for the immigrant, charity for the poor and embrace of the stranger.
特朗普的移民行动让政府与认真对待这些教义的信徒直接对立。在某些情况下，甚至压制了他们的宗教崇拜自由。
Trump’s immigration actions have put the administration in direct conflict with people of faith who take these teachings seriously. In some cases, it has even suppressed their ability to worship.
人的尊严不取决于公民身份。一个人的移民身份可以决定该人是否拥有留在该国的合法权利，但不能决定该人是否值得受到同情对待。
Human dignity does not depend on citizenship. A person’s immigration status can determine whether that person has a legal right to remain in this country. It cannot determine whether that person deserves to be treated with compassion.
同情心并非天主教教义之外的东西；它是教义的要求。教会领袖针对突袭行动已表明了这一立场。
Compassion is not separate from Catholic teaching; it is a demand of it. Church leaders have made that clear in response to the raids.
去年，圣贝纳迪诺教区在移民执法人员在其两处财产上实施拘留后，免除了信徒参加弥撒的义务，并指出特朗普的“暴徒”“不分青红皂白地抓捕兄弟姐妹，不尊重他们享有正当程序的权利，也不尊重他们作为天主子女的尊严。”
Last year, the Diocese of San Bernardino lifted the obligation to attend mass after immigration agents carried out detentions on two of its properties, noting that Trump’s thugs were “seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God.”
仅几个月后，美国天主教主教们猛烈抨击特朗普白宫，因为其突袭行动彻底颠覆了教会生活，“不仅动摇了特定移民的生活，也动摇了整个家庭、企业、儿童的生活，以及整个社区、邻里的生活。”就在几个月前，移民执法人员在得克萨斯州麦卡伦逮捕了一名正身着修女服前往参加弥撒的尼日利亚修女。他们夺走了她的玫瑰经，并将她拘留、监禁。
Just months later, U.S. Catholic bishops blasted the Trump White House after its raids completely upended church life, “destabilizing the life of the particular immigrant, but whole families, businesses, the life of children, whole communities, neighborhoods.”Just a matter of months ago, immigration agents arrested a Nigerian nun in McAllen, Texas, as she was walking to Mass in her habit. They took her rosary and detained and imprisoned her.
万斯对西尔维斯特修女的回应尤为令人愤慨，尤其是他补充了关于有义务起诉滥用职权执法人员的评论。
Vance’s response to Sister Sylvester was especially galling when he added the comment about an obligation to prosecute agents who abuse their position.
特朗普政府不仅拒绝对杀害雷妮·古德和亚历克斯·普雷蒂等美国人的执法人员提起联邦指控，还主动拒绝了这样做的呼吁，为了三十块银币出卖了保守主义的小政府原则，宣称蒙面联邦特工可以杀害美国人而无需承担任何后果。
The Trump administration didn’t just refuse to pursue federal charges against agents who killed Americans like Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They actively rejected calls to do so, betraying the small-government principles of conservatism for 30 pieces of silver to say that masked federal agents can kill Americans with no recourse.
关于维韦克·拉马斯瓦米广告的愤怒情绪日益高涨，万斯表示不要再对此抱怨 2026年10月22日政府的行动再一次违背了万斯所说的其信仰所塑造的世界观。在万斯发现自己不得不为政府在街头对美国人实施法外杀戮进行辩护的几个月前，他说：“你不能只对罪犯心怀同情。你也必须伸张正义。这就是为什么我认为，一个扎根得当的基督教道德秩序是我们国家未来如此重要的一部分。”
Growing outrage over Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad, Vance says stop whining about it October 22, 2026 And once again, the administration’s actions defied the ways Vance said his faith informed his worldview. Months before Vance found himself defending the extrajudicial killing of Americans in the streets by their own government, he said“You can’t just have compassion for the criminal. You also have to have justice, too. Which is why I think that a properly rooted Christian moral order is such an important part of the future of our country.”
这里对从政者提出了一个令人不安的要求。那个因其苦难而使你的首选政策变得复杂的人，依然是一个你对他负有道德义务的人。赢得选举不能免除这一义务。继承一个破败的移民系统也不能。
There is an uncomfortable demand here for anyone in politics. The person whose suffering complicates your preferred policy remains a person to whom you owe a moral duty. Winning an election does not relieve you of it. Neither does inheriting a broken immigration system.
天主教教义承认政府的合法职责。《天主教教理》第2241段允许各国为共同利益管制移民，并承认移民有义务遵守接收国的法律。它同时也责成繁荣国家，在其能力范围内，接纳那些在祖国无法获得安全和生计的人。这些职责是相辅相成的。
Catholic teaching recognizes the legitimate responsibilities of government. Paragraph 2241 of the Catechism allows nations to regulate immigration for the common good and recognizes immigrants’ obligations to obey the laws of their receiving country. It also obliges prosperous nations, within their capacity, to welcome people seeking safety and a livelihood unavailable at home. Those responsibilities belong together.
同一教义要求公共当局尊重基本人权，并以人道方式施行正义，特别关注家庭和弱势群体。因此，政府执法的权力在如何执行方面带有道德界限。
The same teaching requires public authorities to respect fundamental human rights and administer justice humanely, with particular concern for families and the disadvantaged. A government’s authority to enforce the law therefore carries moral limits on how it does so.
特朗普政府肆意针对移民的做法，与数千年的天主教教义无法调和。万斯清楚这一点。万斯的良心是他自己的事。但他行使公权力要接受公众审视。作为一名同为天主教徒的人，我期待他解释他所支持的政策如何尊重其教会教导的每个人都拥有的尊严。也许那时他才能回答西尔维斯特修女的问题。
There is no reconciliation between the Trump administration’s wanton targeting of immigrants and thousands of years of Catholic teachings. Vance knows this. Vance’s conscience is his own. But his exercise of public power is subject to public scrutiny. As a fellow Catholic, I expect him to explain how the policies he supports honor the dignity his church teaches that every person possesses. Perhaps then he may be able to answer Sister Sylvester’s question.
欲观看迈克尔·斯蒂尔、西蒙·桑德斯·汤森德和卢克·拉塞特更多发人深省的见解，请收看《The Weeknight》，每周一至周五美国东部时间晚上 7 点在 MS NOW 播出。
For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Symone Sanders Townsend and Luke Russert, watch“The Weeknight” every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MS NOW.
文章：万斯对一位天主教修女的言论揭穿了白宫关于宗教自由的说法 MS NOW
The post JD Vance’s remarks to a Catholic nun unraveled the White House’s claims about religious freedom MS NOW