{"id":4226,"date":"2026-06-18T15:05:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4226"},"modified":"2026-06-18T15:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T15:05:22","slug":"vance-reveals-he-has-been-in-touch-with-pope-leo-amid-war-disagreements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4226","title":{"rendered":"Vance reveals he has been in touch with Pope Leo amid war disagreements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pope Leo XIV meets Vice President JD Vance at the Vatican on May 18, 2025. (Alessandra Tarantino\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Vice President JD Vance said he has been in touch with Pope Leo XIV recently, disclosing previously unacknowledged direct communication between the two leaders as they have at times publicly criticized each other\u2019s positions in recent months.<\/p>

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The vice president described their relationship as \u201cpositive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, confirmed that he and Leo have spoken privately as he sat for an interview this week on opinion writer Ross Douthat\u2019s New York Times podcast, \u201cInteresting Times.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Douthat, a conservative columnist, pressed Vance on how his past stated opposition to a U.S. war with Iran and the pope\u2019s criticism of the war squares with President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to start one and Vance\u2019s obligation to publicly defend it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave I spoken to the pope in the last few months? Yes,\u201d Vance said. \u201cDo I have what I would characterize \u2014 I don\u2019t know what he would say \u2014 but do I have what I would characterize as a positive relationship with the pope? I think so. But fundamentally, we just have different jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the pope felt like Vance is \u201csecretly on his team\u201d regarding opposition to the war, Vance declined to answer. Vance said he does not \u201ctalk about private conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Trump started the conflict in late February with strikes on Iran, the first American-born pope has spoken harshly of the U.S. involvement and called for a quick ending to it, with Trump repeatedly lashing out at Leo in response.<\/p>\n

Vance has publicly criticized some of the pope\u2019s rhetoric, including saying in April \u201cit\u2019s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,\u201d in particular questioning Leo\u2019s interpretation of just war theory. Days later, Vance wrote on social media that he was \u201cgrateful\u201d after Leo downplayed reports of tensions between the Vatican and Trump.<\/p>\n

More recently, Vance spoke favorably of Leo\u2019s encyclical on artificial intelligence and morality, a contrast with other Trump administration officials\u2019 criticism of Leo\u2019s decision to wade into the issue. This week, Leo praised a temporary deal reached to end the war in Iran, which Vance has played a leading role in negotiating.<\/p>

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\u201cYou hear people say, \u2018Well you can just ignore this or that clergyman.\u2019 Or, \u2018You can just ignore the pope.\u2019 I\u2019ve never taken that attitude,\u201d Vance told Douthat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I say is the pope is the leader of the church. He is the leader of the institution that preaches the gospel. He\u2019s an important moral voice, but he also does have a different role from the vice president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vance\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about when he and Leo have spoken privately.<\/p>\n

Vance met Leo in May 2025, when he visited the Vatican to attend Leo\u2019s inaugural mass. He has also met with Leo\u2019s brother, Louis Prevost, a Trump supporter who has visited the White House on at least two occasions, including Sunday\u2019s UFC fight on the South Lawn. During that visit, Vance could be seen leading Prevost over to say hello to Trump.<\/p>\n

When asked by Douthat about his private concerns about the war, Vance discussed how his job is to help Trump land on the right policies by ensuring he has all the necessary information, and once the president\u2019s decision is made, to help him execute it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if I granted, for the sake of argument, that I believed this or that thing, it\u2019s like, do you think that it would be moral or appropriate to go out there and whine publicly about a decision the president of the United States had made?\u201d Vance said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a commentator \u2014 I\u2019m the vice president. I serve in the administration that the American people elected him to be in charge of.\u201d<\/p>

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The vice president described his relationship with Leo as \u201cpositive\u201d in a podcast interview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nVance reveals he has been in touch with Pope Leo amid war disagreements - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4226\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vance reveals he has been in touch with Pope Leo amid war disagreements - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The vice president described his relationship with Leo as \u201cpositive\u201d in a podcast interview.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=4226\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-18T15:05:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5b55eecd4dfcd719dd3c6cfbbe12df44-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Vance reveals he has been in touch with Pope Leo amid war disagreements\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-18T15:05:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226\"},\"wordCount\":723,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2af2ccee55a11ef3cc50b3f7507e0080-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=4226\",\"name\":\"Vance reveals he has been in touch with Pope Leo amid war disagreements - 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