The Trump administration’s confrontation with the Vatican reached a new level of tension when Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert of just seven years, told Pope Leo XIV to “be careful” when discussing theology during an April 14, 2026, appearance at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia.
The 41-year-old vice president’s rebuke came in response to the pontiff’s April 10 condemnation of President Donald Trump’s military action in Iran. The 70-year-old Pope Leo XIV had declared that “God does not bless any conflict” and stated Christians are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
At the Georgia event, Vance questioned how the pope could claim “God is never on the side of those who wield the sword,” pointing to “more than a thousand-year tradition of just war theory.” But the vice president’s lecture carried an ironic twist: Pope Leo XIV previously led the Order of St. Augustine as Prior General for 12 years and became the first pope ever from that religious order. St. Augustine of Hippo, alongside St. Thomas Aquinas, actually developed the just war doctrine Vance was attempting to explain.
The awkwardness intensified further. While Vance publicly lectured Pope Leo XIV on St. Augustine’s teachings from Georgia, the pontiff was visiting the archaeological site of Hippo in Annaba, Algeria—precisely where St. Augustine served as bishop until he died in 430. During his ongoing four-country African tour, Pope Leo XIV planted an olive tree at the historic location.
The pontiff holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He also served in the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Peru, giving him decades of theological training and pastoral experience.
Vance converted to Catholicism in August 2019 at age 35 after growing up in a loosely evangelical tradition and embracing atheism during college, selecting St. Augustine as his patron saint.
Other Catholic officials in the Trump administration joined Vance’s criticism. White House border czar Tom Holan told the pontiff to “leave politics alone” during an April 14 Newsmax appearance, insisting the Church should “stay out of immigration because they don’t know what they’re talking about.” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters the just war doctrine is “a very well-settled matter of Christian theology.”
Bishop James Massa, 65, the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, delivered the Catholic Church’s response on Wednesday on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. His statement affirmed that when Pope Leo XIV “speaks as supreme pastor of the universal Church, he is not merely offering opinions on theology, he is preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ.” Massa emphasized Catholic doctrine requires nations to take up arms only “in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.”
Vincent J. Miller, the Gudorf Chair in Catholic Theology and Culture at the University of Dayton, challenged Vance’s World War II argument. The prominent Catholic theologian noted the Church actually condemned the conduct of total war in WWII, including the obliteration bombing of cities. “The vice president’s answer shows he has much to learn about what the Church actually teaches about peace and war,” Miller said.
The Vatican’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, issued a pointed rebuttal on Vatican Media, observing that just war doctrine emerged centuries ago when conflicts involved swords, not machine-guided drones. “There has been a growing awareness that war is not a path to be followed,” Tornielli wrote.
The dispute escalated the Trump administration’s ongoing feud with the Vatican over the Iran conflict. President Trump attacked the pope on Truth Social the weekend of April 11–12, calling him “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy” and writing, “If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.” Speaking to reporters, Trump added, “I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person.” Then posted an artificial intelligence-generated image depicting himself in Christ-like imagery that drew widespread criticism as blasphemous. Trump deleted the post following an uproar from Christians but refused to apologize, claiming he believed the image showed him “as a doctor making people better.”
Pope Leo XIV responded defiantly, declaring he has “no fear of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel.”
In an April 14 letter to participants of a Vatican conference on power in democratic societies, the pontiff warned that without moral values as a foundation, democracy “risks becoming either a majoritarian tyranny or a mask for the dominance of economic and technological elites.” The letter did not name a specific country.
Vance faced additional scrutiny in early April, when he announced his forthcoming 304-page memoir about converting to Catholicism, titled “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” The book’s cover features Mount Zion Church in Elk Creek, Virginia—a congregation of the United Methodist Church’s Holston Conference, not a Catholic church.
The incident sparked viral backlash on social media, with late-night host Stephen Colbert among those mocking the vice president’s audacity in lecturing the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide.
Later in April, Vance softened his stance after Pope Leo told Fox News the media narrative had been inaccurate and that he had no interest in feuding with Trump. Vance posted on X: “I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this. Real disagreements have happened and will happen — but the reality is often much more complicated.”
In 2016, a private message to his law school roommate revealed that Vance called Trump “America’s Hitler” and “a cynical ****” before eventually joining the 2022 Senate campaign that launched his political alliance with Trump.
