{"id":27484,"date":"2025-05-15T16:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T20:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=27484"},"modified":"2025-05-15T16:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T20:22:08","slug":"jd-vance-has-no-plans-to-politicize-popes-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/05\/jd-vance-has-no-plans-to-politicize-popes-election","title":{"rendered":"JD Vance Has No Plans to Politicize Pope\u2019s Election"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: Public Domain \/ Right: Gage Skidmore \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vice President JD Vance recently sat down with the Hugh Hewitt Show<\/a> to discuss what he thinks of the newly-elected Pope Leo XIV. Hewitt, who is also Catholic like the Vice President, asked Vance what his initial thoughts were following the election process. Vance responded stated he had been on the \u201cedge of [his] seat\u201d during the process, particularly once the white smoke was blown from the Vatican, signaling the election of a new Pope. \u201cFirst of all, a big moment, of course, for American Catholics, and I think the American people, writ large,\u201d he said. \u201cSo many people my entire lifetime has said you\u2019re never going to have an American pope. Obviously, now we do, so I think that\u2019s a great thing.\u201d Vance also stressed that he wished the new Pope \u201cthe best.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s now the head of the Catholic Church, and we\u2019ll pray for his wisdom, for his good decisions, and his good health, and hope that he has a long and successful papacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vice President Vance then addressed some of the politicization that has accompanied Pope Leo XIV\u2019s election. Within moments of his election, social media was abuzz with videos some of the Pope\u2019s social media posts when he was Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. \u201cYou know, these things always get discolored a little bit by American politics or by politics writ large,\u201d said Vance. \u201cYou know, people are asking is he a conservative or is he a liberal. Will he attack President Trump and J.D. Vance on certain things, and hasn\u2019t attacked Democrats on other things,\u201d said Vance. \u201cAnd I guess my response to this is it\u2019s very hard to fit a 2,000-year-old institution into the politics of 2025 America. I try not to do that.\u201d Vance noted that he is a convert to Catholicism, having converted in 2019, which he believed might give him a different perspective than those who grew up in the faith. \u00a0\u201cBut I try not to play the politicization of the Pope game,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019s going to say a lot of things that I love. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll say some things that I disagree with, but I\u2019ll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all, and that\u2019ll be the way that I handle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewett agreed, noting how the American media asked multiple questions about President Trump during a press conference about the new Pope. \u201cThe American media never fails to fail to understand the Catholic Church,\u201d he said. Vance agreed, saying, \u201cthe Church is so much bigger than politics.\u201d He stated that most Americans probably aren\u2019t concerned about whether the Pope is a Democrat or Republican. \u201cAnd my attitude is, you know, the Church is about saving souls, and about spreading the Gospel. And yeah, it\u2019s going to touch public policy from time to time as all human institutions do, but that\u2019s not really what it\u2019s about,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s much healthier for the American media, and certainly for Catholics, to not take such a, you know, politics in the age of social media attitude towards the papacy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice President JD Vance recently sat down with the Hugh Hewitt Show to discuss what he thinks of the newly-elected Pope Leo XIV. Hewitt, who is also Catholic like the Vice President, asked Vance what his initial thoughts were following the election process. Vance responded stated he had been on the \u201cedge of [his] seat\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":27487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJD Vance Has No Plans to Politicize Pope\u2019s Election<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"VP JD Vance reacts to Pope Leo XIV's election: "A big moment for American Catholics" while cautioning against politicizing the papacy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/05\/jd-vance-has-no-plans-to-politicize-popes-election\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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