At a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia on April 14, 41-year-old Vice President JD Vance delivered a sharp rebuke to Pope Leo XIV, warning the pontiff to “be careful” when discussing Catholic theology — a stunning admonition from a convert who joined the faith just six years ago.
The confrontation stems from the 70-year-old pope’s criticism of President Donald Trump’s military action in Iran. On April 10, Pope Leo XIV condemned the conflict, declaring that “God does not bless any conflict” and stating Christians are “never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”
Vance challenged the pope by invoking the concept of just war theory, asking at the Georgia event how the pontiff could claim “God is never on the side of those who wield the sword” given “more than a thousand-year tradition of just war theory.”
The irony was stark: St. Augustine of Hippo, along with St. Thomas Aquinas, developed the very just war doctrine Vance attempted to explain. Pope Leo XIV previously served as Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine for 12 years and remains the first-ever pope from that order.
The timing proved particularly awkward. While Vance lectured on St. Augustine’s teachings from Georgia, Pope Leo XIV was physically at the archaeological site of Hippo in Annaba, Algeria — the location where St. Augustine served as bishop until his death in 430. The pope planted an olive tree at the site during his ongoing visit to four countries across Africa.
Pope Leo XIV holds a theology degree from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and earned 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, bringing decades of theological training and pastoral experience to the papacy.
Vance, by contrast, converted to Catholicism in August 2019 at age 35 after being raised in a loosely evangelical tradition and identifying as an atheist during his college years. He chose St. Augustine as his patron saint.
The vice president wasn’t the only Trump administration official criticizing the Vatican. White House border czar Tom Homan, also a Catholic, told the pontiff to “leave politics alone” during an April 14 appearance on Newsmax, adding that the Church should “stay out of immigration because they don’t know what they’re talking about.” House Majority Leader Mike Johnson also joined the pile-on, telling reporters the just war doctrine is “a very well-settled matter of Christian theology.”
The Catholic Church’s response came swiftly. Bishop James Massa, 65, the auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn, made a statement on Wednesday on behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine.
Massa’s 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.” The bishop emphasized that 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, said the Church actually condemned the conduct of total war in WWII, including the obliteration bombing of cities — directly undercutting Vance’s WWII liberation argument. “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 of Vance’s just war argument, noting that the doctrine was developed centuries ago when wars were fought with swords, not machine-guided drones. “There has been a growing awareness that war is not a path to be followed,” Tornielli wrote on Vatican Media.
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.”
The clash escalates the Trump administration’s ongoing feud with the Vatican over the war with Iran. President Trump blasted the pope on Truth Social the weekend of April 11–12, before posting an artificial intelligence-generated image widely criticized as blasphemous, depicting himself in Christ-like imagery. Trump later deleted the post after an uproar from Christians, but refused to apologize, claiming he thought the image depicted him “as a doctor making people better.”
In a letter issued on April 14 to participants of a Vatican conference on the use of power in democratic societies, the pontiff warned that without a foundation in moral values, 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’s theological credentials faced additional scrutiny earlier this month 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 generated viral backlash across 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.
Vance’s evolution from Trump critic to loyal defender remains striking. In 2016, private messages revealed he called Trump “America’s Hitler” and “a cynical ****” before eventually joining the 2022 Senate campaign that launched his political alliance with Trump.
