Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the federal government, said in an interview on Fox News on Monday that the pope should stay out of American affairs.
Mr. Vance, a convert to Catholicism who is about to publish a book detailing his turn to the faith, brushed off a backlash among Christians across the political spectrum to President Trump’s attacks against Pope Leo XIV. He said “that in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.” Mr. Trump has clashed with the pontiff over matters of war and immigration, and on Sunday attacked him as “weak on crime.”
“Stick to matters of, you know, what going on in the Catholic Church,” Mr. Vance said when asked if he agreed with Mr. Trump’s attacks against the pope. “And let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.” He added: “When they are in conflict, they are in conflict. I don’t worry about it too much.”
He continued: “I think it’s a natural thing. I’m sure it will happen in the future and it’s not that big of a thing that it happened in the past.”
Mr. Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 at age 35, after private instruction with Dominican friars in Cincinnati. But his newfound faith has come with complications, as his views, particularly on immigration, have prompted strong denunciations from leaders in the Vatican and are in opposition to the priorities set by Leo, the first American pope.
Mr. Vance’s suggestion that Leo “stick to matters of morality” is a notable distinction. Being a Roman Catholic requires acknowledgment of and adherence to the pope’s authority over the church, though not his political views. President John F. Kennedy, defending his Catholic faith during his 1960 presidential campaign, said that he believed in an America “where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope.”
The president’s social media tirade against Pope Leo on Sunday night accused him of being too liberal, “weak on crime,” and “terrible for foreign policy.” He even falsely claimed credit for the pope’s election.
Leo, speaking on Monday at the start of a trip to Africa, told reporters he had “no fear of the Trump administration.” He added that he was not afraid of “speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do.”
Mr. Vance was also asked about the president’s posting of an A.I.-generated image that depicted him as a Jesus-like figure, said that the president “was posting a joke.” Mr. Trump, speaking at the White House, told reporters that he had deleted that post, and Mr. Vance said that was done because Mr. Trump “recognized that a lot of people weren’t understanding his humor in that case.”
Earlier, Mr. Trump, in an interview with CBS News, said that he had meant the post to portray him as a doctor.
“I viewed that as a picture of me being a doctor in fixing — you had the Red Cross right there, you had, you know, medical people surrounding me,” Mr. Trump said in that interview. “And I was like the doctor, you know, as a little fun playing the doctor and making people better. So that’s what it was viewed as. That’s what most people thought.”
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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