Vice President JD Vance gave glory to God for helping him “turn a new page in Washington, DC,” responded to Pope Francis’s critiques of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and explained how the president’s foreign policy is “in accord with Christian social teaching” at the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast (NCPB).
While speaking at Friday’s twentieth annual NCPB in DC, Vance expressed humility and thanked God for helping him go from a junior senator from Ohio to the vice president of the United States in just a couple of years:
“I came here last year as a very young senator, not knowing how much life would change,” the vice president told the audience.
“I’m thankful to God, but also thankful to the friendship of the people in this room for helping us get there, because I think that we have turned a new page in Washington, DC and we are going to take advantage of the opportunity that God has given us,” he exclaimed to a cheering crowd.
Acknowledging Pope Francis’s multiple negative remarks on Trump’s mass deportation plan, Vance said he was “certainly surprised” at the critiques, but stated that he believes that the pope is “fundamentally a person who cares about the flock of Christians under his leadership”:
“And he’s the man who cares about the spiritual direction of the faith. I say this because every day, me and my children have said a prayer for the Holy Father. We pray for his health, and we pray for his comfort as he deals with what appears to be a pretty serious health crisis,” he said, continuing to extend grace to the pope and expressing that he does not need to be brought into every “culture war” in American politics.
Pope Francis, 88, has been hospitalized for two weeks with pneumonia and is reportedly in critical condition. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni paid him a visit at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome last week, Breitbart News reported.
Explaining how Trump’s foreign policy is aligned with the Catholic faith, Vance highlighted the administration’s striving for peace and religious freedom:
“One of the most important parts of President Trump’s policy, and where I think President Trump’s policy is most in accord with Christian social teaching and with the Catholic faith, is that more than any president of my lifetime, President Trump has pursued a path of peace,” Vance stated. “And we very often, I think, ignore the way in which our foreign policy is either an instrument or impediment to people all over the world being able to practice their faith.”
Bringing up how Christians all over the world are being persecuted, namely in Nigeria, Vance said, “The Trump administration promises you, whether it’s here at home with our own citizens, or all over the world, we will be the biggest defenders of religious liberties and the rights of conscience.”
Vance also highlighted the need to “protect the religious liberty of Christians” when dealing with conflicts in Europe and the Middle East:
When President Trump talks about the need to bring peace, whether it’s in Russia and Ukraine, whether it’s in the Middle East, we of course have to recognize that as a policy oriented toward saving lives and carrying out one of Christ’s most important Commandments.
But I think we also must recognize that as an effort to protect the religious liberty of Christians, because over the last 40 years, it has often been historical christian communities who bare the brunt of failed American foreign policy and that is in my view, perhaps the most important way in which Donald Trump has been a defender of Christian rights all over the world.
Speaking on the “amazing” thing that happened to him in November 2024, Vance brought up his young son’s baptism as the most exciting event he experienced — even more so than winning the election:
And when I think about the deep things, the things that really matter, there was something really amazing that happened to me in November of 2024. All my friends were there, all my family was there, we were gathered together in a great moment of celebration. And of course, I’m talking about when my seven-year-old chose to be baptized into the Christian faith.
…
As amazing as it was to win the election, of course, in November of 2024, and as amazing as it was to know that President Trump would become president again and would get to accomplish so many good things for the American people, the thing that I was most excited about in November of 2024, is that the week after we won the election, my son chose to be baptized in the Christian faith.
Emphasizing his interfaith marriage with second lady Usha Vance, the vice president described how much it meant to him when his seven-year-old son, Ewan, chose to be baptized into the Catholic Church.
“As many of you know, I am part of an interfaith marriage. My wife, though she comes to church with us almost every single Sunday, she is not Catholic herself,” Vance said. “And so, the bargain that we have struck is that we will raise our kids Catholic, but we will let them choose the moment that they want to ultimately become baptized.”
“And if that’s terrible sacrilege, blame the Dominicans because they’re the ones who came up with this scheme,” he joked.
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