Vice President JD Vance said he has been in touch with Pope Leo XIV recently, disclosing previously unacknowledged direct communication between the two leaders as they have at times publicly criticized each other’s positions in recent months.
The vice president described their relationship as “positive.”
Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, confirmed that he and Leo have spoken privately as he sat for an interview this week on opinion writer Ross Douthat’s New York Times podcast, “Interesting Times.”
Douthat, a conservative columnist, pressed Vance on how his past stated opposition to a U.S. war with Iran and the pope’s criticism of the war squares with President Donald Trump’s decision to start one and Vance’s obligation to publicly defend it.
“Have I spoken to the pope in the last few months? Yes,” Vance said. “Do I have what I would characterize — I don’t know what he would say — but do I have what I would characterize as a positive relationship with the pope? I think so. But fundamentally, we just have different jobs.”
Asked whether the pope felt like Vance is “secretly on his team” regarding opposition to the war, Vance declined to answer. Vance said he does not “talk about private conversations.”
Since Trump started the conflict in late February with strikes on Iran, the first American-born pope has spoken harshly of the U.S. involvement and called for a quick ending to it, with Trump repeatedly lashing out at Leo in response.
Vance has publicly criticized some of the pope’s rhetoric, including saying in April “it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” in particular questioning Leo’s interpretation of just war theory. Days later, Vance wrote on social media that he was “grateful” after Leo downplayed reports of tensions between the Vatican and Trump.
More recently, Vance spoke favorably of Leo’s encyclical on artificial intelligence and morality, a contrast with other Trump administration officials’ criticism of Leo’s decision to wade into the issue. This week, Leo praised a temporary deal reached to end the war in Iran, which Vance has played a leading role in negotiating.
“You hear people say, ‘Well you can just ignore this or that clergyman.’ Or, ‘You can just ignore the pope.’ I’ve never taken that attitude,” Vance told Douthat.
“What I say is the pope is the leader of the church. He is the leader of the institution that preaches the gospel. He’s an important moral voice, but he also does have a different role from the vice president of the United States.”
Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when he and Leo have spoken privately.
Vance met Leo in May 2025, when he visited the Vatican to attend Leo’s inaugural mass. He has also met with Leo’s brother, Louis Prevost, a Trump supporter who has visited the White House on at least two occasions, including Sunday’s UFC fight on the South Lawn. During that visit, Vance could be seen leading Prevost over to say hello to Trump.
When asked by Douthat about his private concerns about the war, Vance discussed how his job is to help Trump land on the right policies by ensuring he has all the necessary information, and once the president’s decision is made, to help him execute it.
“Even if I granted, for the sake of argument, that I believed this or that thing, it’s like, do you think that it would be moral or appropriate to go out there and whine publicly about a decision the president of the United States had made?” Vance said.
“I’m not a commentator — I’m the vice president. I serve in the administration that the American people elected him to be in charge of.”
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