Judge with Right Judgment: What the Church Asks of a House Weighing Hegseth’s Impeachment

The House came back to Washington on Monday with a vote it can no longer put off. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, is refiling eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and the rules give House leaders two legislative days to act once he does. Much of the coverage is spent on counting votes. Does Congressman Massie have enough people on his side to pass the articles of impeachment? The Church asks a question that comes before and talk of a vote count: what does it take for a member of Congress to judge another man rightly?

The News Story

The House of Representatives returned to Washington on Monday for its lame-duck session facing a likely vote this week on whether to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The push comes from inside the president’s own party. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, is expected to reintroduce an impeachment resolution on Monday, according to ABC News and CBS News. As a privileged resolution, it requires House leaders to act within two legislative days, either by holding a vote or by moving to table it, which also takes a simple majority.¹

Massie first introduced the 34-page resolution on September 15. Speaker Mike Johnson then canceled the final scheduled day of legislative business before the midterm elections, and the articles expired. Massie told ABC in September, “I will have to refile the articles of impeachment when we get back.”²

The resolution contains eight articles. Three accuse Hegseth of waging war on Iran without congressional authorization, in violation of the War Powers Resolution of 1973. CBS reported that another article cites a strike on an Iranian school earlier this year and accuses Hegseth of ignoring laws on civilian casualties. The remaining articles concern lethal strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean, the operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, strikes in Yemen, and a Pentagon investigation of Sen. Mark Kelly that the resolution describes as retaliation. “The question is whether he committed impeachable acts, and the answer is yes, eight times,” Massie wrote on X on Monday.³

The vote follows the midterm elections of November 3, in which Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate. Several Republicans have tied those losses to the Iran war. Vice President JD Vance said, “The reason we lost is the war.” Fox News Digital reported that some House Republicans privately expect the resolution to pass, with one GOP lawmaker saying, “He’s screwed.”⁴

Republicans still hold a narrow House majority until the new Congress is seated in January. Massie told ABC that if every Democrat votes yes, three Republicans would be enough, and he said he was confident there would be enough defectors. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, “I’m a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution,” adding, “Pete Hegseth has got to go.” Several Republicans remain undecided. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, who is retiring, said, “I will weigh the debate and make a decision,” and added that “the secretary has made some bad mistakes.” Rep. French Hill of Arkansas said he wanted to hear the debate first. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky has not backed the effort.⁵

President Trump has stood by his secretary. “I have every intention to keep him,” he said, and on Sunday he said Hegseth was “guilty of two things: basically winning two wars.” In a video released last week, Hegseth called the measure “sham articles of impeachment against yours truly,” brought by “a disgruntled, defeated congressman.” Massie lost his May primary to a challenger Trump endorsed and leaves Congress in January.⁶

If the House impeaches him, Hegseth would be the third Cabinet secretary impeached, after William Belknap in 1876 and Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024. Removal would require a two-thirds vote in the Senate, a threshold the outlets that addressed it described as unlikely to be met.⁷

Catholic Social Teaching Analysis

Two Legislative Days

When the House came back on Monday, Rep. Thomas Massie was expected to refile his eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Because the resolution is privileged, House leaders have two legislative days to act on the articles once he does. Every member will have to go on record and support or oppose the articles.⁸

Many answered before the articles were even back on the floor. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Sunday that he is “a hard yes on the Hegseth resolution.” The same day, President Trump said his secretary is “guilty of two things: basically winning two wars.”⁹ One unnamed House Republican put it more bluntly: “He’s screwed.”¹⁰ Others held back. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said, “I will weigh the debate and make a decision.” Rep. French Hill of Arkansas said he wants to hear the debate “to see if it merits impeachment.”¹¹

I’m not going to tell anyone how to vote. However, at the heart, the discernment whereby the members go about answering which way to vote lies a moral question. It is a question that the Church has a great deal to say about. The Lord said it in one line, to a crowd in Jerusalem that had already made up its mind about him: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment” (John 7:24).

Judgment Is an Act of Justice

Impeachment is a political act, but it is also a judgment in the strict sense: each member decides whether another man’s conduct warrants trial and removal from office. St. Thomas Aquinas asked when an act like that is lawful, and his answer begins with one sentence: “Judgment is lawful in so far as it is an act of justice.” Three things must be present: “first, that it proceed from the inclination of justice; secondly, that it come from one who is in authority; thirdly, that it be pronounced according to the right ruling of prudence.” Thomas allows no partial credit. “If any one of these be lacking, the judgment will be faulty and unlawful.”¹²

Authority is the easy one. The Constitution gives the power of impeachment to the House alone, so nobody here is guilty of what Thomas calls judgment “by usurpation.”¹³ But it is given to each member personally, and a member who hands his vote to a party leader or the White House gives away what was entrusted to him.

