My Fight with JD Vance Made National Headlines — Here's A Better Way Forward

Why I invited JD Vance into conversation — and what such dialogue can do to guide the future of Catholic public life in the United States.

I never imagined I’d spend my week publicly sparring with the Catholic convert who serves as the 50th vice president of the United States. Yet here we are.

In a Letters from Leo post earlier this week, I wrote about an unnamed White House spokesperson’s sneering dismissal of Pope Leo XIV’s latest migrant plea — “the pope doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Vice President JD Vance, the most powerful Catholic in America, was reportedly enraged by this and fired back on X (formerly Twitter), demanding that I unmask the staffer who dared insult the pontiff.

The public conversation around our clash has only grown in recent days: The Daily Beast ran headlines about “Catholic Vance Panics as White House Slams Pope Leo” and Vance landing in an “unholy mess” after an DHS spokesperson (an “ICE Barbie goon,” in Beast-speak) trashed the pope.

It’s a surreal experience to see our interaction turn into national news, but beneath the noise is something hopeful: a chance to actually talk instead of just trade tweets.

Rather than clap back or trade barbs, I chose a different path: I extended an open letter inviting Vice President Vance to join me in a public dialogue about how Catholics should approach the moral and political crises of our time.

Some of my fellow progressives worry I’m being too charitable to a leader whose policies we fiercely oppose. Others on the left think I’m too partisan and political in adjudicating the social doctrine of the Church.

Perhaps both critiques hold truth. But as our faith reminds us, politics isn’t about sitting on the sidelines offering pious or erudite commentary from the comfort of the chattering class. The Pharisees, after all, did much the same — mistaking purity for participation.

The late Pope Francis’s words ring in my ears:

“We cannot become starched Christians, those over-educated Christians who speak of theological matters as they calmly sip their tea. No! We must become courageous Christians and go in search of the people who are the very flesh of Christ, those who are the flesh of Christ!”

Politics as our faith teaches isn’t about shouting from separate silos. It’s about engagement, even with adversaries, in pursuit of the common good.

Yes, inviting Trump’s vice president to converse with a Catholic community that has consistently denounced his administration’s cruelty is somewhat bold.

But the vice president has spoken many times in the past two months about how he admires the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s willingness to engage in heated, contentious debates with liberals on the “enemy territory” of college campuses.

JD Vance should follow Kirk’s example.

I believe that welcoming the self-ascribed “baby Catholic” into discussion could serve our country more than all the social-media mudslinging in the world.

In my letter, I told Mr. Vance that I’m reaching out not as a Democratic operative, but as a fellow Catholic.

Let me make myself abundantly clear: nothing matters more to me more than my Catholic faith in Jesus Christ. It’s the source and the summit of who I am and who I long to be.

And it certainly matters to me more than any party label.

Before he and I are a Republican or a Democrat, we are brothers in Christ — both imperfect, both seeking truth.

I urged him to consider why our community is so alarmed by his use of the faith to justify hardline policies, and I promised to listen as he explains his perspective.

This isn’t naiveté; it’s the vocation of politics at its best.

Elizabeth Bruenig’s sober-minded analysis in The Atlantic today grasped the stakes the best.

She highlighted how the Church’s call to radical love can’t countenance “this much cruelty” coming from the Trump-Vance White House.

I only disagree with one thing she said.

She identified me as a journalist. I reject that. I’m not a journalist. I have neither the skillsets nor the desire to deserve such a title.

I’m simply a Catholic — an American Catholic who wants to see his faith help make this country a little more just and little less cold.

I sincerely hope Vice President Vance accepts the invitation to discuss what our shared Catholic faith demands of us in public life.

Imagine the impact if he sat down with a Catholic community like ours, one that prays for migrants at the border while protesting the policies that harm them.

It can be at his home or mine, his parish or mine, online or in person, but it should happen.

We can talk about all of it: migrants, abortion, climate, marriage and family, LGBT issues, liturgy wars, and the rest. No topic is off limits for me.

It could be a grace-filled moment of clarity in these polarized times. But if he declines or ignores us, so be it.

Either way, we’ll continue fighting for the Gospel values we hold dear — defending the dignity of the stranger, speaking truth to power, and building the “radical love” Bruenig wrote about — with or without Mr. Vance’s participation.

Thank you for reading and for being part of this journey.

This community isn’t about left vs. right — it’s about right vs. wrong. It’s about living our faith with courage and compassion. If you find value in these conversations, I invite you to stay engaged.

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Let’s keep at it, in charity and in truth. And as always, I’ll see you on the road.