To: Pope Leo XIV and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

We, the undersigned, write to you not as critics of the Church but as people who take Catholic moral teaching seriously enough to be scandalized when it is publicly discarded by those who claim its mantle.

Two members of the current United States administration—Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—have each, in their own way, made a mockery of the faith they publicly profess.

Marco Rubio is a cradle Catholic. He knows, or should know, what the Catechism says about the treatment of migrants. He knows what Matthew 25 says. When he was informed that a man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been wrongfully deported to El Salvador—sent to a prison from which he may never return, in acknowledged violation of a valid court order—Rubio's response was a dismissive “Oops, too late.” Those three words are not a slip. They are a posture. Rubio’s posture. They tell us exactly how much the suffering of a fellow human being—made, Catholics believe, in the image and likeness of God—resonates with him—not at all.

J.D. Vance recently converted to Catholicism in 2019. He has written and is publicizing a book recounting that conversion, a book that will presumably generate significant income premised on the credibility of his alleged faith journey. The same man recently issued what can only be described as a warning to you, Holy Father, after you called the mass deportation of migrants a “disgrace.” Specifically, he warned, “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” Vance did not engage the Pope's argument. He lectured the successor of Peter about the proper scope of papal authority, as though his five years in the faith qualify him to define the limits of the Holy See’s.

Catholic teaching on migrants is not ambiguous. It is not a footnote. It is not a matter on which reasonable Catholics may politely disagree while deporting families to foreign prisons. Laudato Si, the Catechism, Pacem in Terris, the words of every modern Pope—these are not suggestions. They are the consistent, centuries-long moral positions of the Church in which these men claim membership.

We are not asking for a political statement. We are asking for an ecclesial one. The Church has a mechanism for responding when prominent members cause grave public scandal: excommunication. We recognize it is rarely used. We recognize it is a last resort. We ask you to consider whether two men—one monetizing his conversion and challenging the Pope’s theological authority, one dismissing the deportation of human beings with the callous phrase “oops, too late”—have not made a compelling case that excommunication is warranted here and now.

At a minimum, we ask that the Church speak clearly: that the positions J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio hold and espouse, and the contempt with which they have treated both migrants and the Holy Father himself, are incompatible with Catholic teaching as the Church understands it.

The faithful are watching. So are those being deported.