The inclination of justice is harder, because it lives in motives. Thomas calls a judgment without it “perverted” or “unjust.”¹⁴ The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church gives the classic definition of what is missing in that case: justice “consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbour,” and in practice it is behavior “based on the will to recognize the other as a person.”¹⁵ Look at where this week’s pressure is coming from. After the election, Vice President JD Vance said, “The reason we lost is the war,” and Republicans who stood by Hegseth for months now want someone to answer for the seats they lost.¹⁶ A member who votes to impeach because Hegseth has become a liability, or votes to shield him because the President wants it, is deciding the case on something other than what Hegseth did. Either way, he sees a political problem where he should see a man.

Prudence Takes Its Time

Prudence is the third condition, and the Compendium describes it well. It calls prudence “the virtue that makes it possible to discern the true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means for achieving it.” Then it names three moments. The first is “the reflection and consultation by which the question is studied and the necessary opinions sought.” The second “is that of evaluation, as the reality is analyzed and judged in the light of God’s plan.” Only the third is decision, which “is based on the preceding steps.”¹⁷

The Compendium also warns against a counterfeit. It rejects “the rather widespread opinion that equates prudence with shrewdness, with utilitarian calculations, with diffidence or with timidity or indecision.” Real prudence decides “with wisdom and courage.”¹⁹ A member who counts what each vote will cost him before he counts the evidence is practicing the counterfeit.

Verdicts Before the Evidence

Thomas saves his sharpest words for the judgment that lacks prudence, which he calls judgment “by suspicion” or “rash” judgment.²⁰ The worst degree, he says, belongs to the man in the seat of judgment: “The third degree is when a judge goes so far as to condemn a man on suspicion.”²¹

The Catechism names the remedy, a habit most of us find hard even at our own kitchen tables: “To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way.”²² Hegseth is owed that much, like anyone.

That standard cuts both ways. In fairness to Leader Jeffries, the articles have been public since September 15, and a man can read them over eight weeks and reach a firm view without judging rashly.²³ Still, a “hard yes” from the leader of an entire caucus, before the refiled text is on the floor and before a word of debate, invites the question. So does the President’s verdict running the other way. “Guilty of two things: basically winning two wars” is an acquittal handed down before the trial. Rash judgment can clear a man as easily as it condemns him.

Grave Charges Deserve a Grave Hearing

None of this makes the articles trivial. They accuse the Secretary of waging war on Iran without the authorization Congress is supposed to give, of ignoring the law on civilian casualties in a strike that hit an Iranian school, and of ordering lethal strikes on alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean.²⁴ The Compendium is blunt about the duty of the military to avoid civilian casualties: “The principle of humanity inscribed in the conscience of every person and all peoples includes the obligation to protect civil populations from the effects of war.”²⁵ Pope Leo XIV has carried the teaching further. In Magnifica Humanitas, he writes that, “without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense,” the “just war” theory, “which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated.”²⁶ That is a real development in Catholic teaching that a Catholic member of the House ought to know before he votes.

The duty runs in both directions. A member who waves the articles off as political theater fails justice as surely as one who uses them to settle scores from the election.

Conscience on the House Floor

The Compendium says that conscience “expresses itself in acts of ‘judgment’ which reflect the truth about the good,” and that its maturity is measured “by an insistent search for truth and by allowing oneself to be guided by that truth in one’s actions.”²⁷ It applies that directly to politics: “Living and acting in conformity with one’s own conscience on questions of politics” is “the way in which Christians offer their concrete contribution so that, through political life, society will become more just.”²⁸

Leo XIV adds a warning that reads like a description of the past week. War, he writes, is “culturally conditioned through simplistic narratives, a friend-or-foe mentality, disinformation and fear.”²⁹ A party-line vote, in either direction, is the friend-or-foe mentality cast as a ballot. It lets the caucus or the President do the judging. Massie, who lost his May primary after the President endorsed his opponent, has little left to lose.³⁰ Most of his colleagues have plenty to lose, which makes Bacon’s plain promise to weigh the debate worth more than it sounds.

What I’d Watch

Watch whether the refiled articles reach a vote within the two days, or whether leaders move to table them. Watch whether the floor debate deals with the school strike and the War Powers deadlines, or with last week’s election returns. And watch the Senate, which would need two-thirds to convict and which passes to new hands in January.³¹

And, as always, pray. Pray for Secretary Hegseth and his family in a hard week. Pray for Thomas Massie, Hakeem Jeffries, Speaker Mike Johnson and every member of the House, that each one votes on what the evidence shows. Pray for the people of Iran, and for everyone touched by the strikes these articles describe. And pray for all of us tempted to settle this vote in our heads before the debate is over, that we too judge with right judgment.

