(LifeSiteNews) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance praised Pope Francis in a recent interview with Bishop Robert Barron for being a “kind of genius” at forcing conversation with rhetorical “bombs.”
During an hour-long discussion with Barron about various topics related to the Catholic faith, Vance touched on the relationship between Donald Trump’s administration and the pope, first by defending Pope Leo XIV for his own criticisms of U.S. policy.
“There’s this idea that … every time the pope says something mildly critical of a Trump administration policy, it’s like, ‘Oh, the pope hates the Trump administration.’ Well, you know, actually no, maybe the pope is trying to provide the kind of moral teaching that is inherently part of his job. And then we have to take that and try to apply it, which is part of our job,” Vance told Barron, raising questions about his own stance on Trump’s policies.
Leo has been particularly critical of U.S. immigration policy under Trump, and before becoming pope, he even directly criticized Vance’s explanation of the theological idea of the “order of love” in which the vice president argued that a country must prioritize its own citizens over migrants.
Vance went on to weigh in on the last pontiff, Francis.
READ: The scandalous chapter of JD Vance’s new book on his faith
“I take the teachings of the Church very seriously. I’m obviously very politically conservative,” the vice president prefaced. “But I always kind of liked that Pope Francis would just throw these bombs out there in the media because it would force a conversation.”
“Now, sometimes, yeah, he would say things that I would say, ‘Wait a second, is that actually consistent or is that correct?’ But it forced a dialogue, and he was kind of a genius at that.”
What Vance described as “forcing a dialogue,” many Catholics saw as sowing confusion by raising doubts about Catholic doctrine. The controversial “bombs” Vance referred to included statements by Francis like, “Proselytism is solemn nonsense,” which suggested that Catholics shouldn’t evangelize, and, “No one can be condemned forever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!” as he wrote in Amoris Laetitia, suggesting that no one can go to hell.
Other “bombs” included the suggestion that Catholics should not “breed like rabbits,” and that there was no real miracle by Christ of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, when he said, “This is the miracle: rather than a multiplication it is a sharing, inspired by faith and prayer.”
During their interview, Vance and Barron also discussed Catholic social teaching, Vance’s own prior “worship of success,” mimetic desire, economics, politics, and society’s loss of moral vision.
Vance is currently the comfortable frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2028 presidential nomination, which comes with some controversy among pro-lifers, given his support for the Trump administration’s lax position on abortion pills.