JD Vance addresses Trump's Pope Leo criticism: Vatican should 'stick to matters of morality'

Vice President JD Vance weighed in on President Donald Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo, urging the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality” and “what’s going on in the Catholic Church” as he made the case that disagreement between the head of the Catholic Church and the Trump administration is inevitable. 

In an appearance on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” Monday, Vance, a practicing Catholic, addressed Trump’s criticism of the pontiff in a Truth Social post over the weekend.

“We’re going to have disagreements from time to time,” Vance insisted. “I think it’s a good thing actually that the pope is advocating for the things that he cares about, but we’re always going to have disagreements on matters of public policy or, I should say, sometimes we’re going to have disagreements on matters of public policy.” 

“The pope has been critical of our immigration policy, but ultimately, the immigration policy of the United States is set by Donald Trump,” Vance added. “The pope is going to have disagreements on other issues. We can respect the pope; we certainly have a good relationship with the Vatican, but we’re also going to disagree on substantive questions from time to time. I think that’s a totally reasonable thing. It isn’t particularly newsworthy.”

When asked if he agreed with Trump that Leo’s advocacy was “hurting the Catholic Church,” Vance responded, “I certainly think that in some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of … what’s going on in the Catholic Church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.” 

Vance’s comments about the Vatican’s political advocacy come a day after Trump described the pontiff as “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” before laying out additional criticisms of the head of the Catholic Church: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon. I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s terrible that America attacked Venezuela, a Country that was sending massive amounts of Drugs into the United States and, even worse, emptying their prisons, including murderers, drug dealers, and killers, into our Country.” 

The pontiff responded to Trump’s comments by insisting, “I have no fear of either the Trump administration or speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel” in remarks on the papal plane Monday.

According to the pontiff, “We’re not politicians. We’re not looking to make foreign policy, as he calls it, with the same perspective that he might understand it.” 

Maintaining that the Gospel message of “blessed are the peacemakers” is “a message that the world needs to hear today,” Leo vowed to “continue to speak out loudly against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states, to look for just solutions of the problems.”

The pontiff justified his advocacy as necessary because, he added, “Too many innocent people are being killed, and I think someone has to stand up and say ‘there’s a better way to do this.’”

Trump declined to grant the request of Bishop Robert Barron of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester to apologize for his criticism of the pontiff when speaking to reporters Monday: “Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran. And you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result. You’d have hundreds of millions of people dead and it’s not going to happen.”