---

This story turns on just judgment: a public verdict must come from the will to do justice, rightful authority and prudence, never from party loyalty, revenge or suspicion.

One principle from the Church’s social teaching, applied to the week’s news, in your inbox each Saturday.

Get it by email

---

Notes

1. ↑ John Parkinson and Lauren Peller, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote,” ABC News, November 9, 2026, abcnews.com; Kaia Hubbard and Caitlin Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days as House Returns,” CBS News, November 9, 2026, cbsnews.com; Kate Nuechterlein, “Congress Returns for Lame-Duck Session as GOP Faces Shutdown Deadline, Hegseth Impeachment Push,” Spectrum News, November 9, 2026, spectrumlocalnews.com.
2. ↑ Chantelle Lee, “Republican Congressman Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,” TIME, September 15, 2026, time.com; Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote”; Miles J. Herszenhorn and Zachary Schermele, “Republican Moves to Force Pete Hegseth Impeachment Vote This Week,” USA Today, November 9, 2026, usatoday.com; Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days.”
3. ↑ Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days”; Robert McGreevy, “GOP Rep Thomas Massie Introduces 8 Articles of Impeachment Against War Secretary Pete Hegseth,” Fox News, September 15, 2026, foxnews.com; Herszenhorn and Schermele, “Republican Moves to Force Pete Hegseth Impeachment Vote”; Lee, “Republican Congressman Introduces Articles of Impeachment.”
4. ↑ Nuechterlein, “Congress Returns for Lame-Duck Session”; Dudi Kogan, “Hegseth Faces Impeachment Vote as Republicans Turn on Him After Election Defeat,” Israel Hayom, November 8, 2026, israelhayom.com; Elizabeth Elkind, Ashley J. DiMella and Morgan Phillips, “Hegseth Faces Bipartisan Impeachment Threat After Iran War Gets Blame for GOP Midterm Slaughter,” Fox News, November 5, 2026, foxnews.com; “House Could Vote Next Week to Impeach Hegseth as GOP Support Wavers,” CNN Newsource via KBTX, November 5, 2026, kbtx.com.
5. ↑ Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote”; Quinn Scanlan, “‘I’m a Hard Yes’: Hakeem Jeffries Announces Support for Hegseth Impeachment,” ABC News, November 8, 2026, abcnews.com; Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days.”
6. ↑ Scanlan, “‘I’m a Hard Yes’”; Herszenhorn and Schermele, “Republican Moves to Force Pete Hegseth Impeachment Vote”; Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days”; Lee, “Republican Congressman Introduces Articles of Impeachment”; Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote.”
7. ↑ Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days”; Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote”; Herszenhorn and Schermele, “Republican Moves to Force Pete Hegseth Impeachment Vote”; Kogan, “Hegseth Faces Impeachment Vote.”
8. ↑ Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote”; Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days.”
9. ↑ Scanlan, “‘I’m a Hard Yes’”; Herszenhorn and Schermele, “Republican Moves to Force Pete Hegseth Impeachment Vote.”
10. ↑ Elkind, DiMella and Phillips, “Hegseth Faces Bipartisan Impeachment Threat.”
11. ↑ Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote”; Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days.”
12. ↑ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 60, a. 2, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province, in New Advent, newadvent.org.
13. ↑ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 60, a. 2.
14. ↑ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 60, a. 2.
15. ↑ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004), no. 201, vatican.va.
16. ↑ Kogan, “Hegseth Faces Impeachment Vote.”
17. ↑ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium, no. 547.
18. Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days.”
19. ↑ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium, no. 548.
20. ↑ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 60, a. 2.
21. ↑ Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 60, a. 3.
22. ↑ Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), no. 2478, vatican.va.
23. ↑ Lee, “Republican Congressman Introduces Articles of Impeachment.”
24. ↑ Hubbard and Yilek, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote in Coming Days”; McGreevy, “GOP Rep Thomas Massie Introduces 8 Articles of Impeachment.”
25. ↑ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium, no. 505.
26. ↑ Pope Leo XIV, Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, May 15, 2026), no. 192, vatican.va.
27. ↑ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium, no. 139.
28. ↑ Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium, no. 566.
29. ↑ Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas, no. 192.
30. ↑ Lee, “Republican Congressman Introduces Articles of Impeachment”; Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote.”
31. ↑ Kogan, “Hegseth Faces Impeachment Vote”; Parkinson and Peller, “Hegseth Could Face Impeachment Vote.”

Books Cited

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

• St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Latin-English edition, Complete Set (Aquinas Institute / Emmaus Academic, 2012)
• Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition (Doubleday / Image, 2003)