At the same TPUSA event on April 14, VP JD Vance — a Catholic convert since 2019 — told Pope Leo XIV he should “be careful when he talks about matters of theology.” On Fox News the day before, Vance said the Vatican should “stick to matters of morality” and “let the President dictate American public policy.”
Vance invoked “just war theory” to justify the Iran war, apparently unaware of the Pope's direct connection to the theologian who developed it. Pope Leo XIV (Robert Francis Prevost) was the Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine for over a decade — the religious order founded by St. Augustine, the very theologian who developed just war theory. Leo is the first Augustinian pope in history. He holds a theology degree from Catholic Theological Union and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, with a dissertation on St. Augustine's understanding of authority.
The timing made it worse: while Vance was lecturing about St. Augustine's just war theory at TPUSA, Pope Leo was in Annaba, Algeria — visiting the archaeological site of ancient Hippo, where St. Augustine served as bishop until his death in 430 AD. Leo planted an olive tree at the site and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine.
Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington responded that the Iran war “fails the criteria for a just war” — the very doctrine Vance invoked. Conservative Bishop Robert Barron called Trump's attacks on the Pope “entirely inappropriate.” Sen. Raphael Warnock (a Protestant pastor): “This is how despots and wannabe despots talk. This is how fascists talk.”
Another awkward detail: Vance's upcoming memoir “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith” features Mt. Zion United Methodist Church on the cover — a congregation with average Sunday attendance of 17 that has no connection to Vance or to Catholicism.