A leading Catholic paper has branded JD Vance a “moral stain” and accused the vice president of having a “twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity” for his comments on a woman killed by ICE.
Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, was shot three times in her car by a federal officer carrying out immigration raids on Jan. 7. Vance, 41, who identifies as Catholic, has since joined the government’s push to brand Good a “domestic terrorist” who tried to run the officer over, calling her death “a tragedy of her own making.”
In a blistering op-ed column on Thursday, the National Catholic Reporter accused Vance of “justifying” Good’s killing, saying his comments are “a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith.”
The outlet’s digital editor John Grosso wrote: “In times past, a politician might offer thoughts and prayers, encourage those reacting to wait for the full results of the investigation and generally try to lower the temperature. A leader might take the opportunity provided by a fresh day to soothe the broken heart of a nation.“
But, Grosso added, “JD Vance went in a different direction.”
Good, 37, a U.S. citizen, was killed when an ICE officer fired into her SUV on a residential street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Multiple videos show agents shouting conflicting orders at her before one officer moved toward the driver’s door and another stood in front of the vehicle and opened fire as it rolled forward.
The Trump administration quickly framed the killing as an “act of domestic terrorism,” with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleging that Good had “weaponized her vehicle” and Trump claiming she “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer.” Local officials who reviewed the footage, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have called that version of events “garbage.”
Undeterred, Vance went even further. In posts on X and in a White House briefing, he argued that Good’s death was “a tragedy of her own making” and that she was part of “a broader left-wing network to attack” ICE officers.
In response, Grosso wrote: “As a Catholic, Vance knows better than to peddle this brand of gaslighting and agitation. Vance knows that only God can take life. Vance knows that protesting, fleeing or even interfering in an ICE investigation (which there is no evidence that Good did) does not carry a death sentence. Vance knows that lying and killing are sins.”
But, Grosso added, “He doesn’t care. Vance’s twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity has been repudiated by two popes.”
Suggesting that Vance’s Catholicism “seems to be little more than a political prop, a tool only for his career ambitions and desire for power,” Grosso said: “The vice president’s comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel. Our only recourse is to pray for his conversion of heart.”
The critique is part of the latest episode in the long-running tension between Vance and the Vatican over the Trump administration’s hardline immigration crackdown. In 2025, Pope Francis skipped an official meeting with Vance at the Vatican, sending Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin instead to deliver a lecture on compassion and migrant rights, before granting the vice president only a brief Easter greeting the next day.
Francis’ final months were marked by increasingly sharp rebukes of Trump-era mass deportations, which he called a “disgrace” and “not Christian,” and by a behind-closed-doors dressing-down of Vance over the White House’s treatment of migrants shortly before the pontiff died at 88.
His successor, Pope Leo XIV, 69, has also seemed to distance himself from the Trump immigration agenda. When Vance led the U.S. delegation to Leo’s inaugural Mass in Rome last year, the new pope greeted him briefly in public but held private meetings that day with Ukraine’s president and Peru’s president instead.
A longer sit-down with Vance followed a day later, but the Vatican’s statement on it emphasized humanitarian concerns and “current international issues,” which was interpreted as a subtle signal of disagreement.
Outside Rome, Catholic criticism of the administration’s immigration campaign has intensified. An essay on the Letters From Leo website this week declared that Trump’s renewed crackdown—“championed by our nominally Catholic Vice President JD Vance”—has “inflicted mounting inhumanity,” and said the policies have drawn “scathing rebukes from two popes and the vast majority of bishops.”
The Daily Beast has contacted Vance’s office for comment.
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