President Donald Trump can be complimented for his views concerning private morality as regards the respect for life from conception to natural death; the sacred nature of marriage and the family; and the true nature of human sexuality.  He has put a stop, even if only temporary, to the moral deterioration of American society resulting from widespread erroneous notions about the nature of human sexuality and the role of marriage and the family in modern society.  He, however, would get a failing mark regarding his knowledge of the Social Doctrine of the Church concerning the solidarity of nations or international solidarity.

In a recent press release from ASIA ESG, the sad results from the drastic cuts of aid to impoverished nations from the U.S. Agency for International Aid (USAID) were enumerated in their gory details.  According to the Report, “Countries around the world already are feeling the impact of the Trump’s administration’s decision to eliminate more than 90 percent of foreign aid contracts and cut some $60 billion in funding.  Hours after the announcement, programs were shuttered, leaving millions of people without access to life-saving care.”   Many of these program that lost funding are in very economically fragile countries like Ethiopia, Senegal, South Sudan, Bangladesh, Mali, Burkina Faso, Somalia, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Kenya and Nigeria. Just to cite a few of the projects that had to stop for lack of funding.  In Congo, aid group Action Against Hunger will be forced to stop treating tens of thousands of malnourished children who will be put in mortal danger.  In Ethiopia, food assistance stopped for more than 1 million people.  The Ministry of Health was also forced to terminate the contract of 5,000 workers across the country focused on HIV and malaria prevention, and helping women deal with the trauma of war.  In war-torn Sudan, 90 communal kitchens closed in the capital, Khartoum, leaving more than half a million people without consistent access to food.

In Mali, critical aid, such as access to water, food, and health services was cut for more than 270,000 people.  More than 400,000 people in northern Burkina Faso -lost access to services such as water.  In Somalia, 50 health centers servicing more than 19,000 people a month had to close because the health workers are not being paid.  In war-torn Ukraine, cash-based humanitarian programs that reached 1 million people were suspended.  In Afghanistan, hundreds of mobile health teams and other services were suspended, affecting 9 million people.  In Kenya, more than 600,000 people living in areas plagued by drought and persistent acute malnutrition will lose access to life-saving food and nutrition support.  In Yemen, 220,000 disabled people will lose access to critical maternal health care, protection from violence, rape treatment and other life-saving care.  In our own country, a program to improve access to disaster warning access for disabled people was stopped.  These are not just cold statistics.  These are human beings with flesh and blood who are turning to rich nations like the U.S. for life-saving assistance.

President Trump may have to be reminded about the Social Doctrine of the Catholic church which is addressed to all men and women of good will.  As clearly stated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, today’s culture is characterized by its universalization.  The rapidity of communication and economic relations that exist among peoples and cultures cause the problems of one nation or continent to affect the rest of the world.  For this reason, Catholic morality (to which President Trump claims to adhere) underlines the ethical rights and duties necessary for the international solidarity of different peoples and cultures.  The most lucid statement of this principle of the Social Doctrine of the Church is found in the papal encyclical of St.John Paul II entitled “On Social Concerns”:

“It is above all a question of interdependence, sensed as a system determining relationships in the contemporary world, in its economic, cultural, political and religious elements, and accepted as a moral category.  When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a ‘virtue’, is solidarity.  This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far.  On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.  The determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is that desire for profit and that thirst for power already mentioned.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church devotes an entire section to “solidarity among the nations.” It surprises no one that the Catechism analyzes the causes of unjust inequalities among diverse people and notes the reasons for living solidarity among different nations: “Rich nations (among which the U.S. is the richest) have a grave moral responsibility toward those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity; it is an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has come from resources that have not been paid for fairly.”

Here, we should also make reference to the manner that Pope Francis gently corrected U.S. Vice President JD Vance when he erroneously interpreted the principle of “ordo amoris” or the order of love. VP Vance argued that the Trump administration was just following the “Christian view” of the responsibilities of America to the rest of the world based on his reading of the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas on the “order of love.”  According to the Vice President, ”We  should love our family first, then our neighbors, then love our community, then our country, and only then consider the interests of the rest of the world.”  Vance was using this principle to justify the harsh treatment President Trump was recommending for illegal immigrants whom he indiscriminately referred to as “criminals.” Writing to the U.S. bishops on the topic of migration the pope wrote that “an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” which, he said “does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration.”

As regards a more authentic interpretation of St. Thomas’ ordo amoris, Pope Francis referred to the well- known parable of the Good Samaritan told by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Everyone who has read the Gospel of the Good Samaritan knows he went out of his way to assist a wounded total stranger, a victim of some robbers.  Although the Samaritan did not know the victim from Adam, he spent a great deal of time and money in giving him succor.  We could even imagine that the wife and children of the Samaritan were eagerly waiting for him.  Since their need for him were not urgent and life-saving, he could afford to disregard their welfare in favor of a stranger that was in much greater need of his attention.  As Pope Francis wrote in his letter to the U.S. bishops, ”The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’ (cf. Lk 10:25 -37), that is, by meditating on the love that builds fraternity open to all, without exception.”  For comments, my email address is bernardo.villegas@uap.asia.