If you’re wondering what Pope Francis thought of U.S. Vice President JD Vance, the answer is buried in plain sight—and in a tone so papal it practically glows. While the two men had a brief, quiet exchange in the Vatican last Sunday, the real message came earlier this year, when Francis sent a very pointed letter to U.S. bishops warning against the rise of a “false ordo amoris”—a warped version of Christian love that just happens to echo Vance’s entire worldview.
Let’s recap: Vance, a Catholic convert who treats theology like it’s a Twitter debate, tried to rebrand love as a concentric nationalist hierarchy—family first, then neighbors, then country, then maybe—maybe—other people. His source? St. Augustine, allegedly. His platform? Fox News, obviously.
Enter Rory Stewart, who called Vance’s take “pagan tribal” (he was being polite), and Pope Francis, who didn’t name names but basically slammed the door shut on that interpretation with a parable and a prayer. According to the pope, Christian love is “not a concentric expansion of interests,” but “a fraternity open to all, without exception.” Sound familiar? That’s the Good Samaritan, not America First.
See also: The Trans Man Who Met Pope Francis—Remembers How They Changed the Church Forever
Vance vs. Pope Francis: A Match Made in Anti-Theology
If this were a theological fight club, Vance walked in with a slogan and Francis responded with 2,000 years of doctrine and a team of cardinals.
Vance has long accused the Catholic Church—particularly U.S. bishops—of prioritizing migrant resettlement over “American values.” He’s implied that church leaders are financially corrupt, ideologically captured, and out of step with the faithful. But what he’s really doing is recycling the nationalist playbook: frame religious hierarchy as the enemy of “the people,” rebrand exclusion as morality, and call it Christianity.
Francis, meanwhile, spent the last decade reminding the world that being Catholic doesn’t mean choosing who gets dignity—it means refusing to do that at all. He wasn’t the first pope to push back against theocracy disguised as democracy, but he might’ve been the clearest about it.
See also: 25 Historic Photos That Capture the Life and Legacy of Pope Francis
The Religion of Belonging vs. the Practice of Belief
What Vance and his populist peers—Orbán, Meloni, Salvini—are selling isn’t Christianity. It’s Christianism, the identity version. You don’t need to believe, confess, or serve. You just have to belong—preferably to a nation, preferably the right one.
That’s not what Francis believed. And in a final twist of irony, his last quiet act may have been shaking the hand of a man whose politics he had already publicly challenged in the most Francis way possible: a letter. A parable. A call to love the stranger—not just tweet about it.
