Vice President JD Vance, the highest-ranking Catholic in the federal government, said in an interview on Fox News on Monday that the pope should stay out of American affairs.<\/p>\n
Mr. Vance, a convert to Catholicism who is about to publish a book detailing his turn to the faith<\/a>, brushed off a backlash among Christians across the political spectrum<\/a> to President Trump\u2019s attacks against Pope Leo XIV. He said \u201cthat in some cases it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality.\u201d Mr. Trump has clashed with the pontiff over matters of war and immigration, and on Sunday attacked him as \u201cweak on crime.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cStick to matters of, you know, what\u2019s going on in the Catholic Church,\u201d Mr. Vance said on Fox News\u2019s \u201cSpecial Report with Bret Baier\u201d when asked by Mr. Baier if he agreed with Mr. Trump\u2019s attacks against the pope. \u201cAnd let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy.\u201d He added: \u201cWhen they are in conflict, they are in conflict. I don\u2019t worry about it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI think it\u2019s a natural thing. I\u2019m sure it will happen in the future and it\u2019s not that big of a deal that it happened in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Vance converted to Catholicism<\/a> in 2019 at age 35, after private instruction with Dominican friars in Cincinnati. But his newfound faith has come with complications, as his views, particularly on immigration, have prompted strong denunciations from leaders in the Vatican<\/a> and are in opposition to the priorities set by Leo<\/a>, the first American pope.<\/p>\n Senior leaders in the American Catholic Church have also openly criticized<\/a> the Trump administration and opposed the mass deportation of immigrants<\/a>. In one high-profile case, a Catholic group successfully sued for the right<\/a> to give communion to detained migrants, after they had been denied access for months.<\/p>\n In a joint interview of three American cardinals on CBS\u2019s \u201c60 Minutes\u201d that aired on Sunday<\/a>, one, Robert McElroy, the archbishop of Washington, said that \u201cunder Catholic teaching,\u201d the U.S. war with Iran was \u201cnot a just war.\u201d Another, Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, said that the Trump administration\u2019s messaging, which has portrayed the conflict as gleeful entertainment<\/a>, was also \u201cdehumanizing the victims of war.\u201d<\/p>\n The clash between Mr. Trump and the Vatican came just days after Mr. Vance and a team of American diplomats failed to reach a peace deal<\/a> with Iran amid a cease-fire in the conflict. Leo is one of the world\u2019s most powerful critics of the U.S. war with Iran, and has sharply disagreed with suggestions from the Trump administration that the war has divine sanction<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a recent homily<\/a>, Leo said that the Christian mission had often been \u201cdistorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n