Vice President JD Vance thanked Pope Leo XIV for downplaying reported disagreements with President Donald Trump regarding the Iran conflict, stating that he was “grateful.”
In a post on X, Vance described the Pope as preaching the Gospel, and noted that it means the Pope will offer “his opinion on the moral issues of the day.”
Vance’s post came in response to the Pope’s comments during “his flight to Angola,” according to Reuters. The Pope explained that “comments he made two days earlier in Cameroon” had been “prepared two weeks ago.”
The Pope also added that “reporting about comments he has made so far during his Africa tour ‘has not been accurate in all its aspects,’” according to the outlet.
“I am grateful to Pope Leo for saying this,” Vance wrote. “While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict-and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen-the reality is often much more complicated.”
“Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day,” Vance added. “The President—and the entire administration—work to apply those moral principles in a messy world.”
During the Pope’s speech in Cameroon, he spoke about how the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants,” Fox News reported.
“We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity,” the Pope said.
In a post on Truth Social on April 12, Trump previously called the Pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Trump wrote at the time. “He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart.’”
Trump’s post came after the Pope made comments calling for “those who have weapons” to “lay them down.”
“Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” the Pope said during Easter Mass. “Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!”
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