Vice President JD Vance says he will not "play" at politicizing the pope after viral comments: "I’ll continue to pray for him and the Church"

US Vice President JD Vance downplayed criticism by Pope Leo XIV -previously Cardinal Robert Prevost- during an interview with conservative journalist Hugh Hewitt, where he downplayed the discord that has existed between the new absolute leader of the Catholic Church and the US President Donald Trump's administration. "I try not to play the politicization of the Pope game. I’m sure he’s going to say a lot of things that I love. I’m sure he’ll say some things that I disagree with, but I’ll continue to pray for him and the Church despite it all and through it all," Vance commented during the interview.

The vice president added that the Church is "bigger than politics," adding that "My attitude is that the Church is about saving souls and spreading the Gospel. And yeah, it’s going to touch public policy from time to time as all human institutions do, but that’s not really what it’s about." On the other hand, Vance insisted that the papacy should not be viewed through the prism of American politics, stating that "Most of the people are not thinking about whether the pope is a Republican or a Democrat, or a conservative or a liberal."

Joke about the pope

After the Vatican announced the election of the new pope with white smoke this Thursday, an account with Prevost's name went viral that strongly criticized the Trump administration's immigration policy and even lambasted the vice president. While the authenticity of the account is still unknown, several figures of the MAGA movement and allies of the U.S. president attacked Pope Leo XIV on networks. One of them was former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, who described the new leader of the Catholic Church as the "worst pick for MAGA Catholics".

At the end of the interview, Vance remarked to Hewitt that one major difference he did admit to having with Pope Leo XIV was on the sports issue explaining that he was a Cincinnati Reds fan, while the new pope felt a greater affinity for Chicago teams, later jokingly asserting that this fact was what prepared him to become the new leader of the Catholic Church. "I had a friend of mine that had a pretty funny take on this. He said, ‘if Pope Leo really is a Chicago White Sox fan, then he’s already actually faced the stress of martyrdom multiple times,’ so maybe we have a real winner in the new Holy Father," Vance concluded.