Vance urges Catholics "not to obsess" over RCC's statements about politics
The U.S. Vice President stated that he was surprised by Pope Francis’ criticism of Trump’s immigration policy.
On 28 January 2025, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance spoke at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, where he urged Catholics not to "fixate" on the position of RCC bishops regarding political issues.
Speaking before a large audience of Catholics at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Vance described himself as a "baby Catholic" – a reference to his being a recent convert to Catholicism, having been baptised in 2019. He also acknowledged his own imperfections as a Christian.
"I try to be humble as best I can when I talk about the faith in public, because, of course, I’m not always going to get it right, and I don’t want my inadequacies in describing our faith to fall back on the faith itself," Vance said.
"So, if you ever hear me pontificating about the Catholic faith, please recognize it comes from a place of deep belief, but it also comes from a place of not always knowing everything all the time," he emphasised.
The media recalled that shortly after taking office, Vance criticised the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), accusing it of facilitating the resettlement of "illegal migrants" and being overly dependent on government funding.
In his speech, Vance directly addressed these disagreements. "You know, sometimes the bishops don’t like what I say," he remarked. "Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re not."
He then urged Catholics not to "obsess" over the words of Catholic bishops about politics.
"What I try to remind myself of is that we are not called as Christians to obsess over every social media controversy that implicates the Catholic Church, whether it involves a clergy or a bishop or the Holy Father himself," Vance noted.
"I think that we should frankly take a page out of the books of our grandparents who respected our clergy, who looked to them for guidance, but didn’t obsess and fight over every single word that came out of their mouth and in our social media," he added.
Vance also stated that he was surprised by Pope Francis’ criticism of Trump’s immigration policy in his letter and then posited the document wasn’t suited for today’s social media-driven discourse.
"I think it’s incumbent upon our religious leaders to recognize that in the era of social media, people will hang on every single word that they utter, even if that wasn’t their intention," he added.
At the end of his speech, Vance expressed his support for Pope Francis, who has been suffering from a serious illness in recent times, saying that he and his family prays for the Pontiff every day.
As earlier reported by the UOJ, the U.S. Vice President criticised Catholic bishops for being more concerned with funding than with helping immigrants.
